40ar 39ar and oxygen isotope studies of polymetamorphism from tinos island cycladic blueschist belt greece petrological oxygen isotope and 40ar 39ar studies were used to constrain the tertiary metamorphic evolution of the lower tectonic unit of the cyclades on tinos polyphase high pressure metamorphism reached pressures in excess of 15 kbar based on measurements of the si content in potassic white mica temperatures of 450 500 c at the thermal peak of high pressure metamorphism were estimated from critical metamorphic assemblages the validity of which is confirmed by a quartz magnetite oxygen isotope temperature of 470 c some 40ar 39ar spectra of white mica give plateau ages of 44 40 ma that are considered to represent dynamic recrystallization under peak or slightly post peak high pressure metamorphic conditions early stages in the prograde high pressure evolution may be documented by older apparent ages in the high temperature steps of some spectra eclogite to epidote blueschist facies mineralogies were partially or totally replaced by retrograde greenschist facies assemblages during exhumation oxygen isotope thermometry of four quartz magnetite pairs from greenschist samples gives temperatures of 440 470 c which cannot be distinguished from those deduced for the high pressure event the exhumation and overprint is documented by decreasing ages of 32 28 ma in some greenschists and late stage blueschist rocks and ages of 30 20 ma in the lower temperature steps of the ar release patterns of blueschist micas almost flat parts of ar ar release spectra of some greenschist micas gave ages of 23 21 ma which are assumed to represent incomplete resetting caused by a renewed prograde phase of greenschist metamorphism oxygen isotope compositions of blueschist and greenschist facies minerals show no evidence for the infiltration of a 18o enriched fluid rather the compositions indicate that fluid to rock ratios were very low the isotopic compositions being primarily controlled by those of the protolith rocks we assume that the fundamental control catalysing the transformation of blueschists into greenschists and the associated resetting of their isotopic systems was the selective infiltration of metamorphic fluid a quartz magnetite sample from a contact metamorphic skarn taken near the miocene monzogranite of tinos gave an oxygen isotope temperature of 555 c and calculated water composition of 9 1 the value of 18o obtained from this water is consistent with a primary magmatic fluid but is lower than that of fluids associated with the greenschist overprint which indicates that the latter event cannot be directly related to the monozogranite intrusion

paleomagnetic and 40ar 39ar geochronologic data bearing on the structural evolution of the silver peak extensional complex west central nevada the silver peak extensional complex located in the silver peak range of west central nevada is a displacement transfer system linking the furnace creek fish lake valley fault system and transcurrent faults of the central walker lane late neogene northwest directed motion of an upper plate composed of lower paleozoic sedimentary rocks and late tertiary volcanic and volcaniclastic strata exhumed a lower plate assemblage of metamorphic tectonites with proterozoic and mesozoic protoliths paleomagnetic investigation of miocene pliocene pyroclastic and sedimentary rocks of the upper plate and miocene mafic dikes in the lower plate reveals modest horizontal axis tilting northwest side up and vertical axis rotation clockwise within the extensional complex eight to ten samples from each of 123 sites were demagnetized 95 sites yielded interpretable results dual polarity results from one population of mafic dikes in the lower plate assemblage indicate moderate northwest side up tilting declination d 329 inclination i 37 95 4 3 number n 30 sites in situ 95 the confidence limit for the calculated mean direction expressed as an angular radius from the calculated mean direction some dikes yield exclusively normal polarity results that are interpreted to indicate modest clockwise vertical axis rotation d 021 i 57 95 4 3 n 19 sites in situ concurrent with uplift of the lower plate rocks and nine sites yield magnetization directions that are north directed with positive inclinations of moderate steepness similar to an expected miocene field late miocene pyroclastic rocks in the upper plate yield normal polarity magnetizations suggestive of moderate clockwise vertical axis rotation d 032 i 53 95 8 8 n 10 sites the apparent clockwise rotation is unlikely to result from incomplete sampling of the geomagnetic field because the overall dispersion of the vgp virtual geomagnetic pole positions is high for the latitude of the site location middle miocene sedimentary rocks probably were remagnetized shortly after deposition of eight 40ar 39ar determinations from mafic dikes in the lower plate five groundmass concentrates yield saddle shaped age spectra and one separate provided a plateau date of low confidence isochron analysis reveals that all six groundmass concentrates contain excess ar if rapid cooling and ar retention below 250 c are assumed the preferred age estimate for mafic intrusions is provided by isochron dates and suggests emplacement between 12 and 10 5 ma the 40ar 39ar age spectrum data are consistent with existing fission track cooling and k ar isotopic age information from lower plate granitic rocks and indicate rapid cooling of the lower plate assemblage from well above 300 c to 100 c between 13 and 5 ma rapid cooling may explain the overall distribution of paleomagnetic results from lower plate intrusions such that the earliest acquired magnetizations reflect both northwest side up tilt and clockwise rotation and the younger magnetizations reflect northwest side up tilt overall the paleomagnetic data from the silver peak extensional complex are interpreted to suggest that vertical axis rotation of crustal scale blocks associated with displacement transfer in the central walker lane may play an integral part in accommodating strain within a continental displacement transfer system

metamorphic evolution of the attic cycladic metamorphic belt on naxos cyclades greece utilizing 40ar 39ar age spectrum measurements 40ar 39ar age spectrum analysis of phengite separates from naxos part of the attic cycladic metamorphic belt in greece indicates that cooling following high pressure low to medium temperature metamorphism m1 occurred about 50 ma ago phengite has 40ar gradients that suggest that part of the scatter observed in conventional k ar ages was caused by diffusion of radiogenic argon from the minerals during a younger metamorphism m2 in central naxos this metamorphism m2 has overprinted the original mineral assemblages completely and is associated with development of a thermal dome excellent 40ar 39ar plateaus at 15 0 0 1 ma 11 8 0 1 ma and 11 4 0 1 ma obtained on hornblende muscovite and biotite respectively from the migmatite zone indicate that relatively rapid cooling followed the m2 event and that no significant thermal overprinting occurred subsequent to m2 toward lower m2 metamorphic grade 40ar 39ar plateau ages of hornblendes increase to 19 8 0 1 ma concomitantly the proportion of excess 40ar in the spectra increases as well we propose that the peak of m2 metamorphism occurred beween 15 0 and 19 8 ma ago k ar ages of biotites from a granodiorite on the west coast are indistinguishable from those found in the metamorphic complex and hornblende k ar ages from the same samples are in the range 12 1 13 6 ma as the latter ages are somewhat younger than most ages obtained from the metamorphic complex intrusion of the granodiorite most likely followed the peak of the m2 metamorphism the metamorphic evolution of naxos is consistent with rapid crustal thickening during the cretaceous or early tertiary causing conditions at which supracrustal rocks experienced pressures in the range 900 1500 mpa transition to normal crustal thicknesses ended the m1 metamorphism about 50 ma ago the m2 metamorphism and granodiorite intrusion occurred during a period of heat input into the crust possibly related to the migration of the hellenic volcanic ar c in a southerly direction through the area

geometric changes of plate boundaries along part of the northern dead sea transform geochronologic and paleomagnetic evidence the korazim block an elevated pressure ridge along with the faults bounding the sea of galilee and hula pull apart basins are internal structures of the dead sea transform plate boundary k ar dates and paleomagnetic data from basalt flows and sedimentary strata are utilized to determine the stratigraphy and the deformation of the region the integration of the two methods together with structural data yield high resolution age determination of the stratigraphic sequence and provides insight into the timing and style of deformation the korazim block is covered in its southern and central areas by pliocene basalt flows the cover basalt 5 1 3 6 ma and ruman basalt 2 9 2 2 ma formations and in its northern area by basalts yarda basalt 0 9 0 8 ma and sediments 3 0 2 3 and 1 6 0 9 ma of plio pleistocene age the magnetic polarity of a total of 29 lava flows and intercalated sedimentary strata is mixed the mean magnetic declination of the 29 sites shows an anomalous direction which yields 11 4 4 0 counterclockwise rotation with respect to the expected field the mean inclination of 46 0 4 1 does not significantly deviate from the expected field the anomalous declination is interpreted as the consequence of faulting and block rotation accommodating internal deformation this deformation did not begin before late pliocene to early pleistocene probably not before 0 9 ma and may still be active simultaneous right lateral slip of 50 175 m with a small reverse component of 30 90 m along nw trending faults and 11 counterclockwise rotation created internal deformation of the korazim pressure ridge this deformation is the consequence of left lateral slip along the almagor strand of the dead sea transform subparallel to the plate slip vector thus a compression component was formed which presumably led to the internal deformation of the korazim block the recent deformation of the korazim block in relation to the age of adjacent structures and to the age of the dead sea transform permits temporal resolution of geometric changes which must typify transform boundaries such as the dead sea transform internal structures within transforms may change along with the transform internal geometry and become inactive while new structural features may develop

palaeomagnetic and geochronological evidence for a major middle miocene unconformity in soke basin western anatolia and its tectonic implications for the aegean region cenozoic convergence between the eurasian and african plates and concurrent slab roll back processes have produced a progressive extension in back arc areas such as the aegean region and western anatolia there is still a long standing controversy as to whether this was a continuous or stepwise process to shed light on this controversy and on the driving mechanism of regional extension we present palaeomagnetic and geochronological results from the soke basin located at the southeastern rim of the izmir balikesir transfer zone our improved geochronology shows that volcanic activity in the region occurred between 11 66 and 12 85 ma middle to late miocene palaeomagnetic data for the soke basin show a c 23 clockwise rotation whereas early miocene data show a c 28 counterclockwise rotation the primary nature of the magnetization is indicated by a positive tilt test the resulting c 51 counterclockwise rotations during the middle miocene signify a major tectonic reorganization during a period when an interruption of exhumation of metamorphic massifs has been reported we suggest that the izmir balikesir transfer zone is the main driver of the reorganization in the region the regional fingerprint of this tectonic reorganization coincides with the acceleration of trench retreat and illustrates the surface impact of tearing of the hellenic slab supplementary material details of 40 ar 39 ar analysis including heating steps and the output pmag file including details of paleomagnetic analysis performed in this study are available at https doi org 10 6084 m9 figshare c 3690871

error analysis for the determination of tectonic rotation from paleomagnetic data appendix b is available with entire article on microfiche order from american geophysical union 2000 florida avenue n w washington d c 20009 document b83 001 2 50 payment must accompany order recent determinations of tectonic rotation and flattening from paleomagnetic data have exaggerated the size of the confidence limits or error bars by about 25 this has been caused by the misuse of conventional error propagation formulas to derive one degree of freedom error bars from a two dimensional cone of confidence 95 an analytical calculation which is valid when error bars are small shows that the correct error bars are 75 to 80 of the values derived in previous studies i have used numerical integration to check on the applicability of the analytical solution and to calculate error bars when the analytical approximation cannot be used the analytical approximation may be used whenever 95 is less than 10 and the mean inclination is not too close to vertical confidence limits given for tectonic rotation and flattening in recent literature are too large and should be reduced by 20 25 narrowing the error bars in this way permits a more accurate interpretation of paleomagnetic data

