Since late Miocene time, post-collisional extension of the internal parts of the Apennine orogenic belt has led to the opening of the Tyrrhenian basin. Extensive, mainly acidic peraluminous magmatism affected the Tuscan Archipelago and the Italian mainland during this time, building up the Tuscan Magmatic Province as the fold belt was progressively thinned, heated and intruded by mafic magmas. An intrusive complex was progressively built on western Elba Island by emplacement, within a stack of nappes, of multiple, shallow-level porphyritic laccoliths, a major pluton, and a final dyke swarm, all within the span from about 8 to 6.8 Ma. New geochemical and Sr–Nd isotopic investigations constrain the compositions of materials involved in the genesis of the magmas of Elba Island compared to the whole Tuscan Magmatic Province. Several distinct magma sources, in both the crust and mantle, have been identified as contributing to the Elba magmatism as it evolved from crust-, to hybrid-, to mantle-dominated. However, a restricted number of components, geochemically similar to mafic K-andesites of the Island of Capraia and crustal melts like the Cotoncello dyke at Elba, are sufficient to account for the generation by melt hybridization of the most voluminous magmas (c. εNd(t) −8.5, 87Sr/86Sr 0.715). Unusual magmas were emplaced at the beginning and end of the igneous activity, without contributing to the generation of these hybrid magmas. These are represented by early peraluminous melts of a different crustal origin (εNd(t) between −9.5 and −10.0, 87Sr/86Sr variable between 0.7115 and 0.7146), and late mantle-derived magma strongly enriched in incompatible elements (εNd(t) = −7.0, 87Sr/86Sr = 0.7114) with geochemical–isotopic characteristics intermediate between contemporaneous Capraia K-andesites and later lamproites from the Tuscan Magmatic Province. Magmas not involved in the generation of the main hybrid products are not volumetrically significant, but their occurrence emphasizes the highly variable nature of crust and mantle sources that can be activated in a short time span during post-collisional magmatism.

A variety of host-fabric elements (HE) cut by cross-cutting elements (CE) in rocks defines flanking structures (FS) on mesoscopic and microscopic scales. There has been renewed interest in studying and classifying the FS for their morphologies, useful as shear sense indicators and geneses. Existing non-genetic morphologic parameters for the FS are reviewed, and two new classification schemes are presented. One of these is based on the nature of the CE and whether HE penetrates it. The other scheme takes account of all the potential combinations of drag/no drag and slip/no slip of the HE. Deciphering the shear sense of the rock body from FS is complicated because the angular relationship between the CE and the primary shear planes might be opposite to what is found between S- and C- ductile shear fabrics. Further, single CEs can curve and several similar FS occur in reverse forms. As with mineral fish, the shape asymmetries of microscopic CEs indicate the shear sense. Conjugate FS (with non-parallel CEs) with interfering perturbation fields around the CEs are more reliable shear-sense indicators than FS with single CE. During low but increasing bulk strains, FS may evolve from one type to another, e.g. from a- to s-type. At high strain, FS can resemble intrafolial or sheath fold. Whether the drag is normal or reverse depends fundamentally on the initial angle between the HE and the CE and the relative magnitudes of throw and vertical separation.

The structure of the northern part of the Arabian platform is reviewed in the light of hitherto unpublished exploration data and the presently accepted kinematic model of plate motion in the region. The Palmyra and Sinjar zones share a common history of development involving two stages of rifting, one in the Triassic–Jurassic and the other during late Cretaceous to early Tertiary times. Deformation of the Palmyra zone during the Mio-Pliocene is attributed to north–south compression on the eastern block of the Dead Sea transcurrent system which occurred after continental collision in the north in southeast Turkey. The asymmetry of the Palmyra zone is believed to result from northward underthrusting along the southern boundary facilitated by the presence of shallow Triassic evaporites. An important NW-SE cross-plate shear zone has been identified, which can be traced for 600 km and which controls the course of the River Euphrates over long distances in Syria and Iraq. Transcurrent motion along this zone resulted in the formation of narrow grabens during the late Cretaceous which were compressed during the Mio-Pliocene. To a large extent, present day structures in the region result from compressional reactivation of old lineaments within the Arabian plate by the transcurrent motion of the Dead Sea fault zone and subsequent continental collision.

