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Puzzling features of western Mediterranean tectonics explained by slab dragging

Nature Geoscience volume 11, pages 211–216 (2018)Cite this article

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A Publisher Correction to this article was published on 26 March 2018

Abstract

The recent tectonic evolution of the western Mediterranean region is enigmatic. The causes for the closure of the Moroccan marine gateway prior to the Messinian salinity crisis, for the ongoing shortening of the Moroccan Rif and for the origin of the seismogenic Trans-Alboran shear zone and eastern Betics extension are unclear. These puzzling tectonic features cannot be fully explained by subduction of the east-dipping Gibraltar slab in the context of the regional relative plate motion frame. Here we use a combination of geological and geodetic data, as well as three-dimensional numerical modelling of subduction, to show that these unusual tectonic features could be the consequence of slab dragging—the north to north-eastward dragging of the Gibraltar slab by the absolute motion of the African Plate. Comparison of our model results to patterns of deformation in the western Mediterranean constrained by geological and geodetic data confirm that slab dragging provides a plausible mechanism for the observed deformation. Our results imply that the impact of absolute plate motion on subduction is identifiable from crustal observations. Identifying such signatures elsewhere may improve the mantle reference frame and provide insights on subduction evolution and associated crustal deformation.

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Fig. 1: RGB slab and its connectivity to the African and Iberian lithosphere.
Fig. 2: Western Mediterranean plate boundary region.
Fig. 3: African APM estimates from modern APM models.
Fig. 4: G model: slab motion with a focus on the past 8 Myr.
Fig. 5: GPS-derived strain and rotation rates and crustal motion in the mantle frame.

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Acknowledgements

We thank P. Vernant for helpful comments, A. Villasenor for help with obtaining the regional hypocentral data and M. Bezada for sharing his regional tomography model. W.S. and M.V.C. acknowledge financial and computational support from ISES, the Netherlands research centre for Integrated Solid Earth Science. W.S. also acknowledges support from the Research Council of Norway through its Centres of Excellence funding scheme, project number 223272. D.J.J.v.H. acknowledges ERC Starting Grant 306810 (SINK) and NWO Vidi grant 864.11.004.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth Sciences, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Wim Spakman, Maria V. Chertova, Arie. van den Berg & Douwe J. J. van Hinsbergen

  2. Centre of Earth Evolution and Dynamics (CEED), University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

    Wim Spakman

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Contributions

W.S. conceived and designed the research and contributed the GPS analysis. M.V.C contributed the numerical modelling with support from A.P.vd.B. D.J.J.v.H. contributed the geological component. W.S. wrote the paper with contributions from D.J.J.v.H.

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Correspondence to Wim Spakman.

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Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary figures and tables

Videos

Supplementary Video 1

Illustration of tomographically imaged mantle structure

Supplementary Video 2

3D numerical models of RGB subduction evolution (G-model, view from the top)

Supplementary Video 3

3D numerical models of RGB subduction evolution (G-model, view from the NE)

Supplementary Video 4

3D numerical models of RGB subduction evolution (B-model, view from the NE)

Supplementary Video 5

Various models of GPS motion inversion and model quality estimates as a function of applied regularization

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Spakman, W., Chertova, M.V., van den Berg, A. et al. Puzzling features of western Mediterranean tectonics explained by slab dragging. Nature Geosci 11, 211–216 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-018-0066-z

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