geochemistry and petrogenesis of late miocene granitoids cyclades southern aegean nature of source components abstract neogene igneous activity in the aegean region comprised both extrusive volcanism and intrusive granitoid plutonism granitoid plutonism in the cyclades was established in the mid miocene period and lasted until late miocene 18 to 9 ma the timing of granitoid intrusion was associated with the initiation of extensional tectonics in the aegean these intrusions form a broad belt about 200 km long running from the west lavrium and serifos to the eastern aegean both s type and i type granitoids are present the former generally being emplaced earlier than the i types 15 to 8 3 ma major and trace element variations reveal that three end member components are involved in the granitoids but the proportions of these vary in the different plutons initial isotopic compositions of all the granitoids are typical of crust derived magmas from heterogeneous metasedimentary sources i type 87 sr 86 sr 0 7091 0 712 e nd 6 4 to 10 4 s type 0 710 0715 e nd 7 5 to 10 1 three end member sources have been identified 1 one end member appears to be a metasedimentary biotite gneiss greywacke type such as that forming the metamorphic core complexes naxos and paros this is a dominant but not the only component in the s types 2a major trace element and sr nd isotopic composition correlations of the s type granitoids with basement gneiss require an extra source of sr and ca having lower initial 87 sr 86 sr indicating a more depleted metasedimentary source at depth due to possible interaction of metamorphic fluids with marbles and amphibolites and infiltration through the gneissic units at mid crustal levels 2b a possible second end member could be the marble component as indicated by the buffered values of the initial sr isotopic ratios major element variation of the mafic microgranular quartz diorites and tonalites enclaves are compatible with dehydration melting of a mafic source similar to the amphibolites island arc tholeiites at medium pressure 8 kb conditions 3 amphibolite is another end member which may contribute mostly to the source of the younger intrusions along the western flank of the arc

core complex geometries and regional scale flow in the lower crust a simple flexural model that treats the lithosphere as a thin elastic plate overlying a fluid asthenosphere produces an excellent fit to the domal detachment fault geometries observed in typical core complexes of the basin and range province however this mode of isostatic compensation requires an unacceptably large reduction in local topographic elevation 3 5 km above core complex structures because topographic lows of this magnitude are not observed above core complexes today it requires mountain ranges 3 5 km higher than the surrounding areas to have existed at the site of each future core complex and requires these mountain ranges to have had large crustal roots that were subsequently uplifted to form a flat moho as the core complexes developed an alternate mode of isostatic compensation whereby compensation occurs primarily by regional scale flow of material within the lower crust beneath an elastic midcrust provides an equally good fit to the observed detachment fault geometries while requiring little reduction in local topographic elevation above developing core complex structures and providing an obvious means of maintaining a flat moho beneath these zones of upper crustal doming if this interpretation is correct then the effective elastic plate thickness below the basin and range province probably cannot exceed a maximum of about 4 km with a best guess estimate of about 0 5 to 1 km computation of the temperature structure associated with crustal flow during doming shows that an increase in temperature at the moho of about 100 c follows doming by several million years perhaps explaining the observed coincidence of core complexes with crustally derived igneous rocks subsequent cooling of the mid to lower crust beneath the core complex could result in freezing of the initially ductile lower crust within the core of the dome effectively locking the domal shape into the crust even after the detachment surface is cut by younger faults

first palaeomagnetic results from the cycladic massif greece and their implications for miocene extension directions and tectonic models in the aegean abstract the aegean region is characterised by major fault bound blocks with markedly contrasting structural trends recent models account for these variations either through differential block rotation or through a process of radial extension the cycladic massif in the back arc region to the hellenic trench represents a critical area where apparently divergent extension directions are observed this contribution provides the first palaeomagnetic results from this area magnetic remanence and ams data are presented for middle miocene granodiorites on the islands of mykonos and naxos these rocks are exposed in the footwalls of major extensional detachments within the metamorphic core complexes that characterise the cycladic massif a clear correlation between the orientation of an l s fabric developed within the intrusions and the magnetic fabric data is observed demonstrating the presence of a normal magnetic fabric of extensional origin the mean extension directions inferred from the orientations of the maximum axes of the magnetic susceptibility ellipsoids are markedly divergent at 064 mykonos and 351 naxos northeasterly in situ magnetic remanences are observed on mykonos whereas those on naxos are directed to the nnw neither direction corresponds to the appropriate palaeomagnetic reference direction for the miocene standard palaeomagnetic tilt corrections cannot be applied at these sites because of the lack of palaeohorizontal markers deviations of in situ remanences away from the reference direction are potentially due to rotation around any one of an infinite number of net tectonic rotation axes each of these may be arbitrarily decomposed into components of tilting and vertical axis rotation geologically realistic solutions which restore the in situ magnetisations back to the reference direction may be found by consideration of regional structural trends assuming that tilting is controlled by the major block bounding faults these solutions indicate significant components of differential vertical axis rotations across the cyclades mykonos is bound by nw se trending regional faults and is shown to have rotated clockwise by ca 22 in contrast naxos is bound by ene wsw trending structures and has rotated anticlockwise by ca 33 the apparent divergence of extension directions inferred from both the magnetic anisotropy and structural data is resolved by correcting the mean ams data for subsequent rotation using the rotation solutions derived from the magnetic remanence data the data imply that the primary middle miocene extension direction in the cycladic massif was nearly uniform along a nne ssw azimuth we consider that the uniform extension direction and opposing senses of block rotation determined for this portion of the cycladic massif are most consistent with a recent model describing deformation within the aegean in terms of a system of broken fault bounded slats within this scenario mykonos occupies a position on a clockwise rotating slat which continues northwest at least as far as evvia a major ene wsw trending fault between the islands previously identified on shallow seismic sections separates this domain from an anticlockwise rotating slat which includes naxos

the north cycladic detachment system and associated mineralization mykonos greece insights on the evolution of the aegean domain 1 in the aegean back arc domain some 30 35 ma ago an increase of the rate of slab retreat led to the initiation of post orogenic extension largely accommodated by large scale structures such as the north cycladic detachment system ncds although this extension is still active nowadays an e w compressional regime developed in the late miocene with the propagation of the north anatolian fault on mykonos island cyclades the ne sw back arc extension is particularly well expressed with the livada and mykonos detachments that belong to the ncds and that are associated with nw se barite veins emplaced during the synkinematic cooling of the mykonos intrusion this study shows that the formation of the mineralization occurred when the pluton crossed the ductile to brittle transition during its exhumation below the ncds at 11 10 ma in addition the kinematics of mineralized structures evolved with time 1 most of the displacement was accommodated by the top to the ne livada and mykonos detachments accompanied by the formation of mineralized normal faults that were 2 reworked in a strike slip regime with an e w direction of shortening and a persistent ne sw stretching and 3 a late post mineralization e w compressional stage with a minor reworking of shallow dipping faults locally including the detachments themselves we interpret this increase of the e w shortening component recorded during the mineral deposition as a consequence of the initiation of the westward motion of anatolia from 10 ma thus 4 ma before the propagation of the north anatolian fault in the dardanelles strait and the localization of the strain on the aegean sea margins

reply to comment on block rotations and continental extension in the central aegean sea palaeomagnetic and structural evidence from tinos and mykonos cyclades greece by d avigad et al

block rotation by strike slip faulting structural and paleomagnetic evidence geometric analysis shows that motion of sets of strike slip faults should cause block rotation otherwise the distorted fault domain would not fit with its surrounding the sense of the block rotation depends on the sense of fault slip and the spacing and orientation of the faults all of which can be obtained from structural data the predictions of the geometric model can then be independently tested by paleomagnetic measurements the model was tested in northern israel structural data reveal several domains of contemporaneous right and left lateral strike slip faults paleomagnetic measurements show that in a domain of nnw trending left lateral faults blocks rotated 23 3 8 2 clockwise and in a domain of right lateral faults blocks rotated 22 4 9 0 anticlockwise these results are in agreement with the prediction of the geometric analysis of the structure the combined results of the heterogenous deformation of the area resembles a pure shear which allows n s extension by about 1 3 in other domains rotations of 34 6 9 1 and 53 1 11 0 were found in their original orientation the left and right lateral faults intersected at angles of 60 70 enclosing the principal axis of shortening in accordance with theories of brittle failure as a result of block rotations this angle is now larger and may reach 110 the results demonstrate large block rotations in different senses in domains of strike slip faults the independent structural and paleomagnetic data can be interpreted within the framework of a simple geometric model northern israel is considered to be a good model for this efficient mechanism of intraplate deformation which is expected to occur in similar tectonic settings elsewhere

active tectonics of the north and central aegean sea summary in this paper we examine the connection between the westward motion of turkey relative to europe and the extension in and around the aegean sea the principal new data available since the last attempt to synthesize the tectonics of this region by mckenzie 1978 are much improved focal mechanisms of earthquakes constrained by p and sh body wave modelling as well as by first motions these mechanisms show that the faulting in the western part of the aegean region is mostly extensional in nature on normal faults with a nw to wnw strike and with slip vectors directed nnw to nne there is evidence from palaeomagnetism that this western region rotates clockwise relative to stable europe in the central and eastern aegean and in nw turkey distributed right lateral strike slip is more prevalent on faults trending ne to ene and with slip vectors directed ne palaeomagnetic data in this eastern region is more ambiguous but consistent with very small or no rotations in the northern part and possibly anticlockwise rotations relative to europe in the south the strike slip faulting that enters the central aegean from the east appears to end abruptly in the sw against the nw trending normal faults of greece the kinematics of the deformation is controlled by three factors the westward motion of turkey relative to europe the continental collision between nw greece albania and the apulia adriatic platform in the west and the presence of the hellenic subduction zone to the south as the right lateral slip on the north anatolian fault enters the aegean region it splays out becoming distributed on several parallel faults the continental shortening in nw greece and albania does not allow the rotation of the western margin of the region to be rapid enough to accommodate this distributed e w right lateral shear and thus leads to e w shortening in the northern aegean which is compensated by n s extension as the southern aegean margin can move easily over the hellenic subduction zone the dynamics of the system once initiated is self sustaining being driven by the high topography in eastern turkey and by the roll back of the subducted slab beneath the southern aegean the geometry of the deformation resembles the behaviour of a system of broken slats attached to margins that rotate in spite of its extreme simplicity a simple model of such broken slats is able to reproduce quantitatively most of the features of the instantaneous velocity field in the aegean region including the slip vectors and nature of the faulting in the eastern and western parts the senses and approximate rates of rotation the overall extensional velocity across the aegean and the distribution of strain rates as seen in the seismicity and topography or bathymetry and using geodetic measurements as part of this study we re examined the relation between the surface faulting and the focal parameters determined seismologically for the three large 1981 gulf of corinth earthquakes and reassessed the evidence for associating particular earthquakes in the sequence with observed surface faulting an important result is that in one of the events there is a resolvable discrepancy between the slip vector measured at the surface and that determined from the seismic body waves

