tectonic geomorphology and quaternary landscape development in the albania montenegro border region an inventory abstract young and recent tectonic activity can be discerned from instrumentally recorded seismic data as well as numerous geomorphological phenomena in the transition between the dinarides and hellenides fold and thrust belts we introduce a multiparametric approach using field remote sensing and seismic data from the region sw of shkodra lake between the towns of bar montenegro and lezha albania an area that offers unique opportunities of relating landscape development with tectonic deformation particularly we focus on windgap development on anticlines bound by pliocene quaternary active faults that allow statements on relative timing and rates of tectonic movement during the quaternary we propose an overall orogen perpendicular ne sw gradient from enhanced uplift and high tectonic activity in the hinterland to lower activity in the foreland an orogen parallel nw se gradient is added by the far field effects of shkodra peja transverse fault zone spfz these overall tendencies are valid despite a complex small scale mosaic of local differential uplift and subsidence recent gps studies and plate movement reconstructions are sparse providing rough estimates of 4 5 mm y horizontal and ca 1 mm y vertical movement geomorphological and paleoseismological studies are crucial to particularize recent and to estimate long term relative and absolute ground movement rates for this area

recognition of chron c25n in the upper paleocene upnor formation of the london basin uk lithostratigraphic studies of four borehole cores drilled through the late paleocene lambeth group upnor woolwich and reading formations and basal london clay formation of central london have been supplemented with palaeomagnetic calcareous nannoplankton and palynological data the woolwich and reading formations and the lower london clay formation are reversely magnetized and were deposited during the early part of chron c24r the first record of both np9 and chron c25n hitherto missing from the paleogene record in southern england has been identified in the upnor formation formerly the woolwich bottom bed it provides a key reference marker for linking events associated with the paleocene eocene boundary positioned within chron c24r to the type area of the internationally recognized thanetian and ypresian stages work carried out to establish the chronostratigraphy of the paleogene in southern england fig 1 has been concerned principally with the late paleocene thanet sand formation and the early eocene london clay formation e g aubry et al 1986 ali et al 1993 knox et al 1994 the thanet sand formation lies within calcareous nannoplankton zones np6 np8 and magnetochrons c26r to c25r magnetochron nomenclature from cande kent 1992 the base of division b of the london clay formation sensu king 1981 coincides with the start of chron c24n 3n the intervening lambeth group upnor woolwich and reading formations harwich formation ellison et al 1994 and lower part of the london clay formation are allocated to chron c24r aubry et al 1986 indicated that an hiatus in excess of 0 6 million years marked by the absence of chron c25n separates the thanet sand formation from the lambeth group in recent years the drilling of fully cored boreholes fig 2 through the lambeth group in central london has provided a unique opportunity for multidisciplinary study one borehole in particular jubilee 404t bgs registration number tq 37 nw 2118 national grid reference tq 3363 7960 has become a key reference section for the lambeth group in central london ellison et al 1994 the main reasons for its importance are firstly the wide variety of lambeth group facies including marine sands brackish lagoonal muds and pedogenic horizons and secondly the presence 55

thrust tectonics and the role of evaporites in the ionian zone of the albanides this study focuses on the alpine fold and thrust belt in the ionian basin of albania where there are giant onshore oil fields the evaporites have acted as a detachment layer but also have been cut by thrusts that carry evaporites to the surface in their hanging walls where the detachment is located at the top of the evaporites they are dragged up in the footwall along thrusts and faults develop at the base and the top of the evaporite simple shear deformation along the thrusts causes greater than 80 thinning of the evaporite so that sheets of only 40 200 m thickness are preserved whereas the original evaporite thickness probably was well in excess of 2000 m where ramps cut through the evaporite and cause repetition of the complete evaporite layer the salt is remobilized into salt filled compressional anticlines or escapes at the surface to produce smeared out surface extrusions the most spectacular example of this is the dumrea structure where the evaporites have developed into a complex shape from an overthrusted allochthonous sheet that has been extruded at the surface the dumrea structure is up to 5 6 km thick proved by drilling and has been displaced laterally by up to 25 km and it has the effective geometry of a giant sheath fold

