Publication Date:
2015-11-24
Description:
We present a new GPS velocity field covering the peri-Adriatic tectonically-active belts and the entire Balkan Peninsula. From the velocities, we calculate consistent strain rate and interpolated velocity fields. Significant features of the crustal deformation include: (1) the eastward motion of the northern part of the Eastern Alps together with part the Alpine foreland and Bohemian Massif towards the Pannonian Basin, (2) shortening across the Dinarides, (3) a clock-wise rotation of the Albanides-Hellenides and (4) a southward motion South of 44 ∘ N of the inner Balkan lithosphere between the rigid Apulia and Black Sea, towards the Aegean domain. Using this new velocity-field, we derive the strain rate tensor to analyze the regional style of the deformation. Then, we devise a simple test based on the momentum balance equation, to investigate the role of horizontal gradients of gravitational potential energy in driving the deformation in the Peri-Adriatic tectonically-active mountain belts : the Eastern Alps, the Dinarides, the Albanides and the Apennines. We show that the strain rate fields observed in the Apennines and Albanides are consistent with a fluid, with viscosity η ∼ 3×10 21 Pas, deforming in response to horizontal gradients of gravitational potential energy. Conversely, both the Dinarides and Eastern Alps are probably deforming in response to the North and North-East oriented motion of the Adria-Apulia indenter respectively, and as a consequence of horizontal lithospheric heterogeneity.
Print ISSN:
0148-0227
Topics:
Geosciences
,
Physics
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