late cenozoic extension in northeastern greece strymon valley detachment system and rhodope metamorphic core complex the strymon valley detachment system accommodated at least 25 km of extension at the northern margin of the aegean extensional province from middle miocene through early pliocene time the primary detachment surface is exposed as a gently southwest dipping low angle normal fault similar to those widely known in core complex settings of the u s basin and range province for more than 150 km along strike from the aegean sea coast in northeastern greece northward into the struma valley of southern bulgaria hanging wall rocks in the strymon valley detachment system moved in a s53 w direction relative to the footwall resulting ultimately in the tectonic unroofing of the rhodope metamorphic core complex several segments of the strymon valley detachment have previously been interpreted as thrust faults formed during a miocene compressional event our results negate the principal evidence for this event and imply instead that extensional deformation has characterized the northern aegean region since at least middle miocene time displacement ceased on the strymon valley detachment with the late pliocene development of the strymon and drama basins we propose that those basins together with the other principal basins of the northern aegean region are subsiding above an active northeast dipping extensional detachment zone that forms a unified kinematic system with the western offshore continuation of the dextral north anatolian strike slip fault the north aegean trough if this hypothesis is correct then the north aegean trough the western strands of the north anatolian fault and the principal modern depocenters of the northern aegean region may all have originated no earlier than late pliocene time

from ductile to brittle evolution and localization of deformation below a crustal detachment tinos cyclades greece 1 the cycladic oligo miocene detachment of tinos island is an example of a flat lying extensional shear zone evolving into a low angle brittle detachment a clear continuum of extensional strain from ductile to brittle regime is observed in the footwall the main brittle structures marking extension are shallow and steeply dipping normal faults associated with subvertical extensional joints and veins the earliest brittle structures are low angle normal faults which commonly superimpose on and reactivate earlier precursory ductile shear bands but newly formed low angle normal faults could also be observed low angle normal faults are cut by late steeply dipping normal faults the inversion of fault slip data collected within and away from the main detachment zone shows that the direction of the minimum stress axis is strictly parallel to the ne sw stretching lineation and that the maximum principal stress axis remained subvertical during the whole brittle evolution in agreement with the subvertical attitude of veins throughout the island the high angle of 1 to the main detachment suggests that the detachment was weak this observation together with the presence of a thick layer of cataclasites below the main detachment and the kinematic continuum from ductile to brittle leads us to propose a kinematic model for the formation of the detachment boudinage at the crustal scale induces formation near the brittle ductile transition of ductile shear zones near the edges of boudins shear zones are progressively exhumed and replaced by shallow dipping cataclastic shear zones when they reached the brittle field most of the displacement is achieved through cataclastic flow in the upper crust and only the last increment of strain gives rise to the formation of brittle faults the formation of the low angle brittle detachment is thus prepared by the ductile shear zone and the cataclasites and favored by the circulation of surface derived fluids in the shear zone

the tertiary geodynamical evolution of the aegean arc a paleomagnetic reconstruction abstract the paleomagnetic results obtained in the last 5 6 years from tertiary formations in the aegean domain indicate that the lower miocene arc was almost rectilinear with an e w trend and that its curvature has been acquired tectonically in two major phases during the middle miocene a first phase of deformation is characterized by rotations occurring at the two terminations of the arc clockwise in the west epirus anticlockwise in the east southeastern anatolia a second phase of rotation occurring in the last 5 ma about a pole situated in the southern adriatic sea has affected only the northwestern part the data also indicate that the antalya basin has not been involved in the geodynamical evolution of the arc so that the bey daglari represent its easternmost unit a more complex rotational pattern is observed in the internal zones the large rotations measured in evia 48 and skyros 26 probably occurred in the last 5 ma and result from rotation of fault bounded blocks in a shear zone connecting the north aegean trough to the external arc in the izmir region in the karaburun peninsula of western anatolia and in the island of lesbos significant counterclockwise clockwise or null rotations of coherent blocks have taken place during the neotectonic extensional regime furthermore the values of the inclination obtained from both sedimentary and volcanic oligo miocene formations are systematically shallower than expected on the basis of a geocentered dipole field this suggests that the entire studied area has undergone a northward drift of over 1000 km since the middle miocene

surface rupture and slip distribution along the karadere segment of the 17 august 1999 izmit and the western section of the 12 november 1999 duzce turkey earthquakes on 17 august 1999 the mw 7 5 i zmit turkey earthquake produced surface rupture in excess of 120 km and perhaps as much as 200 km with up to 5 m of dextral slip along a western portion of the north anatolian fault zone the 12 november 1999 mw 7 1 duzce turkey earthquake produced a 40 km long sur face rupture including 9 km of rupture overlap with the eastern end of the august event our mapping focused on the 40 km long karadere rupture segment the east ernmost segment of the august event as well as on the western 20 km of the no vember rupture maximum dextral slip along the karadere segment is approximately 1 5 m and the average slip on this segment is close to 1 m although slip along the karadere segment is considerably less than that on segments to the west this segment is of particular interest for three reasons 1 the western boundary of the karadere segment is defined by the most striking structural discontinuity along the entire au gust surface rupture i e a 5 km wide zone of no surface rupture as well as a 25 change in trend from e w to ene and such a discontinuity may have important implications for rupture dynamics 2 surface rupture terminates at the east end of the karadere rupture segment at a 1 5 to 3 km wide extensional step over at eften lake and 3 the 12 november 1999 duzce earthquake reruptured the easternmost 9 km of the karadere segment raising interesting questions about rupture dynamics and interactions between events on adjacent fault segments the details of the 17 august 1999 and l2 november 1999 surface rupture traces suggest that rupture may have partially propagated across the eften lake extensional step over although this step over seems to have acted as an effective barrier to rupture propagation

first paleomagnetic results from neocene formations in evia skyros and the volos region and the deformation of central aegea paleomagnetic results from neogene volcanic and sedimentary formations in central aegea indicate that evia and skyros have undergone a 48 and 26 clockwise rotation respectively the volos region does not show any significant rotation in the last 3 ma the rotation of evia is about twice as large as the one measured from coeval formations in the external hellenic arc the results are interpreted in terms of a published model of distributed deformation by faulting which also provides an explanation for the significant differential rotation of evia and skyros

active normal faulting and crustal extension a world wide review of fault plane solutions and focal depths for large normal faulting earthquakes on the continents shows that the overwhelming majority of such earthquakes nucleate in the depth range 6 15 km on faults dipping between 30 and 60 in the few cases where levelling or seismic data are good enough these normal faults are shown to be approximately planar from the surface to their nucleation depth at the base of the brittle crust there is evidence that in some cases as a result of the enormous transitory increase in strain rate during large earthquakes rupture continues into the normally ductile lower crust on surfaces with substantially gentler dips these low angle surfaces may be analogous to some of the detachments seen in metamorphic core complexes of the western usa but the nature of the motion on them depends on strain rate as well as on rheological contrasts between the detachments and the blocks on either side such contrasts however are unlikely to introduce substantial curvature to an originally planar shear zone if the observed spread in active normal fault dips is caused by rotation of the faults and the blocks they bound during extension then a maximum value of 1 7 can be accommodated by seismic activity on a single generation of normal faults with continued extension either a new generation of steeper faults cutting the rotated first faults is likely to form or the deformation will continue aseismically on faults dipping at less than 30 large earthquakes have not been observed to nucleate on very low angle 20 normal faults within the continental crust anywhere in the world such faults can of course move aseismically but are unlikely to do so on a large scale within the upper crust in areas where steep normal faults are seismically active thus extensional models that require concentrated simple shear on large sub horizontal faults within the brittle upper crust will also require a spatial separation between aseismic very low angle faulting and seismic highangle faulting since seismogenic high angle faults dominate the topography of extending regions upper crustal very low angle faulting if it occurs on a large scale presumably does so in areas that are relatively fiat

i type plutonism in a continental back arc setting miocene granitoids and monzonites from the central aegean sea greece miocene extension in the aegean sea was accompanied by the intrusion of granitoid and monzonitic magmas at upper crustal levels with increasing distance from the trench the metaluminous to slightly peraluminous i type intrusives show a systematic regional variation in their compositions medium to high k granodiorites in the wsw high k low silica granites in the central region and high k high silica granites monzonites monzogranites and composite lamprophyric monzonitic dikes in the ene the granodioritic and low silica granitic plutons comprise similar ranges of sio2 63 5 71 6 wt and initial nd sr and o isotopic values end i 7 0 to 9 8 87sr 86sr i 0 7092 0 7115 18o 9 7 11 5 but display significant differences in their chemical compositions compared with the granodiorites the low silica granites have higher abundances of large ion lithophile light rare earth and some high field strength elements initial isotopic signatures of the high silica granites in the ene end i 9 0 to 9 6 87sr 86sr i 0 7128 0 7144 18o 10 8 12 0 are slightly more crust like than those of the low silica granites in chemical variation diagrams samples from the high silica granites continue the trends defined by those from the low silica granites it is suggested that all granitoid magmas originated by dehydration melting of metaluminous older crustal sources most probably metagreywackes u pb systematics of zircon populations in conjunction with zr sio2 systematics and zircon saturation temperatures suggest a high proportion of restitic or assimilated crustal material in these magmas monzonitic to monzogranitic rocks show chemical and isotopic characteristics end i 0 8 to 3 6 87sr 86sr i 0 7059 0 7071 18o 9 4 10 6 that are significantly different from those of the granitoids a small portion of an older crustal component in these magmas is indicated by u pb systematics of zircon populations lamprophyric dikes display chemical and isotopic signatures end i 0 5 87sr 86sr i 0 7044 18o 8 9 that are compatible with an origin from either a mantle source previously enriched by slab derived hydrous fluids melts as suggested by negative nb ta anomalies or a new k rich basaltic underplate abundant composite dikes indicate the coexistence of and mingling mixing between lamprophyric melts and monzonitic magmas

