NEOGENE PATTERNS OF RELATIVE PLATE MOTION FOR AFRICA-EUROPE - SOME IMPLICATIONS FOR RECENT CENTRAL MEDITERRANEAN TECTONICS

A detailed relative motion picture for the Neogene Africa - Europe pla te kinematics is presented. The kinematic reconstruction was carried o ut using the finite difference solution between the rotation parameter s determined for Anomalies 7 to 2 in the Africa - North America - Euro pe plate motion circuit. The analysis shows a motion of Africa with re spect to Europe which is NNE directed during Late Oligocene to Burdiga lian times, becoming NNW trending from the Langhian to the early Torto nian; from upper Tortonian times onward, the motion changes to a clear north-west directed convergence. Major Late Neogene tectonic features of the central Mediterranean region can, to a large extent, be explai ned within the context of the reconstructed major plate motions. Late Tortonian to Recent Africa - Europe slip vectors are compatible with a variety of geological phenomenoa such as north-west directed subducti on beneath Calabria, south-east translation of Calabria and extension in the Tyrrhenian Sea, north-west trending slip vectors from thrust ea rthquakes between Gibraltar and Sicily, and dextral strike-slip across the North African margin.