Palaeomagnetism in Greece: Cenozoic and Mesozoic components and their geodynamic implications

An important number of palaeomagnetic data have been obtained in Greece dur ing the last 20 years. These data can be schematically divided into two gro ups according to their age. When plate movements are fairly well constraine d, the Cenozoic provides a dense network of palaeomagnetic directions. The general pattern displays eastward declinations broadly distributed over a l arge distance - from the Ionian islands to the western Greek Rhodope - and westward declinations, less accurately constrained in space and time, in th e Southern and Eastern Aegean and in Western Anatolia. Emphasis is given to the evaluation of this dataset by comparing it with new concepts of the re gional tectonics. In the Mesozoic-Palaeozoic, more scarcely covered, reliab le information is provided about latitudinal movements, resulting in a sugg ested palaeolatitude of 15-20 degreesN for almost all studied areas. A mode l proposing prevailing counterclockwise rotations in the internal Hellenide s and strong clockwise rotations for the external Hellenides appears plausi ble. Finally, issues for future research are outlined. For example, Mio-Pli ocene formations from Central Greece, the Pindos ophiolites and Palaeocene- Upper Cretaceous data should receive further attention. (C) 2000 Elsevier S cience B.V. All rights reserved.