geodetic source modeling of the 2019 mw 6 3 durres albania earthquake partial rupture of a blind reverse fault author s govorcin m wdowinski s matos b funning gj abstract 2020 american geophysical union all rights reserved we address geometric and kinematic properties of the mw 6 3 26 november 2019 durres earthquake the strongest earthquake in albania in the past 40 years using coseismic surface displacements from sentinel 1 differential interferometric synthetic aperture radar dinsar and nearby global navigational satellite system gnss stations we invert for the geometry and slip of the causative fault we find that both a steep sw dipping fault dip 71 and a shallow ne dipping fault dip 15 can fit the data equally well however the slip on the sw dipping fault occurs at depths 11 23 km similar to the depths of the mainshock and aftershock seismicity and thus we prefer that model the location of our preferred fault plane correlates with the mapped sw dipping backthrust the vore fault the fault rupture did not reach the surface which implies that an updip stress propagation onto the unruptured shallow portion of the vore fault and its secondary structures pose an increased seismic hazard for cities in albania including the capital tirana

first palaeogene sedimentary rock palaeomagnetic pole from stable western eurasia and tectonic implications a palaeomagnetic investigation of lower eocene ca 52 ma london clay formation cemented mudstones from sheppey se england has yielded a mean direction of dec 1 1 inc 43 2 where n 9 a95 6 8 and k 58 5 this apparently high quality direction q factor 5 has an associated palaeopole of 178 6 e 63 7 n where a 9 5 6 8 the data represent the first pole from post jurassic stable eurasia rocks outside of the european north atlantic igneous province naip of which most results have been obtained from nw britain and the faroe islands the data can in part be used to constrain the position of palaeogene eurasia in particular the zero offset declination implying negligible rotation of western eurasia since the early cenozoic this is in contrast with data derived from the european naip which imply small to moderate clockwise rotations for this part of the plate the inclination angle may provide less useful information as it appears to be anomalously shallow when compared with that associated with the naip derived poles in an attempt to understand the shallowing we re examined data from palaeocene eocene sediments recovered in several boreholes bathyal sediments in dsdp hole 550 four cores through fluvio delatic to middle shelf sequences in the london area and one borehole sequence from east anglia in all cases the sediments show systematic inclination shallowing similar in magnitude to that reported from sheppey tectonic and geomagnetic explanations can be discounted sediment compaction appears to be the likely cause in light of the current controversy surrounding the stable asia shallow inclination problem the result reinforces the suggestion that tectonic modelling needs to he done carefully when the supporting data are based exclusively on palaeomagnetic studies of sedimentary rocks

construction of a seismotectonic model the case of italy procedures for constructing a seismotectonic model of italy designed to be used as a basis for hazard assessment are described the seismotectonic analysis has essentially been based on a gis aided cross correlation of three data sets concerning the 3 d structural model of italy and surrounding areas the space distribution of historical and present seismicity the kinematic model of the central mediterranean region referred to the last 6 ma and including the available information on the present day plate motion and stress field the seismicity pattern in the study area is controlled by a quite complex geodynamic framework which includes continent continent convergence alps and dinarides with development of a neutral arc bordering the plate margins plate divergence across margins characterized by passive slab sinking northern apennines and calabrian arc with development of backarc basins northern tyrrhenian sea and southern tyrrhenian sea flanked by forelandward migrating thrust belt foredeep systems plate divergence across a margin previously characterized by lithosphere sinking and afterwards discharged from the subducted slab southern apennines with development of quite peculiar rift processes within the inactive thrust belt transpression northern sicily due to the combined effect of plate convergence africa europe and high rate flexure hinge retreat of an intervening plate adria microplate with high angles between the respective slip vectors intraplate strain partition and fault activity mainly combined strike slip and thrust motions possibly in correspondence of inverted structures the results of the seismotectonic analysis are synthesized in a zonation of italy in which every delimited zone corresponds to the surface projection of a kinematically homogeneous segment of a seismogenic fault system in cornell type hazard evaluations every polygon should be considered as a homogeneous source zone seat of randomly distributed earthquakes a homogeneous mechanical behaviour of an entire zone and a random earthquake distribution within a single source zone obviously represent oversimplified assumptions since every zone includes one or more master fault segments responsible for the greatest events in the area and several second order associated faults responsible for the background minor seismicity therefore major faults and background seismicity should be treated separately nevertheless the oversimplified assumption of homogeneous seismic zones was the price the authors consciously paid to produce in a reasonably short time a homogeneous product relative to the entire national territory suitable for earthquake hazard evaluation and for decisions regarding risk mitigatiton

