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

intensity versus ground motion a new approach using italian data abstract the correlations between macroseismic intensity and peak ground acceleration and between macroseismic intensity and arias intensity are compared the data base consists of 56 records 168 time histories related to ns ew and z components derived from nine italian earthquakes that occurred between 1980 and 1990 the intensity data have been determined using two approaches 1 the standard approach which is a general description of the effects on a certain village town general intensity and 2 a localized approach based on a description of effects in the immediate vicinity and in the same lithological morphological and hydrogeological conditions as the recording instrument itself local intensity this second approach to determining intensity could more closely approximate the ground motion parameters obtained from the accelerograms indeed the results of the regressions that were performed show a clear improvement in the correlation when using the local instead of the general intensity in a comparison with peak ground acceleration arias intensity

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

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

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

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

observational constraints on earthquake source scaling understanding the limits in resolution abstract i examine the resolution of the type of stress drop estimates that have been used to place observational constraints on the scaling of earthquake source processes i first show that apparent stress and brune stress drop are equivalent to within a constant given any source spectral decay between 1 5 and 3 i e any plausible value and so consistent scaling is expected for the two estimates i then discuss the resolution and scaling of brune stress drop estimates in the context of empirical green s function results from recent earthquake sequences including the 1992 joshua tree california mainshock and its aftershocks i show that no definitive scaling of stress drop with moment is revealed over the moment range 1019 1025 within this sequence however there is a tendency for moderate sized m 4 5 events to be characterized by high stress drops however well resolved results for recent m 6 events are inconsistent with any extrapolated stress increase with moment for the aftershocks focusing on corner frequency estimates for smaller m

apparent break in earthquake scaling due to path and site effects on deep borehole recordings 1 we reexamine the scaling of stress drop and apparent stress rigidity times the ratio between seismically radiated energy to seismic moment with earthquake size for a set of microearthquakes recorded in a deep borehole in long valley california in the first set of calculations we assume a constant q and solve for the corner frequency and seismic moment in the second set of calculations we model the spectral ratio of nearby events to determine the same quantities we find that the spectral ratio technique which can account for path and site effects or nonconstant q yields higher stress drops particularly for the smaller events in the data set the measurements determined from spectral ratios indicate no departure from constant stress drop scaling down to the smallest events in our data set mw 0 8 our results indicate that propagation effects can contaminate measurements of source parameters even in the relatively clean recording environment of a deep borehole just as they do at the earth s surface the scaling of source properties of microearthquakes made from deep borehole recordings may need to be reevaluated

source parameters of the 1980 mammoth lakes california earthquake sequence from the more than 1500 mammoth lakes earthquakes recorded on three component digital seismographs spudich et al 1981 150 were used in an analysis of the locations mechanism and source parameters a composite fault plane solution of nine earthquakes 3 9 m 5 1 defines a right lateral strike slip mechanism on a steeply dipping nearly east west plane striking s75 e or left lateral strike slip on a nearly north south plane striking n10 e vertical cross sections of well located aftershocks indicate possibly three east west planes that coincide with the locations of the four largest earthquakes with ml 6 0 using the spectral analysis of s waves brune 1970 source parameters for 67 earthquakes were determined forty eight had magnitudes greater than or equal to 3 0 seismic moments ranged from 9 20 1018 dyn cm to 2 33 1024 dyn cm earthquakes with seismic moment greater than about 1 0 1021 dyn cm had nearly constant stress drops 50 bars earthquakes with seismic moment less than about 1 0 1021 dyn cm had stress drops that apparently decrease as seismic moment decreases

effect of local geology on ground motion in the city of palermo italy as inferred from aftershocks of the 6 september 2002 mw 5 9 earthquake on 6 september 2002 a m w 5 9 earthquake occurred in the southern tyrrhenian sea 40 km off the coast of palermo italy in the days after the mainshock eight temporary stations were installed in the city to record aftershocks on different geological formations seismograms of about 30 earthquakes with magnitude 2 8 are analyzed the data analysis confirms the role of near surface geology in causing locally significant variations of the ground shaking level as already inferred by guidoboni et al 2003 from historical damage scenario studies the largest spectral variations estimated through aftershock recordings result in a factor of 10 difference between stiff and soft sites in frequency bands varying from 1 to 3 5 hz the geological structure of the study area is reconstructed by using data from more than 2000 boreholes organized in a geographic information system specifically dedicated to the assessment of natural hazards in urban areas vertically varying velocity models are used for a comparison with the observed data in general 1d transfer functions fit the largest amplification frequency but underestimate amplitudes of observations probably because of 2d and 3d complexity because the seismic stations were not installed in free field but at ground or underground level inside buildings a possible influence of the structure was also investigated simultaneous ambient noise measurements were performed on the top at the base and outside the buildings where stations were installed for all but one site this analysis shows that the estimated ground motion amplifications do not reflect the building vibration modes and therefore in these cases soil structure interaction does not bias the free field response of the study sites finally speculations on the effect of the local geology in terms of response spectra of the m w 5 9 mainshock are discussed in the framework of the eurocode 8 prescriptions

