STUDY OF THE CRUSTAL THICKNESS AND THE SUBDUCTING LITHOSPHERE IN GREECE FROM GRAVITY-DATA

The area of Greece has experienced a complex tectonic history dominate d by the subduction of the African plate beneath Eurasia. In this stud y the variations of the crustal thickness in the area of Greece were o btained by means of the multiple-source Werner deconvolution (MSWD) me thod applied to gravity data. Thicknesses of 40-49 km are estimated be neath the Hellenides mountain belt to the west. Eastward thinning of t he crust, to thicknesses ranging from 25 km in the north to 30 km in t he south is seen in the Aegean region. These results are in good agree ment with recent seismological results, demonstrating that the MSWD me thod successfully treated the problem. Using the crustal model we deri ved, we computed the gravity effect of the crust and extracted it from the Bouguer anomaly. We also extracted the gravity effect of the subd ucting lithosphere from the Bouguer anomaly, producing a residual map where most of the original gravity variation has been successfully rem oved. The remaining anomalies appear related to near-surface features and an area of low-velocity mantle in the central Aegean Sea.