fossil plants record an atmospheric 12co2 and temperature spike across the palaeocene eocene transition in nw europe the large negative excursion of carbon isotope composition 13 c recorded from foraminifera and bulk carbonates indicates a major anomaly in the operation of the global carbon cycle across the palaeocene eocene boundary therefore we sought terrestrial evidence for the transfer of isotopically light carbon 12 co 2 from the ocean to the atmosphere by making systematic 13 c measurements or well dated sequences of fossil pollen from nw europe the results indicate an atmospheric 12 co 2 spike of c 2 between 58 and 55 ma coincident with the ocean isotopic anomalies pollen spectra from these sequences suggest a marked shift in dominance from mixed mesophytic to paratropical forests synchronous with the terrestrial isotope excursion

seismic zonation in albania using a deterministic approach abstract the modal summation method to compute synthetic seismograms is applied to carry out a study of seismic zonation in albania from a seismotectonic synthesis and the available earthquake data eight seismogenic zones are defined and for each of them a characteristic focal mechanism is selected a new seismic velocity model is used in the computations and is constructed on the basis of previous studies correlation relations between the maximum intensity values observed and the ground motion parameters obtained from this procedure are derived the distribution of the calculated values of displacement velocity and acceleration will contribute to the quality of anti seismic design practice in albania and to the mitigation of earthquake consequences

a new geomagnetic polarity time scale for the late cretaceous and cenozoic we have constructed a magnetic polarity time scale for the late cretaceous and cenozoic based on an analysis of marine magnetic profiles from the world s ocean basins this is the first time since heirtzler et al 1968 published their time scale that the relative widths of the magnetic polarity intervals for the entire late cretaceous and cenozoic have been systematically determined from magnetic profiles a composite geomagnetic polarity sequence was derived based primarily on data from the south atlantic anomaly spacings in the south atlantic were constrained by a combination of finite rotation poles and averages of stacked profiles fine scale information was derived from magnetic profiles on faster spreading ridges in the pacific and indian oceans and inserted into the south ariantic sequence based on the assumption that spreading rates in the south atlantic were smoothly varying but not necessarily constant a time scale was generated by using a spline function to fit a set of nine age calibration points

ongoing shortening in the dinarides fold and thrust belt a new structural model of the 1979 mw 7 1 montenegro earthquake epicentral region abstract this study focuses on structure and kinematics of the 1979 mw 7 1 montenegro earthquake although this event represents the strongest instrumentally recorded event in the entire dinarides hellenides fold and thrust belt no tectonic model relating this event to any particular fault existed so far we combined onshore geological information with well logs seismic lines bathymetric data seismotectonic and seismological data as well as cross section balancing techniques into a new structural model for the area our results suggest that main shock and strongest aftershock mw 6 2 occurred on the ne dipping basal thrust of a largely palaeogene age nappe system involving cretaceous neritic carbonates ongoing propagation of this thrust system is documented by the existence of elongated ridges located 15 km offshore reflection seismic and bathymetry data reveal that the ridges form crests of actively growing fault related anticlines slip distribution models of the strongest events imply that the basal thrust below the ridges accommodated up to 2 7 m of coseismic displacement ongoing shortening along the basal thrust also induced surface uplift of structurally higher thrust imbricates evidenced by dry valleys incising onshore anticline crests combining all evidence we speculate that the observed structural and geomorphic features resulted from repeated seismogenic faulting events as in 1979