The range of Treptichnus pedum, the index trace fossil for the Treptichnus pedum Zone, extends some 4 m below the Global Standard Stratotype-section and Point for the base of the Cambrian Period at Fortune Head on the Burin Peninsula in southeastern Newfoundland. The identification of zigzag traces of Treptichnus isp., even further below the GSSP than T. pedum in the Fortune Head section, and in other terminal Proterozoic successions around the globe, supports the concept of a gradational onset of three-dimensional burrowing across the Proterozoic–Cambrian boundary. Although T. pedum remains a reasonable indicator for the base of the Cambrian Period, greater precision in the stratotype section can be achieved by a detailed re-evaluation of the stratigraphic ranges and the morphological variation of ichnotaxa included in the T. pedum Zone.

Still active Sub-Andean foreland deformation is suggested to have syndepositionally modified the fluvial depositional environments in the Peruvian Amazonian foreland basin throughout Neogene-Quaternary time. Modern fluvial aggradation continues to proceed on a large scale (c. 120 000 km2) in two differing depositional systems. Firstly, various multistoried floodbasin deposits are derived from the meandering and anastomosing rivers within the subsiding intraforeland basins. Secondly, in the northern part of the Pastaza-Marañon basin the largest known Holocene alluvial fan-like formation (c. 60 000 km2) composed of reworked, volcaniclastic debris derived from active Ecuadorian volcanoes, has been identified.

The widespread, poorly known, dissected surface alluvium (terra firme) which covers the main part of the Peruvian Amazonian foreland basin shows further evidence of long-term foreland deformation, and terraces indicate both the effects of tectonism and Pleistocene climatic oscillations. In northern Peru, the surface alluvium was deposited by a Tertiary fluvial system with palaeocurrents to the west and northwest into the Andean foreland basin. In southern Peru, the respective surficial alluvium was part of a post-Miocene fluvial system flowing northeast into the main Amazon basin. Both systems were gradually abandoned when the eastward migrating Andean foreland deformation led to the more distinctive partitioning of the intraforeland basins, and the modern drainage system was created.

Two types of metasedimentary rocks occur in the Trans-North China Orogen of the North China Craton. One type consists of highly metamorphosed supracrustal rocks with protoliths of mature cratonic shale, called khondalites, as found in the Lüliang Complex; rocks of the other type are also highly metamorphosed but less mature, as represented by the Wanzi supracrustal assemblage in the Fuping Complex. U–Pb isotopic data for detrital zircons from khondalites show a provenance dominated by 1.9–2.1 Ga Palaeoproterozoic rocks. These detrital zircons display a wide range of εHf values from −16.0 to +9.2 and give Hf isotopic model ages mostly around 2.3 Ga. The high positive εHf values approach those for the depleted mantle at 2.1 Ga, highlighting a juvenile crustal growth event in Palaeoproterozoic times. Hf isotopic data also imply that c. 2.6 Ga old crustal material was involved in the Palaeoproterozoic magmatic event. These data are similar to those for the khondalitic rocks from the interior of the Western Block of the North China Craton, suggesting a common provenance. In contrast, other metasedimentary rocks in the Trans-North China Orogen, such as the Wanzi supracrustal assemblage in the Fuping Complex, have a source region with both Palaeoproterozoic and Archaean rocks. Their detrital zircon Hf isotopic data indicate reworking of old crustal material and a lack of significant juvenile Palaeoproterozoic magmatic input. These rocks are similar to the coevally deposited meta-sedimentary rocks in the interior of the Eastern Block. We propose that the Lüliang khondalites were deposited on the eastern margin of the Western Block in a passive continental margin environment and were thrust eastward later during collision with the Eastern Block. Other metasedimentary rocks in the Trans-North China Orogen were deposited on the western margin of the Eastern Block in a continental arc environment. Our data support the eastward subduction model for the Palaeoproterozoic tectonic evolution of the North China Craton.

