La Ride méditerranéenne (Méditerranée orientale): apports de la cartographie multifaisceaux à l'analyse morphologique d'un prisme en accrétion-collision

Description

Since 80 My, the eastern Mediterranean basin has been subjected to a complex evolution, controlled by the ongoing convergence between African and Eurasian plates (fig. 1). One of the consequences of this specific kinematics is the formation, within the Ionian and Levantine basins, of the Mediterranean Ridge, an atypical tectono-sedimentary accretionary wedge 1500 km long and 200-250 km wide. From the Ionian to the Levantine basins, the Mediterranean Ridge appears as a southward arcuate high, lying at water depths ranging from 1400 m in its central area, to 3500 m, bounded to the north by the Hellenic trench system and to the south by a series of discontinuous abyssal plains. Within the western part of this system (Ionian basin), C. Truffert et al. (1993) identified three different morphostructural provinces: the outer front, the central domain, and the northern area, in contact with a flat inner domain. This classification was completed by E. Chaumillon (1995) who identified laterally a western (or Ionian) province, a central (or Libyan) narrow domain, and an eastern (or Levantine) branch. Although this prism has already been partly investigated using reflection and refraction seismics (

Abstract

Géomorphologie : Relief, Processus, Environnement, v. 2, p. 91-104, 2005

Abstract

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