the late alpine evolution of an extensional shear zone naxos greece the mid miocene structural evolution of the metamorphic complex on naxos involved deformation in a kilometre scale low angle ductile shear zone the structures described are consistent with exhumation of the metamorphic complex during crustal extension after and possibly during localized high temperature barrovian style metamorphism non coaxial fabrics developed throughout the structural history indicate that upper levels were transported to the north during ductile extension this shear sense is opposite that inferred previously for the development cordilleran style metamophic core complexes in the cvclades ductile deformation was accompanied during its later stages by e w directed compression

evolution of soil properties on stabilized sands in the tengger desert china abstract the spatial and temporal patterns of pedogenesis on stabilized dunes at shapotou northwestern china were studied on the time sequences of 0 18 35 and 43 years the spatial pattern of soil formation was estimated by measuring the thickness of accumulated sand fractions on the stabilized dune surface and by analyzing the characteristics and properties of soil the results showed that the environment of soil formation and circulation of soil material were influenced in the processes of shifting sand fixation and the mean soil particle size changed from 0 2 to

low angle faults above and below a blueschist belt tinos island cyclades greece new observations from the island of tinos greece allow a better definition of the structural position of the alpine eocene blueschist belt exposed in the islands of the aegean sea these blueschists over a significant part of the aegean sea are delimited from below by a low angle thrust fault while from above they are delimited by a low angle normal type fault which omits a substantial crustal interval both underlying and overlying rocks were not affected by the high metamorphism the rapid uplift and exhumation of the high rocks was therefore mainly the result of fault movements rather than erosion and whole crust uplifting the low angle normal fault apparently had a major role in the uplift of the blueschists

recovery of topsoil physicochemical properties in revegetated sites in the sand burial ecosystems of the tengger desert northern china abstract recovery in soil properties and processes after sand burial in the tengger desert northern china was documented at five different aged revegetated sites 1956 1964 1973 1982 and 1991 and at a reference site with native vegetation which had never been damaged by sand burial and was enclosed for grazing the proportions of silt and clay depth of topsoil and biological soil crusts and concentrations of soil organic c k total n and total p increased with years since revegetation most characteristics of topsoil 0 5 cm characteristics had recovered to 60 of those measured at the reference site by 50 years after sand binding vegetation had been established exceptions were electrical conductivity and contents of sand silt caco 3 and organic c which recovered to 20 40 of the values at the reference site the difference in annual recovery rates of soil properties between the two most recently revegetated sites 0 14 years was greater than the difference between the two oldest revegetated sites 43 50 years best fit asymptote models showed that the estimated times for the soil properties in the 50 year old site to reach the same levels as in the reference site i e an undisturbed native steppified desert ecosystem would be between 23 and 245 years but for some properties even maximum recovery after 50 years still fell significantly short of the level at the reference site these results suggest that soil recovery is a slow process in an extremely arid desert environment and therefore the conservation of soil habitat is a crucial issue for land managers

regional implications of geochemistry and style of emplacement of miocene i type diorite and granite delos cyclades greece abstract the miocene plutons of the cyclades were emplaced in a subduction setting during regional back arc extension of continental crust that led to flat lying mid crustal detachment faulting mapping of the island of delos shows that quartz diorite and tonalite were emplaced as dykes in country rock of schist and marble within shear zones parallel to the extension direction mafic magmas were followed by numerous small batches of felsic magma with magmatic and ductile deformation synchronous with magma emplacement late granite dykes occupy brittle fractures in the more deformed rocks mafic and intermediate rocks show a bimodal distribution of incompatible trace elements with one group of broadly tholeiitic character and the other with substantial enrichment in sr nb and hfse but low th and ba these differences appear to be inherited from two distinct mafic sources that are different from the mafic source for the plutons of the eastern cyclades voluminous granodiorite results from these mafic magmas fractionating and or mixing with felsic crustal material some of which was derived by anatexis of a sedimentary protolith indicated by high b and mn some late granites appear derived from partial melting of hercynian paragneiss regionally the shear zones appear to be feeders to more extensive granitic plutons located at space produced at ramps in detachment fault zones the shear zones parallel the mid cycladic lineament a broad zone of displacement between two crustal blocks rotating in opposing directions as rollback took place at the hellenic subduction zone distinctive geochemical features in miocene igneous rocks suggests that these two blocks had quite different geological histories the localisation of plutonism and core complexes near the mid cycladic lineament suggests that this crustal scale shear played a role in bringing subduction derived magmas to mid crustal levels the heat supplied by the mafic magmas promoted ductile deformation high in the crust where extension was concentrated leading to the formation of core complexes the regional extension resulted in progressive shallowing of the position of the granite solidus within the crust leading to welding of the mid cycladic lineament which is no longer seismically active

tectonic evolution of fault bounded continental blocks comparison of paleomagnetic and gps data in the corinth and megara basins greece 1 we report on new paleomagnetic and anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility ams data from plio pleistocene sedimentary units from corinth and megara basins peloponnesus greece paleomagnetic results show that megara basin has undergone vertical axis cw rotation since the pliocene while corinth has rotated ccw during the same period of time these results indicate that the overall deformation in central greece has been achieved by complex interactions of mostly rigid rotating fault bounded crustal blocks the comparison of paleomagnetic results and existing gps data shows that the boundaries of the rigid blocks in central greece have changed over time with faulting migrating into the hanging walls sometimes changing in orientation the megara basin belonged to the beotia locris block in the past but has now been incorporated into the peloponnesus block possibly because the faulting in the gulf of corinth has propagated both north and east paleomagnetic and gps data from megara and corinth basins have significant implications for the deformation style of the continental lithosphere in areas of distributed deformation the continental lithosphere behaves instantaneously like a small number of rigid blocks with well defined boundaries this means that these boundaries could be detected with only few years of observations with gps however on a larger time interval the block boundaries change with time as the active fault moves paleomagnetic studies distinguishing differential rotational domains provide a useful tool to map how block boundaries change with time index terms 1208 geodesy and gravity crustal movements intraplate 8110 1518 geomagnetism and paleomagnetism magnetic fabrics and anisotropy 1525 geomagnetism and paleomagnetism paleomagnetism applied to tectonics regional global 8107 tectonophysics continental neotectonics 9335 information related to geographic region europe

gps derived strain rate field within the boundary zones of the eurasian african and arabian plates we use the gps velocity field 1988 1998 for eastern mediterranean and asia minor to determine the crustal deformation strain rate field in an area bounded by 35 n and 43 n and 20 e and 48 e we calculate the normal and shear strain rate components associated with the major faults and compare these qualitatively with seismological data uncertainties in the calculation of the strain rates reach 50 nstrain yr 1 in sparsely observed parts of anatolia whereas we estimate errors 20 nstrain yr 1 in the aegean and marmara regions the largest compressional strain rate components in the eastern part of the study area occur along the greater caucasus mountain front reaching 70 nstrain yr 1 1 nstrain yr 1 0 0317 10 15 s 1 the north anatolian fault zone is the clearest feature in the shear strain rate field it is expressed as a pronounced dextral strike slip fault zone reaching rates of up to 170 nstrain yr 1 this holds true also for the izmit area where the august 17 1999 earthquake occurred central anatolia is almost strain free whereas extension prevails in western anatolia the principal axes of extension vary around the n s direction with strain rates of up to 85 nstrain yr 1 these extensional areas coincide with graben features and normal faulting earthquakes the central and southwestern aegean sea is strain free with values far below 40 nstrain yr 1 the seismic cluster around the dodekanissa islands southeastern aegean sea coincides with nw se oriented extension attaining strain rates of up to 90 nstrain yr 1 this area of extension also exhibits recent active volcanism the entire hellenic arc shows compressional strain rates perpendicular to the arc the pliny strabo troughs along the eastern segment of the arc show left lateral shear strain rates reaching 80 nstrain yr 1 significant extension is found in central greece with a nne ssw oriented maximum of 120 nstrain yr 1 centered around the gulf of corinthos the kephalonia fault zone in nw greece is a distinct dextral fault zone separating apulia from the rapidly moving aegean microplate right lateral shear strain rates reach 150 nstrain yr 1

coeval plutonism and metamorphism in a latest oligocene metamorphic core complex in northwest turkey a metamorphic core complex of latest oligocene age crops out in the kazdag mountain range in northwest turkey the footwall of the core complex consists of gneiss amphibolite and marble metamorphosed at 5 1 kbar and 640 50 c the average muscovite and biotite rb sr ages from the gneisses are 19 ma and 22 ma respectively and imply high temperature metamorphism during latest oligocene times the hangingwall is made up of an unmetamorphosed lower tertiary oceanic accretionary melange with upper cretaceous eclogite lenses the hangingwall and footwall are separated by an extensional ductile shear zone two kilometres thick mylonites and underlying high grade metamorphic rocks show a n trending mineral lineation with the structural fabrics indicat ing down dip top to the north shear sense the shear zone the accretionary melange and the high grade metamorphic rocks are cut by an undeformed granitoid with a 21 ma rb sr biotite age analytically indistinguishable from the rb sr biotite ages in the surrounding footwall gneisses the estimated pressure of the metamorphism and that of the granitoid emplacement indicate that the high grade metamorphic rocks were rapidly exhumed at 24 ma from a depth of 14 km to 7 km by activity along the shear zone the subsequent exhumation of the metamorphic rocks to the surface occurred during pliocene quaternary times in a transpressive ridge between two overstepping fault segments of the north anatolian fault zone the high grade metamorphic rocks of the kazdag range are surrounded by voluminous calc alkaline volcanic and plutonic rocks of late oligocene early miocene age which formed above the northward dipping hellenic subduction zone the magmatic arc setting of the core complex and stratigraphic evidence for subdued topography in northwest turkey prior to the onset of extension suggest that the latest oligocene regional extension was primarily related to the roll back of the subduction zone rather than to the gravitational collapse

flexural rotation of normal faults a conceptual model is proposed for the generation of low angle normal faults in metamorphic core complexes the model is based on three assumptions 1 the isostatic response to normal fault motion is of regional extent 2 when a fault segment is significantly rotated from the optimum angle of slip relative to the crustal stress field it is replaced by a new planar fault oriented in the optimum direction and 3 the fault cuts the entire upper crust and fault motion always nucleates in the same region at the base of the upper crust the stress field is considered to be uniform through the crust and the regional isostatic response of the crust to loads is computed using the thin plate flexure approximations active low angle normal faults are difficult to reconcile with rock mechanics theories earthquake focal mechanism studies and geochronologic results indicating rapid cooling of core complex rocks the model does not require active fault slip on low angle faults the flexural response to normal faulting is shown to be significantly affected by anelastic behavior of the crust and by loading due to sedimentation the anelastic response to large bending stresses results in significant reduction in the effective elastic rigidity of the upper crust this can explain the observed short wavelength of topographic response to normal fault loads the model results in 1 a nearly flat lying abandoned normal fault or detachment below slices of upper plate rocks and sedimentary infill 2 a strong contrast in metamorphic grade across the abandoned detachment 3 rapid movement of lower plate rocks from midcrustal depths to shallower depths these results are qualitatively in agreement with geologic observations for core complexes

