Seismotectonic identity of the southern Adriatic area

Abstract

The Adriatic microplate is considered in literature as a block relatively undeformed and aseismic with unitary dynamical behaviour. Nevertheless suchmodel is inadequate to justify the recent seismicity of the Adriatic basin. Recent mesostructural analyses are showing a continuous strain boundary all around the Southern Adriatic platform. Several structures were recognized continuously outcropping from the Southern Dalmatian coastline (Kotor zone) to Split- Sibenik area and, across the Adriatic isles, until the Tremiti Islands and the Gargano-Murge regions. Data point out a centripetal trend of the Dinaric and Apenninic units, delimited to the north by ductile and brittle strain belts. These belts seem to set apart the southern block and to allow the release from the northern structures. The agreement between the geological-structural and seismological data allows to identify the Southern Adriatic block as an indipendent crustal structure, divided from the northern one by strike-slip faults. The Southern Adriatic block is able to condition the structural evolution of the neighbouring areas.