source parameters of small earthquakes recorded at 2 5 km depth cajon pass southern california implications for earthquake scaling a 2 5 km deep triaxial seismometer at cajon pass in southern california has recorded several hundred earthquakes ml4 0 occurring within the san andreas fault system at 2 5 km seismic background noise is below amplifier sensitivity and the 2 250 hz spectral range of recorded seismic motion is wider and higher than that of most natural event catalogs compared with downhole recorded motion seismic amplitudes at the surface are amplified below 10 hz and severely attenuated above 30 hz we estimate that qs is at least 1000 for wave motion at 2 5 km and below and qp is over 2000 the range of source dimensions in the downhole recorded catalog is 10 m to 70 m ml 2 0 mo 108 nm to ml 2 7 mo 1013 nm the plot of log source radius vs log moment has a straight line trend compatible with earthquake scaling at constant stress drop inferred stress drops are scattered between 1 and 500 bars there is no evidence in the catalog for the proposed minimum source dimension at 100 m when the cajon pass borehole catalog containing some of the smallest recorded natural earthquakes is combined with 800 larger events from previous studies the moment radius trend suggests that natural earthquakes are self similar over a magnitude range m 2 to 8 we suggest that inferences of minimum source dimension are more likely due to bias in bandlimited individual catalogs than to properties of the seismic crust

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

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

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

assessment of ground motion in palermo italy during the 6 september 2002 mw 5 9 earthquake using source scaling law in calderoni et al 2005 a section of text that was present in the original manuscript was inadvertently deleted during composition the section entitled random summation of aftershocks rnds is printed correctly below rnds joyner and boore 1986 generates synthetic seismograms of the target earthquake at

seismic source parameters for microearthquakes of the granada basin southern spain abstract ninety five microearthquakes of the granada basin southern spain with duration magnitudes ranging from 1 3 to 3 5 moment magnitude from 0 9 to 2 5 have been spectrally analyzed with digital recordings from ten stations of the andalusian seismic network the coda q quality factor qc assumed to be frequency dependent was used instead of q for the path correction and the q adopted was equal to 9 4 qc the k parameter for site attenuation correction had values in the range of 0 02 0 05 fourier displacement spectra were calculated for p and s waves and analyzed with respect to the source model of brune 1970 1971 spectral parameters were automatically determined by the method of snoke 1987 the seismic moment ranged from 1017 to 1020 dyne cm with average m0 p to m0 s ratio of 1 02 and the source radii spanned from 0 14 to 0 40 km with average r p to r s ratio of 1 3 the seismic energy values ranged from 1 103 to 9 107 j with p to s energy ratio from 1 to 10 for about 85 of the events whereas the static stress drop varied from 0 02 to 2 6 bar the scaling relation between the seismic moment and the stress drop indicates a decrease in stress drop with decreasing seismic moment apparent stress is linearly correlated with stress drop and have on average similar values and this points out to a partial stress drop

a summary of attenuation measurements from borehole recordings of earthquakes the 10 hz transition problem earthquake seismograms recorded by instruments in deep boreholes have low levels of background noise and wide signal bandwidth they have been used to extend our knowledge of crustal attenuation both in the near surface and at seismogenic depths site effects are of major importance to seismic hazard estimation and the comparison of surface shallow and deep recordings allows direct determination of the attenuation in the near surface all studies to date have found that q is very low in the near surface 10 in the upper 100 m and increases rapidly with depth unlike site amplification attenuation at shallow depths exhibits little dependence on rock type these observations are consistent with the opening of fractures under decreasing lithostatic pressure being the principal cause of the severe near surface attenuation seismograms recorded in deep boreholes are relatively unaffected by near surface effects and thus can be used to measure crustal attenuation to higher frequencies 100 hz than surface recordings studies using both direct and coda waves recorded at over 2 km depth find q to be high 1000 at seismogenic depths in california increasing only weakly with frequency between 10 and 100 hz intrinsic attenuation appears to be the dominant mechanism these observations contrast with those of the rapidly increasing q with frequency determined from surface studies in the frequency range 1 to 10 hz further work is necessary to constrain the factors responsible for this apparent change in the frequency dependence of q but it is clearly unwise to extrapolate q estimates made below about 10 hz to higher frequencies

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

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