a comparison of geodetic and finite strain pattern in the aegean geodynamic implications abstract a comparison of the active strain pattern of the aegean constrained by global positioning system measurements and the oligo miocene finite strain field shows some striking similarities in terms of direction and rates of extension the geometry of extension at crustal scale is also very similar with north dipping normal faults connecting near the brittle ductile transition to shallow north dipping shear zones this pattern of extension is not significantly modified by the recent extrusion of the motion of anatolia and aegea the persistence over more than 25 myr of the same pattern of extension suggests that the cause for extension resides within the aegean lithosphere gravitational collapse allowed by extensional boundary conditions after 30 ma slab retreat is the primary cause for post orogenic extension in the aegean and western anatolia

structural evolution of andros cyclades greece a key to the behaviour of a flat detachment within an extending continental crust the continental crust extends in a brittle manner in its upper part and in more distributed ductile manner in its lower part during exhumation of hp metamorphic rocks brittle features superimpose on earlier ductile ones as a result of the progressive localization of deformation the islands of tinos and andros are part of the numerous metamorphic core complexes exhumed in the aegean domain they illustrate two steps of a gradient of finite extension along a transect between mt olympos and naxos this study confirms the main role of boudinage as an initial localizing factor at the brittle ductile transition and emphasizes the continuum of strain from ductile to brittle during exhumation early low angle semi brittle shear planes superimpose onto precursory ductile shear bands whereas steeply dipping late brittle planes develop by progressive steepening of structures or sliding across en echelon arrays of veins the comparison between tinos and andros allows us to propose a complete dynamic section of the aegean extending continental crust and emphasizes that the strain localization process depends on both its rheological stratification and its compositional heterogeneity

on the role of isostasy in the evolution of normal fault systems the footwalls of west dipping normal faults that separate the west central colorado plateau from the basin and range province record at least 5 7 km and perhaps as much as 15 20 km of west side up neogene uplift with an axis just 10 20 km west of undeformed plateau strata the uplift is expressed as folding and steep faulting in pre tertiary cratonic and disconformably overlying neogene strata forming a basement cored anticline and coincident topographic high on the western margin of the plateau the authors interpret the uplift as a nonelastic response of the crust to buoyancy forces accompanying the tectonic denudation of the plateau margin profound isostatically driven deformation of the footwalls of major normal faults may be common in extensional terrains calling into question several assumptions fundamental to existing models of the evolution of normal fault systems

geochronology of clasts in allochthonous miocene sedimentary sequences on mykonos and paros islands implications for back arc extension in the aegean sea in the cyclades low angle normal faults juxtaposed miocene sedimentary rock units lying over alpine blueschist and greenschist facies metamorphic rocks and miocene granites the sedimentary units in the hanging wall were deposited in fault bounded basins while their footwalls progressively emerged through the ductile and brittle crust the sedimentation in the basins evolved from marine turbidites in the early miocene to shallow continental conglomerates during the late miocene the transition from marine to fan delta sedimentation was coeval with widespread magmatism and possibly reflects true crustal uplift it is inferred that the sequence is no younger than 8 ma k ar and 40 ar 39 ar geochronology petrology and petrography of the clasts deposited on the hanging wall provide proof of progressive exhumation of the footwall and reveal the nature of the overburden that covered the cycladic blueschist belt during alpine orogeny in the tertiary abundant metamorphic clasts yielding mica cooling ages between 80 and 100 ma occur throughout the sedimentary section and probably pertain to a vast pelagonian type rock mass that covered the internal hellenides from the olympos to the central cyclades in addition volcanic clasts dated at 10 ma reveal the existence of a hitherto unknown volcanic province of that age in the central aegean miocene crustal extension and exhumation of granitic plutons is recorded in the detrital sequence in a concentration of 10 ma granitic clasts restricted to the top of the conglomerate sequence a group of metamorphic clasts that yielded ages of 13 16 ma possibly represents exhumation of mid crustal levels clasts similar to the currently exposed cycladic blueschist unit such as 40 ma old blueschists eclogites and marble were not found thus indicating the very late exposure of these footwall rocks

constraints on the evolution and vertical coherency of deformation in the northern aegean from a comparison of geodetic geologic and seismologic data abstract we study the 3 d strain evolution of the northern aegean and the vertical coherency of deformation we observe that finite strain orientations in the mantle inferred from published shear wave sks fast polarization orientations mid to upper crustal stretching lineations in metamorphic core complexes of mainly miocene age and the gradient in regional crustal thickness variations are subparallel to one another this correlation suggests that the miocene phase of extension is imprinted in the anisotropic fabric i e lattice preferred orientation lpo of the lithospheric mantle and that the orientation of finite strain due to extension is nearly constant with depth the lateral variation of published seismic delay times shows a correlation with laterally varying finite strain in the crust inferred from topography and crustal thickness estimates this correlation suggests that lateral variations in finite crustal and mantle strain are correlated and may point at a pure shear extension mechanism involving the entire lithosphere we also present a new strain rate model for the northern aegean based on global positioning system gps velocities and additional geological constraints no length change orientations calculated from the model near the north anatolian fault naf and north aegean trough are not consistent with anisotropy orientations at depth present day extension orientations are systematically and significantly more n s oriented than the stretching lineations and sks splitting orientations we conclude that the current shear dominated surface deformation pattern is not yet reflected by significant anisotropy in the lithosphere based on some simple calculations we postulate that the present day deformation pattern cannot be older than 4 ma which is consistent with independent arguments on the timing of the propagation of the north anatolian fault into the aegean domain

structural and thermochronometric evidence for multi stage exhumation of southern syros cycladic islands greece abstract the attic cycladic metamorphic core complex province was formed during miocene to recent regional back arc extension in response to slab rollback and gravitational collapse the development of several metamorphic core complexes along extensional low angle detachment faults resulted in the exhumation of lower plate rocks and the tectonic denudation of the upper plate that is only sparsely exposed throughout the aegean sea one of these areas is in southern syros where the tectonic configuration includes three tectonometamorphic units separated by two detachment faults the lower plate cycladic blueschist unit underwent late cretaceous eocene hp lt metamorphism and subsequent greenschist facies overprint during oligo miocene times the tectonically overlying greenschist facies upper unit is a tectonic sliver between the cycladic blueschist unit and the structurally highest unit the vari unit which is dominated by quartzofeldspathic gneisses that are affected by four distinct deformation events d1 d4 the late cretaceous upper greenschist facies d1 episode is related to late cretaceous eocene subduction while d2 d4 fabrics were formed in response to late cenozoic extension and exhumation field relations and structural data suggest that the late miocene brittle vari detachment juxtaposes both vari unit and upper unit against the cycladic blueschist unit mylonitic rocks observed at the base of vari unit along the contact with upper unit and zircon and apatite u th he thermochronometry corroborate this scenario with lower plate cycladic blueschist unit rocks recording rapid cooling at 8 10 ma in contrast cooling ages from the vari unit cluster at 13 15 ma indicating rapid exhumation coeval with activity along the livadi detachment on the neighboring island of tinos these data document new evidence that vari unit was affected by a major middle miocene phase of exhumation and an older semi brittle episode both unrelated to late miocene detachment faulting revealing that crustal extension occurred in multiple stages and in a protracted episodic fashion similar to other parts of the cyclades

the tectono metamorphic evolution of a dismembered ophiolite tinos cyclades greece the six exposures of the upper tectonic unit of the cycladic massif occurring on the island of tinos are shown to comprise a metamorphosed dismembered ophiolite complex the common stratigraphic section consisting of tens of metres thick tectonic slices of mafic phyllites overlain by serpentinites and gabbros is considered to have been derived by a combination of thrusting during obduction and subsequent attenuation by low angle normal faults all rock types show evidence of a phase of regional greenschist facies metamorphism which in the case of the phyllites is accompanied by penetrative deformation the greenschist facies metamorphism in gabbros is preceded by high temperature sea floor amphibolite facies alteration whereas in the serpentinites the antigorite forsterite greenschist facies assemblage overprinted an earlier low temperature lizardite serpentinite trace element patterns of the mafic phyllites and a harzbur gitic origin of meta serpentinites suggest a supra subduction zone ssz affinity for the ophiolitic suite 5 o values of phyllites gabbros and serpentinites range from 6 to 15 o model calculations indicate that such values are consistent with low temperature 50 200 c alteration of parent rocks by sea water at varying water rock ratios this would agree with the early low temperature mineralogy of the serpentinites but the early high temperature alteration of the gabbros would require the presence of o enriched sea water the following overall history is suggested for tinos ophiolitic slices 1 oceanic crust was generated at a supra subduction zone spreading centre with high temperature alteration of gabbros 2 tectonic distur bance its early hot stages recorded in an amphibolitic shear zone at the base of serpentinites brought the already cooled ultramafics into direct contact with sea water and caused low 7 serpentinization 3 tectonism after cooling involved thrusting which caused repetition and inversion of the original order of the oceanic suite 4 regional metamorphism of all the ophiolite components at greenschist facies conditions 450 c overprinted the early alteration mineralogy it was probably induced by continued thrusting and piling up of nappes the tinos ophiolite dated as late cretaceous and genetically related to other low pres sure rock units of the same age in the aegean differs in age and degree of dismemberment and metamor phism from ophiolites in mainland greece