seismic faults in the aegean area abstract reliable fault plane solutions of shallow earthquakes and information on surface fault traces in combination with other seismic geomorphological and geological information have been used to determine the orientation and other properties of the seismic faults in the aegean and surrounding area thrust faults having an about nw se strike occur in the outer seismic zone along western albania westernmost part of mainland of greece ionian sea south of crete south of rhodes the inner part of the area is dominated by strike slip and normal faulting strike slip with an about ne sw slip direction occurs in the inner part of the hellenic arc along the line peloponnesus cyclades dodecanese southwest turkey as well as along a zone which is associated with the northern aegean trough and the northwesternmost part of anatolia all other regions in the inner part of the area are characterized by normal faulting the slip direction of the normal faults has an about sw ne direction in crete n38 e and an about e w direction n81 e in a zone which trends n s in eastern albania and its extension to western mainland of greece in all other regions central greece southern yugoslavia and bulgaria western turkey the slip of the normal faults has an about n s direction

recent tectonic stress and crustal deformation in and around the pannonian basin data and models this paper is part of the special publication no 156 the mediterranean basins tertiary extension within the alpine orogen eds b durand l jolivet f horvath and m seranne recent active tectonics of the pannonian basin and its surrounding has been investigated using data from over 900 earthquake focal mechanism solutions 200 borehole breakout analyses some in situ stress measurements and by applying finite element modelling technique we have established a database for indicators of recent stress and analysed the stress state of the region by the methods of the world stress map project the alignments of the largest horizontal stresses have been mapped and the tectonic regimes were also determined we present a map of seismoactive faults and seismic energy release combining historical and modern seismicity data and results of local seismotectonic studies the pattern of earthquake slip vectors and the style of faulting are summarised in order to characterise the active deformations our results show that the alignment of the largest horizontal stress exhibits a radial pattern around the adriatic sea in the southern alps and northwestern dinarides the largest horizontal stress sh is aligned n s and thrust faulting is dominant along the southern dinarides and the dalmatian coast thrusting with strike slip component can be observed here the trajectories of sh are aligned ne sw e w aligned sh trajectories and normal faulting are characteristic of the rhodope massif thrust faulting of the vrancea region seems to be distinct from the compressive regime around the adriatic sea in the pannonian basin borehole breakout analyses show that the direction of largest horizontal stress is changing from n s in the western part to ne sw in the east most of focal mechanisms and available hydraulic fracturing measurements indicate strike slip and thrust faulting inside the basin the lack of normal faulting mechanisms indicates that the extension of the basin has been terminated and a new compressive stress regime prevails the crustal deformation of the area is controlled by the counterclockwise rotation of adria with respect to europe around a pole at the 45 n latitude and 6 10 e longitudes which is inferred from satellite geodesy and supported by earthquake slip vectors this movement can explain the shortening of the southern alps and squeezing eastward the region between the adriatic sea and the mur murz line rotation of adria generates thrusts along the dalmatian coast and this compressive deformation extends into the land far from the coastline and leads to squeezing of the pannonian basin from the southwest the seismicity pattern in the pannonian basin shows that earthquakes are restricted to the crust and the control by pre existing mostly miocene fault zones is strongly masked by random activity due to general weakness of the lithosphere although earthquakes are of small to medium magnitude m 6 the cummulative energy release is remarkably higher than in the surrounding carpathian arc the vrancea zone is the only exception where high energy release in the crust and down to 200 km depth is associated with a relict subducted slab finite element stress modelling has been performed in order to simulate the observed stress pattern and hence to understand the importance of different possible stress sources in and around the pannonian basin the observed radial stress pattern of the region can be well explained by the counterclockwise rotation of the adriatic microplate as a first order stress source additional boundary conditions such as the active deformation at the vranceas zone and the role of rigid crustal blocks at the bohemian massif and the moesian platform can significantly effect the style of deformation and the alignment of the largest horizontal stress furthermore our calculations show that differences in the crustal thickness and the presence of large scale fault zones in the pannonian region have only local influence on the model results

