Aegean and surrounding regions: Complex multiplate and continuum tectonics in a convergent zone
The tectonics of the Aegean region involves complex slip patterns across the boundaries of several microplates that segment the end of the Anatolian plate, which is moving in a westward direction from the Bitlis zone, an intracontinental suture zone, to consume oceanic lithosphere in the eastern Mediterranean. The segmentation of the western end of the Anatolian plate into scholles with adjacent zones of grabens, strike-slip, and thrust semicontinuum tectonics results from “locking’ across the two North Anatolian transform strands where they change orientation at the western end of the Sea of Marmara. This fast lateral motion of buoyant continental slivers is a transient phase of the early stages of continental collision resulting from the irregularity of colliding margins. It is, however, a tectonic phase that leaves a fundamental signature on the convergent zone by imprinting a complex widespread series of structures that mask, and make difficult the interpretation of, earlier structures.