granite intrusion in a metamorphic core complex the example of the mykonos laccolith cyclades greece abstract the aegean domain is a well suited place to study the formation of metamorphic core complex mcc and to investigate the role of syn tectonic granites on their development in the northern cyclades the mykonos delos rhenia mcc is characterized by the intrusion of a kilometer scale late miocene pluton of i type granitoids within a migmatitic gneiss dome new combined ams anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility and microstructural studies on the mykonos granitoids together with recently published thermochronological data allow us to use the granitoids as strain markers the mykonos granitoids form a laccolith like intrusion with a n70 e long axis the laccolith is strongly asymmetric with an outlying root zone to the sw and a major body mainly developed to the ne the laccolith construction is due to successive pulses of more or less differentiated magma that intruded the cycladic blueschist unit the attitude of stretching markers suggests an important about 60 vertical axis local rotation phenomenon in the cycladic upper crust during the exhumation of the mykonos mcc structural data suggest a four stage evolution of the mykonos mcc i a first stage characterized by flat shearing toward the n ne and by the formation of a domal structure in migmatitic paragneisses with multi scale generation of folds with axes either perpendicular or parallel to the regional stretching as a result of the interplay between regional n20 e directed extension and ew shortening ii a second stage marked by the emplacement of the mykonos laccolith at 13 5 0 3 ma at the top of the migmatitic paragneisses iii the third stage corresponding to the development of protomylonitic foliations and lineations in the whole laccolith in high to medium temperature conditions and iv the late stage marked by an acceleration of the exhumation of the mykonos mcc this exhumation was accommodated by important rotations of upper crustal blocks during the end of the exhumation processes around 10 ma deformation localized at the top of the laccolith in semi ductile conditions and then in brittle conditions in the major detachment plane our study shows that the cycladic plutonism event had no role on the initiation of the mcc however the geometry of the mykonos intrusion supports that the magmas are sucked into the direction of regional extension and that the intrusion of magmas has caused an acceleration of the last stages of the mcc development this acceleration was marked by a very fast exhumation of the laccolith after its emplacement

a block model of distributed deformation by faulting it is clear from palaeomagnetic evidence that large and hitherto unexpected rotations about a vertical axis are common in regions of distributed continental deformation we propose a simple two dimensional model to illustrate how fault movement and block rotation within a zone of distributed deformation may be related to the relative motion of the rigid plates that bound the zone one surprizing feature of this model is that the component of strike slip motion on the faults within the deforming zone is in the opposite sense to the strike slip component across the zone as a whole thus slip vectors within the zone are not the same as that between the bounding rigid plates in contrast to deformation at oceanic plate boundaries examples of active fault geometries similar to those of our model can be seen in greece iran and the western usa

revised and synthetic apparent polar wander paths of the african eurasian north american and indian plates and true polar wander since 200 ma we have reviewed paleomagnetic data available for the eurasian african north american and indian plates over the last 200 ma selection criteria are those generally accepted with an emphasis on evidence for lack of remagnetization accurate dating and proper structural analysis this results in 23 35 51 and 2 poles for eurasia africa north america and india respectively we believe that this limited set of higher quality data is more likely to reveal key features of apparent polar wander apw paths than averaging of larger data sets involving less stringent selection criteria we propose and describe revised apw paths but more importantly we next use relative motion models to transfer all data in a common reference frame we find good agreement between transferred data when they are averaged separately for each plate in independent 20 ma windows this is a check on consistency of paleomagnetic data kinematic models and of the geocentric dipole hypothesis transferred data from all plates are averaged in 20 ma windows to generate synthetic apw paths for all plates studied these synthetic paths are in agreement with the original revised apw paths that use only data from a single plate moreover both geographic and time resolution are improved spatial confidence intervals are of the order of 5 the synthetic paths display interesting features such as a previously ill recognized apw loop for eurasia paleomagnetic and hotspot apw are next compared and a determination of true polar wander tpw is derived we find significant tpw amounting to over 20 in the last 200 ma tpw appears to be episodic with a standstill between 180 and 110 ma there is general agreement with a previous study of livermore et al 1984 the tpw standstill appears to correlate with a time of decreasing reversal frequency ending with the cretaceous long normal superchron other periods of fast tpw would seem to correspond to increasing reversal frequency however it is suggested that the major tpw hairpin at 50 ma might correspond to the collision of india with eurasia tentative correlations with core or mantle indicators can be understood as a result of couplings between the core mantle and lithosphere we believe primarily related to episodic evolution of the d layer

aegean paleomagnetic inclination anomalies is there a tectonic explanation abstract more than a decade of paleomagnetic research in the aegean area mainly by french investigators c laj c kissel and their colleagues has provided a valuable data base for the evaluation of cenozoic aegean tectonics systematic rotations are documented and have been interpreted by the original investigators in the light of the evolution of the hellenic arc however less attention has been paid to the significance of the paleomagnetic inclinations which also are anomalous twenty one out of 22 paleomagnetic studies performed to date within the general aegean region have yielded paleolatitudes that are too shallow when compared with reference curves for either africa or eurasia suggesting northward relative transport with respect to both continents sedimentary volcanic and plutonic units are involved ages range from oligocene to pliocene some of these apparent paleolatitude anomalies may merely be the result of inclination flattening in certain kinds of clastic sedimentary rocks however shallow inclinations in igneous rocks cannot be so easily dismissed the explanation for these anomalously shallow inclinations does not appear to lie with the reference curves because several other reference curves calculated in several different ways yield essentially the same result we suggest that the paleomagnetic pattern may reflect real northward displacement of crustal blocks within the aegean region measured with respect to both europe and africa the amount of displacement appears to increase systematically to the west the pattern of local block rotations noticed by earlier investigators argues that the displacement did not involve a single coherent aegean block but rather a collection of smaller blocks moving quasi independently geological consequences of northward relative displacement of the aegean block ought to include mid tertiary and or later compressional structures in the north e g rhodope and extensional structures in the leading edge of the african plate

transpression and transtension within different structural levels in the central aegean region in the central aegean region shortening structures within the miocene molasse arc known since long ago nevertheless recently most authors have recognized extensional structures within middle to upper miocene granitoids proposing a basin and range type model for the late cenozoic evolution of the area to resolve this problem structural mapping and mesoscopic analysis of 900 faults sampled from 12 islands have been carried out late orogenic uplift of the central aegean region is the result of a continuous convergence and indentation of the pelagonian plate by the apulian plate that took place throughout the miocene formation of core complexes can be associated with a large oblique upthrusts b steeply dipping strike slip faults and c low angle normal faults the latter are produced by low multidirectional extension which has affected small crustal regions as adjacent areas underwent transpression in the late stages of collision the overthickened crust began to collapse due to transtension which was replaced by extension caused by the roll back of the hellenic subduction zone in the lower pliocene time this extensional regime has lasted until the present day

crustal scale geometry and kinematics of late orogenic extension in the central aegean cyclades and ewia island abstract the aegean continental domain is known to be the site of widespread back arc extension since at least the middle miocene overprinting structures related to the mesozoic cenozoic hellenic orogeny features attributed to early thrusting include the overall ductile deformation within two broad belts that have suffered hp lt metamorphism across the aegean this study summarizes the results of a structural study in the central aegean area cyclades and evvia island examining in particular the relationship between ductile and brittle deformation on a regional scale extension appears to be responsible for most of the ductile deformation within hp rock units that have experienced penetrative greenschist facies and higher grade metamorphic overprinting on each island studied progressive extensional deformation has occurred through the development of a major normal sense detachment zone down to depths of about 18 25 km the geometry of the extensional system on the scale of the central aegean is described taking into account the characteristic features of the regional scale ductile strain field at least two probably three subparallel major north dipping detachment zones are identified trending nw se in the northwestern cyclades and e w in the southeastern cyclades both with initial dips estimated at around 30 45 the present geometry of the extensional system implies that these detachment zones and related metamorphic core complexes interfere with each other two main evolutionary models are considered which can account for such a kinematic link between parallel detachment zones structural data favour the sequential development of synthetic major detachments zones in a direction opposite to the sense of dip of the detachments early oligocene lower miocene detachment type extension in the area studied is related to a late orogenic post thickening back arc setting

revision of the timing magnitude and distribution of neogene rotations in the western aegean region to evaluate the dimension and the timing of the clockwise rotating domain and the nature of the structures that accommodate the rotating domain in the western aegean region paleomagnetic analyses were carried out in northern western and southwestern greece the results show that the rotating domain covers an area including the external albanides western mainland greece including evia and probably at least partly the peloponnesos smaller clockwise rotations on the order of 30 408 were reported previously from the chalkidiki peninsula and the islands of skyros and limnos previously two phases of approximately 258 of rotation were suggested the last one during the plio pleistocene our analysis shows that the western aegean domain rotated approximately 408 clockwise between 15 13 and 8 ma followed by an additional 108 after 4 ma the rotating domain is accommodated in the north by deformation associated with the scutari pec fault zone and in the west by the ionian thrust and the hellenic subduction zone to the south no rocks older than 10 ma are available so no conclusive data are obtained to the east of the rotating domain extensional detachment systems of the cyclades and rhodope areas were active during the rotation phase and may explain at least part of the differences in finite amounts of rotation between nonrotation or counterclockwise rotations observed in northern and eastern greece and the large clockwise rotations in western greece d 2004 elsevier b v all rights reserved

ductile and brittle shortening extension parallel folds and maintenance of crustal thickness in the central aegean cyclades greece in contrast to previous studies that concentrated on the two dimensional crustal strain in the central aegean region cyclades it is shown that nne ssw extension via ductile and brittle stretching and low angle detachments was accompanied and or alternated with horizontal shortening perpendicular to the stretching direction since at least the early miocene roughly e w directed ductile shortening produced large scale overturned and upright folds having axes parallel or slightly oblique to the stretching lineation upright folding and arching of low angle normal faults occurred above the brittle ductile transition and brittle e w compression culminated with vertical axis block rotations strike slip faults and minor thrusts since at least the early miocene the structure of the cycladic massif evolved through alternating and or coeval increments of horizontal shortening and vertical thinning associated with an approximately constant nne ssw stretching exact magnitudes of the vertical and horizontal deformational components are difficult to assess nevertheless we note that extensional tectonics that affected the cyclades during the last 15 20 m y have produced no net crustal thinning we suggest that crustal thickness was maintained by extension parallel folds which represent true contractional structures and that crust was fed into the extended region from its margins

long term effects of restoration on soil hydraulic properties in revegetation stabilized desert ecosystems 1 improving structure of soils found at 0 5 cm depth and increasing the thickness of biological soil crusts are both associated with sand dune revegetation stabilization in arid northwestern china since 1956 research on sand dune stabilization has included the use of straw chequer boards to facilitate development of soil structure one method to gauge the degree of stabilization is to compare undisturbed soil hydraulic properties including water retention h and hydraulic conductivity k h functions with properties from stabilized sites of different ages this study examined properties at five experimental sites of different ages since revegetation 51 42 34 20 and 0 years saturated hydraulic conductivity ks was determined in situ from all five sites and the h curve was determined from samples collected from three sites a significant negative correlation existed between ks and the clay silt and organic matter contents differences in most van genuchten parameters for h were observed between the revegetated plots and the migrating sand dune area results of this long term study show that changes in soil hydraulic properties and improvement in soil structure were associated with migrating dune stabilization