the italian cmt dataset from 1977 to the present abstract the ingv harvard european mediterranean regional centroid moment tensor rcmt catalog collects solutions routinely computed since 1997 for earthquakes with moderate magnitude 4 5 m 5 5 in the mediterranean region the database represents an extension to smaller magnitudes of the harvard global cmt catalog based on analysis of seismograms recorded at regional distance and modeling of intermediate period surface waves the catalog includes about 600 events 200 of which in the italian region this study extends the catalog back in time for the italian region as long as made possible by available digital data i e since 1977 with the same analysis and inversion method used for current seismicity as a result we present here 65 new moment tensors for years between 1977 and 1997 these solutions represent 45 of the total number of events analyzed the existing seismograms being often too scarce to allow a stable solution the new dataset includes events in many seismic zones where moderate seismicity had previously been scarcely documented e g the po plain the central to southern apennines and the adriatic sea the complete dataset including previously determined rcmts and cmts represents the seismic deformation in the italian area during the last 25 years

magnetostratigraphic correlation of palaeogene sediments in the hampshire and london basins southern uk magnetostratigraphic studies of the late palaeocene and early to middle eocene formations in the hampshire and london basins indicate that the geomagnetic field maintained a predominantly reverse polarity throughout the period of deposition of these sediments eight discrete normal polarity magnetozones have been identified within this dominantly reverse polarity interval three of these lie within the bracklesham group three within the london clay formation one in the oldhaven 9formation9 and one within the lowermost part of the thanet formation assuming that the magnetozone boundaries represent absolute time planes except where they correspond with stratigraphic hiatuses they may be used to provide a time framework for chrono stratigraphic correlation between sections and for investigating the dynamics of early palaeogene sedimentation patterns in this region the results indicate that the majority of the marine transgressive and regressive events which form the basis of king9s 1981 subdivisions of the london clay occurred very rapidly and may be regarded as being effectively 9instantaneous9 in marked contrast the boundaries between the sedimentary cycles of the bracklesham group represented by the wittering earnley selsey and huntingbridge divisions are significantly diachronous in relation to the absolute time planes provided by the magnetozone boundaries it is clear that the bracklesham group transgressive events occurred systematically earlier in the east than in the west as might be expected for westward directed transgressions certain biostratigraphic zonal boundaries within the bracklesham group appear also to have been influenced by the changing environmental conditions which accompanied these transgressive regressive cycles

twenty years seismic monitoring of induced seismicity in northern albania the northern part of albania has been the focus of an intense effort by the seismological institute of albania for in this area two of the country s biggest reservoirs are located three years before the impounding of the fierza reservoir a four station network was installed around it the possibility of induced seismicity continued after the impoundment of the fierza reservoir in 1978 and the komani reservoir in 1985 the seismicity of the zone and some aspects of induced seismicity including temporal correlation of seismicity with water level changes spatial patterns in seismicity frequency magnitude relations fault plane solutions etc are studied during this period the presence in this zone of a very important transverse fault the shkoder peja fault makes the study of induced seismicity from fierza and komani reservoirs even more significant the studies have shown that the impounding of the fierza and komani reservoirs has modified the natural course of microearthquake energy release increasing the number of swarms in this area

