TECTONIC STAGES ALONG A TRAVERSE CROSS CUTTING THE RHODOPIAN ZONE (GREECE)

In a cross section along the Rhodopian zone from the Greece/Bulgarian border through the postalpine basins in the Xanthi area to Thasos island detailed structural mapping and collection of field data enable us to determine a sequence of tectonic stages that affected this area. This allows us to propose a model of continental collision. During the early Eocene, NE-SW directed movements produced a southwest facing pile of crystalline nappes with internal deformation comprising NW and NE trending isoclinal folds and a NE-SW trending stretching lineation. After a short time interval, nappe movements started again under brittle deformation conditions and produced composite thrust sheets, WNW- and NNE trending chevron folds and thick cataclasite. Late orogenic uplift and extension caused the formation of NW- and NE trending normal faults. These faults bounded the Oligocene flysch- and molasse basins and provided pathways for voluminous magmatic suites. This tectonic process was interrupted at the Oligocene/Miocene boundary by a late orogenic compression reflected in NW open folds and dissolution cleavages. Subsequently, differential uplift and subsidence associated with NW- and NE trending normal faults has continued up to the present time. From the early Pliocene new fragmentation and thinning of the crust reflected in WNW listric faults and NNE transfer faults has affected the southern parts of the Rhodopian zone. Nappe forming movements are the result of a progressive collisional process involving a Kimmerian microcontinent lying between the Eurasia and Apulia continents. In the final stages of this collision, uderplating processes led to regional uplift and extension. Additional extensional movements were related to the formation of the Aegean back arc basin caused by the Late Cenozoic Hellenic subduction zone.