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........ published in NEWSLETTER # 50

RECENT EVOLUTION AND SEISMICITY OF THE MEDITERRANEAN REGION
by Professor E. Boschi and Dr. A. Morelli, National Inst.of Geophysics, Rome (Italy), and Professor E. Mantovani, University, Siena (Italy)

This volume (NATO ASI SERIES C402) presents the lectures given at the 8th Course of the International School of Solid Earth Geophysics held in Erice (Sicily) on 18_26 Sept 1992 with financial support from NATO. The meeting was organized to allow a multidisciplinary discussion about Mediterranean tectonics, with the aim of dispelling the great ambiguity which still surrounds this problem. The notes reported in the volume involve the most discussed aspects, such as the Africa_Eurasia kinematics, the origin of the Tyrrhenian basin and Calabrian Arc, the post_Tortonian deformation pattern in the peri_Adriatic regions, the start of the subduction process in the Hellenic Arc, the tectonic mechanism responsible for the tensional regime in the Aegean zone, etc.

Some papers report the state_of_the_art of seismic studies in the Mediterranean area, with particular reference to some key areas, such as the Hellenic Arc, the peri_Adriatic regions and the Arabian plate. Information is also provided about the results and potential of the seismographic network MedNet installed in Mediterranean countries as a joint project between the Istituto Nazionale de Geofisica (Rome, Italy), and the World Laboratory. The data and arguments reported in this volume provide many elements for a critical analysis of the various evolutionary hypotheses so far proposed in the literature; in particular, stress is centered on discussion about some basic aspects, such as the Africa_Eurasia kinematics, which has long been assumed as a fix point in most geodynamic reconstructions. Another idea which is strongly encouraged in this volume is that lateral extrusion of blocks towards poorly constrained boundaries a the consumption of continental like lithosphere, through downward flexure of its non_buoyant part, have played an important role in the shortening mechanisms induced in the Mediterranean region by the convergence between the Africa_Arabia and Eurasia blocks.
Reference books: C37, C144, C204, C259, C334, C338, C402, E11

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