episodic fire runoff and deposition at the palaeocene eocene boundary qualitative and quantitative coal petrological analyses have been undertaken on the laminated lignite at the base of the cobham lignite bed from scalers hill kent england the maximum negative carbon isotope excursion which marks the beginning of the palaeocene eocene thermal maximum petm occurs near the top of the laminated lignite the lignite contains inertinite a petrographic term used to describe charcoal the laminated lignite has inertinite rich and inertinite poor layers indicative of episodic fires and post fire erosion charcoal clasts are derived from living or recently senesced plants and are dominated by the leaf stalks of herbaceous ferns and wood fragments from flowering plants the charcoal assemblage reflects a low diversity flora possibly adapted to disturbance by fire derived from a source vegetation subjected to seasonal surface wildfires the environmental conditions leading up to and across the onset of the petm are therefore interpreted as incorporating a persistent fire regime with episodic wildfires followed by rainfall and runoff events abundant charcoal indicates near modern oxygen levels whereas the absence of charred peat in this area calls into question previous suggestions that burning of palaeocene peats might have contributed to the short lived negative carbon isotope excursion at the palaeocene eocene boundary

the potential of lake ohrid for long term palaeoenvironmental reconstructions abstract lake ohrid at the macedonian albanian border was likely tectonically formed during the tertiary and therefore is one of the oldest lakes in europe however only a few studies exist concerning the potential of lake ohrid sediments for long term palaeoenvironmental reconstructions within the scope of future potential deep drilling campaigns therefore as a first step a transect of short surface sediment cores was investigated for chronology physical properties grain size and biogeochemistry the results were compared with information derived from a shallow hydro acoustic seismic survey the investigations indicate a rather uniform and bioturbated sedimentation in the central part of the lake basin with mean sedimentation rates of ca 0 5 1 mm year the sediment composition is dominated by authigenetic carbonates diatom frustules or fragments form the major part of biogenic matter deposits as indicated by the relatively high contents of biogenic opal and low contents of total organic carbon and total nitrogen the shallow hydro acoustic seismic survey indicates that horizons of sediment redeposition occur sporadically towards the shore of the lake the sedimentation rate increases and sedimentation is increasingly influenced by local inflows or mass movement processes triggered by tectonic activities thus lake ohrid has a high potential for palaeoenvironmental reconstructions on a multi decadal scale and provides additional information concerning tectonic activity in the region

p s wave velocity model of the crust and upper most mantle of albania region abstract this paper describes the one dimensional 1d velocity model computed by velest in the seisan seismic analysis system inverting re picked p wave and s wave arrival times recorded during 2002 2006 by the albanian montenegro thessalonica and macedonia seismic networks the re picked data yield p wave and s wave velocities proved to be more suitable compared to bulletin data for this detailed inversion study seismic phases recorded by the albania seismic network and integrated with data from the montenegro thessalonica and macedonia networks are used to prepare the albanian seismic bulletin earthquake hypocenters from the albanian bulletins have also location errors that are negligible for civil protection purposes large scale seismotectonic analyses and more accurate hypocentral determinations which are necessary for detailed seismotectonic and geodynamic studies it was noted that the smoothness of the velocity variation increased with depth a velocity of 5 5 km s was calculated for the upper crust 6 1 km s was calculated for the middle crust and 6 9 km s was computed for the lower crust p wave velocity was 7 85 km s at depth of 50 km and for the upper mantle it is 8 28 km s using the improved velocity model the earthquakes which occurred in albania in the past 5 years were able to be relocated achieving constrained hypocentral determinations for events in albania the interpretation of the 1 d velocity models infers interesting features of the deep structure of albania these results represent an important step towards more detailed seismotectonic analyses

focal mechanism solutions for albanian earthquakes for the years 1964 1988 abstract focal mechanism solutions for 175 albanian earthquakes of albania for the years 1964 1988 were obtained by using an interactive computer technique the results obtained are elaborated upon by applying fisherian statistical analysis to obtain parameters for the mean stress direction in five zones to explain the results a wedging model in the interaction zone between the adria microplate and albanian orogen is suggested