Carbonate-rich sedimentary rocks of the western Anabar region, northern Siberia, preserve an exceptional record of evolutionary and biogeochemical events near the Proterozoic/Cambrian boundary. Sedimentologically, the boundary succession can be divided into three sequences representing successive episodes of late transgressive to early highstand deposition; four parasequences are recognized in the sequence corresponding lithostratigraphically to the Manykai Formation. Small shelly fossils are abundant and include many taxa that also occur in standard sections of southeastern Siberia. Despite this coincidence of faunal elements, biostratigraphic correlations between the two regions have been controversial because numerous species that first appear at or immediately above the basal Tommotian boundary in southeastern sections have first appearances scattered through more than thirty metres of section in the western Anabar. Carbon- and Sr-isotopic data on petrographically and geochemically screened samples collected at one- to two-metre intervals in a section along the Kotuikan River, favour correlation of the Staraya Reckha Formation and most of the overlying Manykai Formation with sub-Tommotian carbonates in southeastern Siberia. In contrast, isotopic data suggest that the uppermost Manykai Formation and the basal 26 m of the unconformably overlying Medvezhya Formation may have no equivalent in the southeast; they appear to provide a sedimentary and palaeontological record of an evolutionarily significant time interval represented in southeastern Siberia only by the sub-Tommotian unconformity. Correlations with radiometrically dated horizons in the Olenek and Kharaulakh regions of northern Siberia suggest that this interval lasted approximately three to six million years, during which essentially all 'basal Tommotian' small shelly fossils evolved.

Sm-Nd mineral ages of gneisses and associated granulites from the Ponmudi incipient charnockite locality (South India) indicate that granulite metamorphism occurred at, or shortly after, 558 Ma. Proterozoic ages recorded by garnet separates reflect a detrital age or an earlier metamorphic event preserved by inclusions within garnet. The age of post-metamorphic uplift (440–460 Ma) is constrained by Sr isotope equilibration between biotite and plagioclase. Since charnockite formation and subsequent uplift north of the Palghat-Cauvery shear zone had terminated by earliest Proterozoic time, these results confirm two distinct periods of granulite formation in South India and suggest that the Palghat-Cauvery shear zone represents the boundary between two blocks of strongly contrasting geological histories. Both incipient charnockite formation and subsequent uplift at Ponmudi may be correlated with the tectonothermal evolution of the Highlands Group in Sri Lanka. The similarity between Nd and Sr model ages for charnockites and gneisses from Ponmudi indicates that no significant Rb-Sr fractionation has occurred during the crustal history of these incipient charnockites. Pb isotopic ratios suggest that Th-U ratios were fractionated during charnockite formation at about 500 Ma. In contrast to charnockites found north of the Palghat-Cauvery shear zone, fractionation of U-Pb during the Archaean did not occur in the Ponmudi granulites.

U–Pb detrital zircon ages (LAM-ICPMS) are reported for 20 greywackes and sandstones from seven major tectono-stratigraphic terranes of the Eastern Province of New Zealand (Cretaceous to Carboniferous) to constrain sediment provenances. Samples are mainly from three time horizons: Late Permian, Late Triassic and Late Jurassic. Age datasets are analysed as percentages in geological intervals, and in histogram and cumulative probability diagrams. The latter discriminate significant zircon age components in terms of terrane, sample stratigraphic age, component age, precision and percentage (of total set). Zircon age distributions from all samples have persistent, large Triassic–Permian, and very few Devonian–Silurian, populations, features which exclude a sediment provenance from the early Palaeozoic, Lachlan Fold Belt of southeast Australia or continuations in New Zealand and Antarctica. In the accretionary terranes, significant Palaeozoic (and Precambrian) zircon age populations are present in Torlesse and Waipapa terranes, and variably in Caples terrane. In the fore-arc and back-arc terranes, a unimodal character persists in Murihiku and Brook Street terranes, while Dun Mountain–Maitai terrane is more variable, and with Caples terrane, displays a hybrid character. Required extensive Triassic–Permian zircon sources can only be found within the New England Fold Belt and Hodgkinson Province of northeast Australia, and southward continuations to Dampier Ridge, Lord Howe Rise and West Norfolk Ridge (Tasman Sea). Small but significant Palaeozoic (and Precambrian) age components in the accretionary terranes (plus Dun Mountain–Maitai terrane), have sources in hinterlands of the New England Fold Belt, in particular to mid-Palaeozoic granite complexes in NE Queensland, and Carboniferous granite complexes in NE New South Wales. Major and minor components place sources (1) for the older Torlesse (Rakaia) terrane, in NE Queensland, and (2) for Waipapa terrane, in NE New South Wales, with Dun Mountain–Maitai and Caples terrane sources more inshore and offshore, respectively. In Early Jurassic–Late Cretaceous, Torlesse (Pahau) and Waipapa terranes, there is less continental influence, and more isolated, offshore volcanic arc sources are suggested. There is local input of plutonic rock detritus into Pahau depocentres from the Median Batholith in New Zealand, or its northward continuation on Lord Howe Rise. Excepting Murihiku and Brook Street terranes, all others are suspect terranes, with depocentres close to the contemporary Gondwanaland margin in NE Australia, and subsequent margin-parallel, tectonic transport to their present New Zealand position. This is highlighted by a slight southeastward migration of terrane depocentres with time. Murihiku and Brook Street terrane sources are more remote from continental influences and represent isolated offshore volcanic depocentres, perhaps in their present New Zealand position.

