Introduction: aspects of the geological evolution of the Eastern Mediterranean

Abstract

We review extensively the evidence and arguments bearing on the nature of Palaeotethys in relation to the age of formation, location and multiplicity of Neotethyan strands and their fate. We conclude that Palaeotethys did not die early but was only finally subducted northwards in the Tertiary along the Vardar-Intra Pontide-East Anatolian suture. Neotethyan strands must have opened into it at all times. The Adriatic promontory remained attached to Africa but rotated anti-clockwise in the mid-Tertiary. The Pontides are considered to be Eurasian and the Cimmerides are viewed as a ‘collage terrain’ formed along an oblique-convergence margin. The south Aegean, Greek and Turkish microcontinental blocks were rifted-off Gondwana in the Triassic but formation of braided Neotethyan oceanic crustal strands was essentially confined to mid-Jurassic in the Hellenides and to the Cretaceous in Turkey.