lower palaeogene stratigraphy of the northern north sea abstract the lower palaeogene stratigraphy of the northern north sea is described using wireline log and biostratigraphic data at group and formation level a close similarity can be shown with the stratigraphy defined in the outer moray firth area of the central north sea a two fold subdivision into the montrose and moray groups is recognized the montrose group consists of the maureen and lista formations while the succeeding moray group contains the sele balder dornoch and beauly formations the maureen and lista formations are dominantly argillaceous units that contain poorly defined sandstones the most laterally extensive of these is the heimdal member developed within the lista formation the dornoch and beauly formations are shelfal sandstone units that pass eastwards and northwards into the age equivalent dominantly argillaceous sele and balder formations the sele formation contains the hermod member while the balder formation contains the odin member these are massively developed sandstone units of very limited extent the lower palaeogene succession contains a number of high gamma log markers that are often associated with influxes of microfossils and microflora these are interpreted as condensed claystone horizons representing pauses in marine sedimentation during episodes of maximum transgression they can be correlated with similar marker horizons described from the outer moray firth area giving further confidence that the stratigraphy forms a regional framework that can be applied over the whole north sea area

magnetic and calcareous nannofossil stratigraphy of the lower palaeogene formations of the hampshire and london basins a magnetostratigraphic study of the lower palaeogene formations exposed in the hampshire and london basins southern uk has led to the identification of eight stratigraphically distinct normal polarity magnetozones within an otherwise reverse polarity sedimentary sequence which spans the late palaeocene to middle eocene a complementary study of the calcareous nannofossil biostratigraphy of these sections and related sections elsewhere in nw europe allows a correlation of this succession of normal polarity magnetozones with the biostratigraphically calibrated geomagnetic polarity timescale based on marine magnetic anomalies it is concluded that the normal polarity chrons corresponding to anomalies 20 21 and 23 are recorded within the huntingbridge earnley and wittering divisions of the bracklesham group respectively that anomalies 24a and 24b are represented within divisions d to b2 of the london clay and anomaly 26 is represented in the lower part of the thanet beds an additional normal polarity magnetozone within the oldhaven beds is believed to represent a short normal polarity event between anomalies 24b and 25 anomalies 22 and 25 appear not to be represented in the uk lower palaeogene succession because of major unconformities at the early middle eocene boundary within the wittering division of the bracklesham group and within the late palaeocene respectively the former appears to correlate with a widespread erosional event in the oceans identified from seismic records vail et al 1979 and interpreted as reflecting a major eustatic sea level fall

shoreline reconstruction since the middle holocene in the vicinity of the ancient city of apollonia albania seman and vjosa deltas abstract a geomorphological map was constructed based on satellite imagery of the recent geomorphological evolution of the delta of the seman and the vjosa rivers albania results of the analysis of data collected from unpublished geological profiles carried out by russian and albanian geologists indicate that concentrations of heavy minerals are clearly correlated with palaeo shorelines particularly in six boreholes drilled in the vicinity of the ancient city of apollonia 7th century bc 7th century ad study was mainly based on sedimentological pollen and diatom analysis about twenty samples of wood or peat debris have been 14c dated ams all between 3050 50 bp and 340 50 bp based on this evidence a new palaeogeographic reconstruction of the shoreline over the last 3500 years is proposed two thirds of the deltaic progradation occurred over the last 500 years as a hypothesis climatic fluctuations such as the little ice age and socioeconomic fluctuations could play a major role in the acceleration of the process in spite of an important neotectonic subsidence effect