We present a statistical approach to data mining and quantitatively evaluating detrital age spectra for sedimentary provenance analyses and palaeogeographic reconstructions. Multidimensional scaling coupled with density-based clustering allows the objective identification of provenance end-member populations and sedimentary mixing processes for a composite crust. We compiled 58 601 detrital zircon U–Pb ages from 770 Precambrian to Lower Palaeozoic shelf sedimentary rocks from 160 publications and applied statistical provenance analysis for the Peri-Gondwanan crust north of Africa and the adjacent areas. We have filtered the dataset to reduce the age spectra to the provenance signal, and compared the signal with age patterns of potential source regions. In terms of provenance, our results reveal three distinct areas, namely the Avalonian, West African and East African–Arabian zircon provinces. Except for the Rheic Ocean separating the Avalonian Zircon Province from Gondwana, the statistical analysis provides no evidence for the existence of additional oceanic lithosphere. This implies a vast and contiguous Peri-Gondwanan shelf south of the Rheic Ocean that is supplied by two contrasting super-fan systems, reflected in the zircon provinces of West Africa and East Africa–Arabia.

The most prominent of the two major global δ13C excursions in the Ordovician, the Hirnantian δ13C excursion (HICE), which is previously recorded from the uppermost Ordovician in a few sections in Nevada, Quebec, Arctic Canada, Baltoscandia, Scotland and China, is documented for the first time from the North American Midcontinent. Samples through the Girardeau Limestone and Leemon Formation in Missouri and Illinois show elevated δ13C values of +4‰ to +5‰. Although not determined precisely, the beginning of the HICE is likely to be in the upper part of the Orchard Creek Shale, and it ends in the upper Leemon Formation. Being extraordinarily useful chronostratigraphically, the presence of the HICE makes it possible to provide a firm dating of the study interval, whose age has long been controversial. Comparison between the study sections and coeval HICE sequences in North America and Europe show striking similarities, especially in sea-level history, indicating that major local lowstands reflect eustatic sea-level changes. A comparison with Hirnantian diamictite successions in North and South Africa and Argentina suggests that these lowstands correspond to two major Gondwanan glacial episodes.

The Oruanui eruption was the largest known outburst of Taupo volcano, New Zealand, and is among the larger Quaternary eruptions documented. The eruption deposits are variously known as the Oruanui, Wairakei, Kawakawa Tephra, or Aokautere Ash formations, and represent a bulk volume probably exceeding 500 km3. Four new 14C age determinations on carbonized vegetation in the non-welded Oruanui ignimbrite are combined to give a conventional age of 22590±230 yr b.p. Compared with the previously accepted figure of 20000 yr b.p., this new age resolves the anomaly of apparently older 14C ages being obtained from a demonstrably younger New Zealand deposit, and strengthens correlation of this eruption with an Antarctic ice-core acid anomaly. The trace of this eruption has great potential as a time-plane marker in the Antarctic just prior to the last glacial maximum. The close similarity in ages between the Oruanui and a comparable sized eruption (Ito/Aira-Tn) in Japan suggests that this period of activity may represent the best chance of resolving any linkages between large-scale explosive silicic volcanism and climate changes.

Most bolides that collide with the Earth hit the sea. Limited knowledge about marine-target impacts hampers predictions about their perilousness. This study presents geological features that are particular to craters formed at sea. The features are most likely a result of the influence of the target on the cratering process. Marine-target craters form only if the target sea is shallow enough to admit sufficient kinetic energy into the sea bed. When the crater diameter is large compared to the water depth, the crater resembles its counterparts that are formed on land. Craters formed in deeper water are concentric, and often lack melt sheets and rim walls, but have deposits and radial gullies formed by the resurge of the sea. Impacts on the deep shelf are probably much more energetic than is suggested by the dimensions of the preserved crater.