a palaeogeographic reconstruction of the seafront of the ancient city of delos in relation to upper holocene sea level changes in the central cyclades abstract palaeogeographical reconstruction of the seafront of the ancient city of delos is based on the recording and study of all available indicators of sea level change contemporary submerged beachrock formations and presently submerged areas of ancient human activity including ancient coastal constructions indicate the phases vertical direction extent and time frame of the changes the sea level along the coasts of delos has risen by a total of 2 15 m since the end of the hellenistic period this change occurred during two successive distinct phases of submersion initially by 1 35 m and then by another 0 80 m the sea s transgression into the ancient coastal zone by a width of at least 30 m radically altered parts of its geomorphology and resulted in the submersion of the ancient sea defences

deciphering subduction from exhumation in the segmented cycladic blueschist unit central aegean greece the cycladic blueschist unit cbu represents the northern passive margin of the adria continental block and ophiolites that are the remnants of the pindos ocean which were affected by high pressure low temperature metamorphism in the blueschist and eclogite facies during the eocene prior to the lutetian the ophiolitic and margin units were thrust towards the sw inside a ne dipping subduction zone two subsequent exhumation stages are characterized by top to the ne senses of shear i from mantle depths to lower crustal levels before 37 ma which was accommodated by an extensional inversion of the vardar suture zone and ii from deep crustal levels to the near surface between 30 and 20 ma which was accommodated by the north cycladic detachment it is during this late stage of ductile exhumation that the central cyclades core complex was exhumed segmentation of the cbu by normal faults started at 12 ma as recorded by the low temperature thermochronometers and was coeval with block rotation and folding with ns trending axes which were predominantly controlled by the myrthes ikaria strike slip fault in the centre of the cyclades a map restoration of the cbu geometry prior to segmentation has been carried out using available structural and paleomagnetic data the restoration shows that following the cbu exhumation from mantle depths to crustal levels a single core complex was exhumed along a single ne dipping detachment

paleomagnetic evidence for an inverse rotation history of western anatolia during the exhumation of menderes core complex abstract within the aegean extensional system the izmir balikesir transfer zone ibtz is a crucial element in the late cenozoic evolution of western anatolia since it accommodates the differential deformation between the cycladic and the menderes metamorphic core complexes here we determine the rotational history of western anatolia using new paleomagnetic data from 87 sites in miocene volcano sedimentary rocks to better understand the role of the ibtz our results reveal two discrete and opposite major rotational phases during the miocene the first phase is derived from early miocene volcanic sedimentary and granitic rocks and is controlled by detachment and strike slip faults it is characterized by an average net 23 6 clockwise cw rotation within the ibtz since the early miocene our new data from the menderes part on the other hand show an average 23 10 counter clockwise ccw rotation the data from the cycladic part show no significant net rotation since the early miocene the second phase is derived from middle late miocene volcanic and sedimentary rocks and is controlled by high angle normal and strike slip faults the rotations from this phase show a very consistent pattern of 22 11 ccw within the ibtz while now the menderes part shows an average cw rotation of 25 14 our paleomagnetic results hence document a major change and inversion of rotation between the early and late miocene the ibtz region experienced a large 45 cw rotation while during the same time interval the menderes part outside the zone experienced a similar 48 ccw rotation after that the ibtz became narrower and the sense of rotation inverted to ccw 23 10 since the late miocene while in the menderes part it inverted to cw 25 14 since the late miocene our new results do therefore fit the hypotheses of two stage extension scenario rather than a one single phase of extension we also conclude that the observed rotations are not directly related to major detachment faulting but to the change in extensional regime of western anatolia the focal mechanism solutions of recent seismic events corroborate that the ibtz is still active and transfers west anatolian extensional strain into the south aegean sea

coaxial flattening at deep levels of orogenic belts evidence from blueschists and eclogites on syros and sifnos cyclades greece this work presents new structural data from a high pressure low temperature hp lt metamorphic terrane exposed on the islands of syros and sifnos cyclades greece the structure and the metamorphism of a relatively coherent hp lt rock section were studied in order to elucidate how strain was accommodated at deep crustal levels during the formation and exhumation of hp lt rocks at least three deformation phases associated with eclogite and blueschist facies conditions p 8 15 kbar t 400 550 degreesc were recognised the earliest deformation fabric s1 preserved as inclusion trails within garnet porphyroblasts is aligned to define a sub vertical schistosity at present orientation which is frequently orthogonal to the flat matrix schistosity s2 and may indicate that deep crustal thickening involved upright folding the currently dominant fabric in the hp rock section s2 is usually moderately dipping and locally contains nw trending glaucophane lineations symmetric pressure shadows and eclogitic boudins the symmetric structures associated with this fabric seem to indicate coaxial vertical thinning although the existence of non coaxial structures out of the study area cannot be excluded glaucophane bearing shear bands s3 with top to nw sense of shearing locally crosscut the earlier structures the latest recognised fabric d4 is scarce and often absent within the hp rocks it is associated with top to ne kinematic criteria that formed at greenschist facies conditions p 4 7 kbar t 400 450 degreesc based on these observations it is suggested that partitioning of strain occurred at different crustal levels and at different times deep crustal deformation was governed by thickening via upright folding followed by coaxial vertical thinning whereas non coaxial shearing occurred when the rocks were already exhumed to relatively shallow crustal levels the earliest fabrics d1 to d3 pertain to alpine orogenesis and possibly to syn orogenic extension whereas the latest correspond to whole crust back are extension c 2002 elsevier science ltd all rights reserved

uplift and exhumation of high pressure metamorphic terrains the example of the cycladic blueschist belt aegean sea the cycladic blueschists emerged from a depth of more than 50 km during the tertiary these rocks are now covered only by a thin fraction of the synmetamorphic overburden upper plate remnants of the upper plate include low p crystalline rocks and sediments which have been juxtaposed onto the lower plate blueschists in several stages since the early miocene the low angle contacts operated as normal faults which removed the overburden from above the cycladic blueschists detailed investigations on tinos island indicate that the fractured blocks of the upper plate lying above a low angle normal fault did not rotate this shows that the faults initiated as rather gently dipping fractures similar structures were also reported from other blueschist terrains kinematic analysis of such flat lying faults implies that the synmetamorphic overburden should be mostly located several hundred kilometers away from the present exposure of the blueschists considering that the cycladic blueschist belt exposes successively shallower units in the west and that rocks of the upper plate have an anatolian nature we suggest that these blueschists were dragged from beneath turkey we recognize that the blueschist unit has undergone further thrusting in the final stage of the exhumation as have its counterparts elsewhere in the hellenides the emergence of the blueschists in the tertiary was concomitant with continental collision and thrusting in the hellenides the operation of low angle normal faults with large extensional displacements occurred within this context of collision tectonics this extension occurred parallel to the strike of the convergent orogen

paleomagnetic implications on the evolution of the tethys belt from the atlantic ocean to the pamirs since the triassic abstract we first re examined the apparent polar wander curves for stable eurasia and africa since the triassic these curves were then combined together with curves of north and south america according to the kinematics of the atlantic ocean and a synthetic polar wander curve was given then most of the paleomagnetic results from the tethys mobile belt from the atlantic to the pamirs were analysed several groups of plates microplates and blocks can be seen first relatively stable regions like maghreb and sicily which have not moved much then we have a group formed by iberia sardinia italy and to a lesser extent corsica and the western and central alps for these blocks movements are anticlockwise rotations chiefly driven by the anticlockwise rotation of africa but they are sometimes stronger to the east a major change takes place the north of the aegean sea and the ionian zone are clockwise rotated and these rotations are recent oligocene miocene for the first part pliocene to the present for the second part a major problem arises in turkey caucasus and iran paleomagnetic results indicate a position far to the south of eurasia and at the same time geological evidence is in favour of a position close to eurasia we discuss these discrepancies

map view restoration of aegean west anatolian accretion and extension since the eocene 1 the aegean region greece western turkey is one of the best studied continental extensional provinces here we provide the first detailed kinematic restoration of the aegean region since 35 ma the region consists of stacked upper crustal slices nappes that reflect a complex paleogeography these were decoupled from the subducting african adriatic lithospheric slab especially since 25 ma extensional detachments cut the nappe stack and exhumed its metamorphosed portions in metamorphic core complexes we reconstruct up to 400 km of trench perpendicular ne sw extension in two stages from 25 to 15 ma the aegean forearc rotated clockwise relative to the moesian platform around euler poles in northern greece accommodated by extensional detachments in the north and an inferred transfer fault se of the menderes massif the majority of extension occurred after 15 ma up to 290 km by opposite rotations of the western and eastern parts of the region simultaneously the aegean region underwent up to 650 km of post 25 ma trench parallel extension leading to dramatic crustal thinning on crete we restore a detachment configuration with the mid cycladic lineament representing a detachment that accommodated trench parallel extension in the central aegean region finally we demonstrate that the sakarya zone and cretaceous ophiolites of turkey cannot be traced far into the aegean region and are likely bounded by a pre 35 ma n s fault zone this fault became reactivated since 25 ma as an extensional detachment located west of lesbos island the paleogeographic units south of the izmir ankara sava suture however can be correlated from greece to turkey

exhumation of deep crustal metamorphic rocks and crustal extension in arc and back arc regions we adress the problem of exhumation of metamorphic rocks in arc and back arc positions based on observations of the aegean and tyrrhenian back arc regions in both regions back arc extension has been active for 25 ma at least while convergence and crustal thickening was going on at the thrust front compressional structures are reworked in the back arc domain as extensional flat lying detachments which allow unroofing of the metamorphic pile metamorphic rocks suffer first a dynamic burial during nappe stacking and then fast exhumation when they reach the extensional region we describe a continuous process of burial and exhumation that is contemporaneous with the migration of the thrust front toward external zones the front of extension follows behind at approximately one hundred kilometers at the convergence front continuous subduction of a cold oceanic slab or continuous accretion of continental units keeps a cool p t gradient and hp lt metamorphic rocks are formed at depth the overall cool environment leads to a deep brittle ductile transition and thus to a resistant crust which can sustain its large thickness while the thrust front propagates forward parts of the accretionary wedge which were formed earlier enter the back arc domain which can be already under extension and which is warmer because of a greater distance to the cold slab and the presence of the volcanic arc the brittle ductile transition rises in the thick crust which then becomes unstable and subsequently collapses the exhumation history of metamorphic rocks below detachments is two fold 1 a constantely thickening crust is unroofed by flat lying detachments which rework early thrusts this first period is characterized by a good preservation of hp lt parageneses 2 the second period is when rocks are in the zone of crustal scale extension of the back arc region deep crustal metamorphics are exhumed below flat lying detachements which affect the whole crust