classification of seismic strain estimates in the mediterranean region from a bootstrap approach summary the uncertainty that may affect seismic strain estimates in the mediterranean is investigated using a distribution free numerical approach based on the bootstrap resampling technique applied to more than 2000 seismic source mechanisms of shallow earthquakes that occurred from the azores to iran in the period 1905 1999 this analysis shows that the short time interval covered by the available data set may be the main source of uncertainty on long term strain estimates since it could imply a biased representation of contributions from large earthquakes our results also indicate that as a possible consequence of this bias the condition of strain field uniformity is poorly verified in most of the zones considered the confidence limits obtained for scalar strains and directions of principal strain axes indicate that both the amount and the style of seismic deformation are poorly defined for roughly half of the zones considered mostly located in the western and central mediterranean area these results suggest that one should be cautious in using seismic strain estimates when not accompanied by satisfactorily uncertainty evaluation

thermochronological evidence for mio pliocene late orogenic extension in the north eastern albanides albania new apatite and zircon u th he and apatite fission track ft data allow constraining the timing of miocene pliocene extensional exhumation that affected the central part of the dinarides albanides hellenides orogen apatite u th he ages in the northern and western internal albanides range from 57 to 17 ma contrasting to younger ages of 5 2 9 3 ma in the eastern internal albanides eastward younging is also reflected in zircon u th he ages varying from 101 ma in the north western internal albanides to 19 50 ma in the east as well as in recently published apatite ft ages thermal history predictions with the new data point to a phase of rapid exhumation of the eastern internal albanides around 6 4 ma while the western internal albanides record slower continuous exhumation since the eocene this asymmetric exhumation pattern is most likely linked to extensional reactivation of ne sw trending thrusts east of the mirdita zone and within the korabi zone of the eastern internal albanides

neogene to quaternary sedimentary basins in the south adriatic central mediterranean foredeeps and lithospheric buckling up to several kilometers deep sedimentary basins of neogene to quaternary age are found in the south adriatic between the apennines and the dinarides albanides they are the apennines foredeep the central adriatic basin and the south adriatic basin two regional seismic lines 260 and 170 km long across the entire system provide hitherto unavailable constraints on the kinematics and dynamics of basin development the apennine foredeep imaged along the lines formed in middle to late pliocene times through a rapid westward tilting of the basin floor a paleobathymetry of few kilometers was created in which allochthonous bodies were emplaced and sediments deposited unaffected by deformation and farther rotations the central and south adriatic basins formed in neogene to quaternary times and are both characterized by strong subsidence in their central parts gradually diminishing toward the edges in the sw and ne depocenters did not shift laterally through time subsidence rates increase through time and subsidence continued also following the end of main shortening episodes in the dinarides albanides the central and south adriatic basins form two crustal scale synclines with subsidence concentrated in their central parts basins geometries and subsidence patterns indicate that the adriatic crust has undergone episodes of buckling since miocene times wavelengths and amplitudes of such folds change along strike corresponding to mechanical changes of the folded medium

structural trends in central britain from images of gravity and aeromagnetic fields digital image processing techniques have been used to analyse the regional gravity and aeromagnetic datasets in central britain colour and shaded relief images have been generated which convey information on both anomaly amplitude as colour and anomaly gradient as relief and highlight structural trends lineaments and textural contrasts not easily discernible on standard contour maps we have identified some of the more important features and have tried to relate these to the evolution of the crust in each region on a broad scale the images emphasize caledonoid ene trends to the north of the solway line and both tornquist se and caledonoid ne to ene trends to the south the pattern of magnetic anomalies over central england seems to define the extent of the shallow late precambrian early palaeozoic basement of the midlands microcraton and delineates crustal elements and characteristic trends within it magnetic lineaments and the grain of gravity anomalies trending in northeasterly and northwesterly directions on either side of the microcraton seem to relate to structures which originated during the evolution of the welsh and eastern english caledonides respectively where lower palaeozoic and precambrian rocks form the concealed basement as in most of england the gravity lineaments tend to reflect the influence of basement fractures on the subsequent pattern of sedimentation whereas many of the features on the magnetic images are more directly related to structures within the basement itself