The Northern Suture is a fault separating the Cretaceous Kohistan island arc terrain (northwest Himalayas) from Palaeozoic sediments of the Asian Plate to the north. The Kohistan arc includes volcanic and sedimentary rocks (andesitic lavas, tuffs, volcaniclastics, slates and limestones), metamorphosed to greenschist facies and intruded by the two-phase Kohistan Batholith. Asian continental margin sediments are mainly of shelf type, are variably metamorphosed and intruded by the Karakoram Batholith. The Northern Suture is a zone of melange from 150 m to 4 km wide, and contains blocks of volcanic greenstone, limestone, red shale, conglomerate, quartzite and serpentinite in a slate matrix. It has a strong planar fabric; but in many places bedding is preserved in blocks and matrix, and depositional rather than tectonic contacts are seen between the two. The melange is inferred to be an olistostrome largely derived from the Kohistan arc, formed in a small back-arc basin between Kohistan and Asia. Limestone blocks in the melange are dated as Aptian–Albian; post-tectonic intrusions yield radiometric ages from 111 to 62 Ma. The Northern Suture therefore probably formed in the early Late Cretaceous during closure of the back-arc basin. The Tethys ocean lay south of Kohistan, where the Main Mantle Thrust represents the westward continuation of the Indus–Tsangpo Suture.

The current theories dealing with the mechanics of joint development are discussed critically. An analysis of the stress conditions which can exist in competent rocks in the crust is presented. The conclusion is reached that “Master” and “Regional” Joints can be, generically, either “tensional” or “shear” structures. They are, however, post-tectonic phenomena which develop as a result of uplift. Joints form a part of “movement pictures” because their orientation is determined by residual stresses. Reasons are given which indicate that the mechanism described is generally applicable to joint development in folded sediments, igneous rocks, and also to incompetent material.

The mechanism of continental growth of the Altaids is currently under debate between models invoking continuous subduction-accretion or punctuated accretion by closure of multiple ocean basins. We use the Yueyashan–Xichangjing ophiolite belt of the Beishan collage (southern Altaids) to constrain the earliest oceanic crust in the southern Palaeo-Asian Ocean. Five lithotectonic units were identified from S to N: the Huaniushan block, a sedimentary passive margin, the structurally incoherent Yueyashan–Xichangjing ophiolite complex, a coherent sedimentary package and the Mazongshan island arc with granitic rocks. We present a structural analysis of the accretionary complex, which is composed of the incoherent ophiolitic melange and coherent sedimentary rocks, to work out the tectonic polarity. A new weighted mean 206Pb–238U age of 533 ± 1.7 Ma from a plagiogranite in the Yueyashan–Xichangjing ophiolite indicates that the ocean floor formed in early Cambrian time. Furthermore, we present new geochemical data to constrain the tectonic setting of the Yueyashan–Xichangjing ophiolite. The Yueyashan–Xichangjing ophiolite was emplaced as a result of northward subduction of an oceanic plate beneath the Mazongshan island arc to the north in late Ordovician to early Silurian time. Together with data from the literature, our work demonstrates that multiple overlapping periods of accretion existed in the Palaeozoic in the northern and southern Altaids. Therefore, a model of multiple accretion by closure of several ocean basins is most viable.

From 1989 to 1994 a series of papers outlined evidence for a brief episode of climate change from arid to humid, and then back to arid, during the Carnian Stage of the late Triassic Epoch. This time of climate change was compared to marine and terrestrial biotic changes, mainly extinction and then radiation of flora and fauna. Subsequently termed, albeit incorrectly, the Carnian Pluvial Event (CPE) by successive authors, interest in this episode of climatic change has increased steadily, with new evidence being published as well as several challenges to the theory. The exact nature of this humid episode, whether reflecting widespread precipitation or more local effects, as well as its ultimate cause, remains equivocal. Bed-by-bed sampling of the Carnian in the Southern Alps (Dolomites) shows the episode began with a negative carbon isotope excursion that lasted for only part of one ammonoid zone (A. austriacum). However, that the Carnian Humid Episode represents a significantly longer period, both environmentally and biotically, is irrefutable. The evidence is strongest in the European, Middle Eastern, Himalayan, North American and Japanese successions, but not always so clear in South America, Antarctica and Australia. The eruption of the Wrangellia Large Igneous Province and global warming (causing increased evaporation in the Tethyan and Panthalassic oceans) are suggested as causes for the humid episode.