palaeomagnetic evidence for large magnitude low angle normal faulting in a metamorphic core complex controversy exists over whether large magnitude extensional deformation can occur along low angle master detachment normal faults1 16 large amounts of cenozoic extension occurred in the basin and range province of the western united states and master detachment faults related to this extension are currently exposed as subhorizontal structures along crustal arches known as metamorphic core complexes mccs 10 11 17 one set of models suggests that mccs represent crustal scale blocks bounded by originally high angle normal faults which have tilted to sub horizontal attitudes1 6 more dynamic models propose isostatically induced flexural tilting of an initial subhorizontal fault to an active high angle fault to final abandonment as a subhorizontal structure7 9 these models require mcc detachment faults and their footwalls to have been tilted by 30 60 alternatively mcc detachment faults may have originated as subhorizontal or low angle structures10 16 here we test these models with palaeomag netic data from undeformed portions of the south mountains a typical cenozoic mcc in the southern basin and range province18 24 comparison with time averaged expected directions of the geomagnetic field25 27 yields no evidence for tilting of the footwall we conclude that the south mountains master detachment fault was active as a low angle extensional structure with a dip of 10

did a large departure from the geocentric axial dipole hypothesis occur during the eocene evidence from the magnetic polar wander path of eurasia abstract low paleolatitudes are very frequent in eocene to oligocene formations particularly in the tethyan mobile belt these anomalies and their possible sources are discussed they are neither due to unreliable results nor to inclination errors in sedimentary rocks neither can large tectonic movements explain these discrepancies the most probable causes having been rejected therefore the best explanation consists in an alternative magnetic pole position for eurasia located at 69 n 215 e it is proposed that the mean magnetic field of the earth was dipolar but that its axis has swung from one stable position to another during the middle tertiary and was therefore sometimes different from the rotation axis

block rotations and continental extension in the central aegean sea palaeomagnetic and structural evidence from tinos and mykonos cyclades greece abstract the aegean sea floored by an attenuated continental crust is a mediterranean type back arc basin formed above the subducting african plate we investigated post 12 ma block rotation in relation to back arc extension in the area of the western cyclades central aegean sea on tinos island nw trending dacitic dikes and a miocene monzogranite penetrated an alpine metamorphic series k ar analyses of 6 dike samples yielded an average age of 11 5 0 4 ma the palaeomagnetic analyses of the dikes and the monzogranite reveal 23 vertical axis clockwise rotation we assume that the dacitic dikes intruded vertical as they are today and that no tilt correction is required this is supported by the fact that no inclination anomaly is revealed when the palaeomagnetic data is compared with a tilt corrected pole position from kimi evia the absence of tilting implies that post 12 ma crustal thinning in the area of tinos island was minor on mykonos a low angle normal fault dipping 30 to the ne juxtaposes a series of oligo miocene molasse sediments above a 10 12 ma granite published palaeomagnetic data revealed a considerable amount of inclination flattening and 22 clockwise rotation of the footwall granite we show that tilting predated vertical axis rotation and that the now low angle normal fault originated steeper dipping ca 54 planar rotational fault geometry indicates extension of ca 60 in spite of the significant variations in the magnitude of post 12 ma upper crustal extension across the tinos mykonos transect crustal thickness below the entire area changes only slightly this indicates that upper crustal levels were decoupled from the lower crust the widespread middle miocene granitic magmatism in the cyclades suggests that flow in the lower crust may have had a dominant role in maintaining the smooth moho assuming that the western cyclades constitute a set of nw striking crustal blocks it is estimated that vertical axis rotations increased the n s dimension of the area by ca 31 e g 25 km the exact timing of this clockwise rotation is not well constrained but it postdated the formation of low angle normal faults and tilting and may have taken place in the late miocene

late miocene ductile extension and detachment faulting mykonos greece the geometry and style of structural relations at map to microscopic scale on mykonos cyclades aegean sea greece suggests ductile extension and detachment faulting during the late miocene this island is dominated by granitic rocks that have a well developed shallowly dipping mylonitic foliation and a northeast southwest trending mineral elongation lineation kinematic indicators in these rocks exhibit a top to the northeast down dip sense of shear textural relations suggest that conditions during mylonitic deformation were greenschist to amphibolite facies and published k ar geochronology suggests a late miocene age for this deformation event mylonitic rocks lie in the footwall of a low angle fault and fault striae parallel to the elongation lineation suggest kinematic coordination between mylonitic deformation and movement along the fault translation along the fault juxtaposes younger tilted sedimentary rocks of low metamorphic grade upon the once deeper mylonitic rocks the style and geometry of deformational fabrics and map relations on this island are strikingly similar to those observed in metamorphic core complexes of the western united states

co variation of fine root distribution with vegetation and soil properties along a revegetation chronosequence in a desert area in northwestern china abstract this study investigated the changes in the distributions of fine roots and explored their responses to changes in vegetation and soil properties along a 46 year revegetation chronosequence in a desert area in northwestern china fine roots and soil samples at depths of 0 3 0 m soil profile were obtained from revegetated sand binding areas and compared with those from moving sand dunes natural undisturbed vegetated dunes and a desert steppe the soil physicochemical properties in the top 0 8 m layer were analyzed and the soil water contents at depths of 0 3 0 m soil profile were measured redundancy and regression analyses were conducted to explore the relationships between fine roots vegetation and soil properties both the cumulative fine root length and mass in the 0 0 4 m layer and throughout the 0 3 0 m profile increased along the revegetation chronosequence and those of the 1 0 3 0 m layer increased up to 29 years and then decreased additionally the proportion of fine roots in the 0 0 4 m layer increased and the proportion of fine roots from 1 0 3 0 m decreased along the revegetation chronosequence the fine root length in 0 0 4 m layer was mainly influenced by herbaceous cover while the fine root mass at depth of 0 3 0 m was affected by shrub cover and biomass the amounts of fine soil particles soil organic carbon and total nitrogen were the main edaphic factors that influenced the distribution of fine roots the fine root length and mass in the 0 0 4 m layer were weakly and positively correlated with soil water contents while those in the 1 0 3 0 m layer had strong negative relations with the soil water contents in corresponding layers our results demonstrated that the fine root distribution in revegetated sand dunes was regulated by the succession of the vegetation soil system after revegetation

forced return flow deep in the subduction channel syros greece we present the results of a detailed structural study in the cycladic blueschist unit at fabrika on syros island greece and discuss their significance for tectonic processes at the subduction int

quaternary neotectonics of the south aegean arc abstract the sedimentary and tectonic quaternary evolution of the south aegean arc has been interpreted from 8000 line km of sparker seismic reflection profiles the older parts of basins formed by e w trending faults and accumulated hemipelagic sediment younger active faulting trends nnw in the western part of the arc and ene in the eastern arc the ene trending faults record sinistral strike slip motion broadly parallel to the convergence direction of the aegean anatolian and african plates the north south faults in the western arc are similar to those on land in the south peloponnese chronology is estimated from sedimentation rates in cores and from stacked progradational units on basin margins controlled by eustatic changes in sea level the younger fault pattern developed at 0 6 0 8 ma in the western and central arc but progressively younger in the southeastern part of the arc the older basin fill with e w faults is of early quaternary and pliocene age an older regional unconformity corresponds to an early pleistocene unconformity in the cretan basin particularly in the area east of santorini faulting has resulted in startling changes in palaeogeography such that some areas were late pliocene basins positive features during the pleistocene and then subsided 600 m in the last 0 2 ma such rapid basin inversion resulted in uplift of stratified hemipelagic muds which were deformed by creep or failure so that debris flow deposits accumulated in valleys and ponded basins these fundamental tectonic changes in the past two million years indicate that much of the deformation resulting from the interaction of the eurasian african and anatolian aegean plates is taken up at the southern margin of the aegean microplate probably because subduction of the african plate has slowed as a result of collision of continental crust regional fault patterns are a consequence of spatially varying effects of subduction roll back

metamorphic core complexes of cordilleran type in the cyclades aegean sea greece the islands of ios and naxos in the cycladic archipelago greece contain elongate domes over which a pervasive north to north northeast stretching lineation is warped these islands may be metamorphic core complexes of cordilleran type involving middle crustal rocks drawn upward and outward from underneath the sedimentary basins now 100 km to the south from ca 25 ma onward during uplift the crystalline rocks now exposed on the islands were deformed noncoaxially in the deeper levels of a major shallow dipping ductile shear zone this shear zone may have connected with low angle normal faults in its upper levels because it is probable that its later history involved the metamorphic complexes being dragged out from under a stretching and fracturing upper plate composed mainly of unmetamorphosed sedimentary and ophiolite suite rocks this model can be extended to explain the exhumation of the high pressure low temperature metamorphic rocks on crete which with the cyclades forms a distended paired metamorphic belt separated by an active sedimentary basin

a late pleistocene clockwise rotation phase of zakynthos greece and implications for the evolution of the western aegean arc palaeomagnetic measurements have been carried out on eocene to pleistocene sediments on the ionian island of zakynthos nw greece magnetostratigraphic constraints biostratigraphic analyses of planktonic foraminifera and calcareous nannofossils provide a reliable time frame for these deposits the results show that no significant rotation occurred between 8 11 and 0 77 ma but that zakynthos underwent a 21 6o 7 4o clockwise rotation between 0 77 ma and recent thus our data indicate a rapid rotational event in contrast to continuous rotation since 5 ma as previously postulated laj et al tectonophysics 86 1982 45 67 we speculate this late pleistocene tectonic rotation phase to be linked to rapid uplift in the greek region which results from rebound processes caused by african slab detachment underneath the ionian islands 1999 elsevier science b v all rights reserved

geodetic determination of the kinematics of central greece with respect to europe implications for eastern mediterranean tectonics we use a new satellite laser ranging global positioning system slr gps solution at seven sites in anatolia and aegea to obtain a better definition of the extrusion motion of the anatolian aegean block with respect to europe we show that this motion can be described in a first approximation by a counterclockwise rotation which transfers most of the motion of arabia to anatolia we combine 78 displacement vectors obtained at common points of two triangulation nets measured in central greece in 1895 and 1975 with the slr gps measurements to compute the velocity field over greece with respect to europe these measurements indicate that central greece is a zone of extension between the anatolian aegean counterclockwise rotation to the south and the northern greece clockwise rotation to the north this extension is principally localized within the gulf of corinth to the east but is distributed to the west we then extrapolate this velocity field to the whole aegea and western anatolia using recently published gps results as well as the slr results the narrow dextral north anatolian fault which limits the velocity field to the north progressively gives way to a much wider boundary zone where extension becomes dominant we show that the collision between the mediterranean ridge and africa began 3 6 ma and we describe the modifications that this collision has produced on the kinematic pattern both in aegea and on the mediterranean ridge