Peninsular India was assembled into a continental block c. 3 million km2 in area as a result of collisions throughout the length of a 4000 km long S-shaped mountain belt that was first recognized from the continuity of strike of highly deformed Proterozoic granulites and gneisses. More recently the recognition of a variety of tectonic indicators, including occurrences of ophiolitic slivers, Andean-margin type rocks, a collisional rift and a foreland basin, as well as many structural and isotopic age studies have helped to clarify the history of this Great Indian Proterozoic Fold Belt. We here complement those studies by considering the occurrence of deformed alkaline rocks and carbonatites (DARCs) in the Great Indian Proterozoic Fold Belt. One aim of this study is to test the recently published idea that DARCs result from the deformation of alkaline rocks and carbonatites (ARCs) originally intruded into intra-continental rifts and preserved on rifted continental margins. The suggestion is that ARCs from those margins are transformed into DARCs during continental, or arc–continental, collisions. If that idea is valid, DARCs lie on rifted continental margins and on coincident younger suture zones; they occur in places where ancient oceans have both opened and closed. Locating sutures within mountain belts has often proved difficult and has sometimes been controversial. If the new idea is valid, DARC distributions may help to reduce controversy. This paper concentrates on the Eastern Ghats Mobile Belt of Andhra Pradesh and Orissa, where alkaline rock occurrences are best known. Less complete information from Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, West Bengal, Bihar and Rajasthan has enabled us to define a line of 47 unevenly distributed DARCs with individual outcrop lengths of between 30 m and 30 km that extends along the full 4000 km length of the Great Indian Proterozoic Fold Belt. Ocean opening along the rifted margins of the Archaean cratons of Peninsular India may have begun by c. 2.0 Ga and convergent plate margin phenomena have left records within the Great Indian Proterozoic Fold Belt and on the neighbouring cratons starting at c. 1.8 Ga. Final continental collisions were over by 0.55 Ga, perhaps having been completed at c. 0.75 Ga or at c. 1 Ga. Opening of an ocean at the Himalayan margin of India by c. 0.55 Ga removed an unknown length of the Great Indian Proterozoic Fold Belt. In the southernmost part of the Indian peninsula, a line of DARCs, interpreted here as marking a Great Indian Proterozoic Fold Belt suture, can be traced within the Southern Granulite Terrain almost to the Achankovil-Tenmala shear zone, which is interpreted as a strike-slip fault that also formed at c. 0.55 Ga.

A subduction-accretion model incorporating new geophysical data is presented to explain the geology of the Antarctic Peninsula from late Palaeozoic to Cenozoic time. According to the model, the peninsula consists of overlapping accretionary, magmatic and extensional regimes that were diachronous across the peninsula and have built the crust to its present form. The crust, which contains a small proportion of sialic basement, was mainly formed by accretionary and magmatic processes and modified to its present shape by extension. The Gondwanide Orogeny for the Antarctic Peninsula is interpreted in terms of the accretionary processes.

Combined shear-sense criteria, finite-strain data and vorticity analyses were used to study the deformation path in a curved crustal-scale shear zone (Phyllite–Quartzite Series) of the southwestern Hellenides. The results are combined with data on the structural evolution of a cover nappe (Pindos thrust belt) to provide new insights into the orogenic evolution of this region.

Ductile deformation within the Phyllite–Quartzite Series was associated with a top-to-the-west-southwest shearing and was partitioned into two structural domains: a root zone and a frontal domain. The root zone is characterized by vertical coaxial stretching, high strain and upward movement of the material, while the frontal domain comprises simple-shear deformation at the base and pure shear at the top. This pattern suggests superposition of pure shear on simple-shear deformation, and implies tectonic extrusion of the material from the root zone.

The initiation of brittle deformation in the Pindos thrust belt was associated with westward translation above the sub-horizontal Pindos Thrust. Later, as the mountain range elevated, normal faulting at high altitudes and migration of thrusting to the west occurred, while east-directed folding and thrusting in the belt started to the east.

According to the proposed model, crustal thickening was taking place throughout the Oligocene and early Miocene, including the subduction of the Apulian beneath the Pelagonian microcontinent and the intracontinental subduction of the Phyllite–Quartzite Series. During the lower Miocene, vertical buoyancy forces led to the successive steepening of the shear zone and the simultaneous duplexing of its basement, facilitating tectonic extrusion of the material from its root zone. Finally, an indentation process caused vertical expulsion of the orogenic wedge and gravity collapse in the brittle crust.