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Structural Features and Basin Tectonics of the Tyrrhenian Sea

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Geological Evolution of the Mediterranean Basin

Abstract

The principal geological and geophysical features of the Tyrrhenian Sea are described and discussed in order to determine a correct kinematic picture. Its bilateral symmetry, which gives it the character of an interarc basin, is also manifested by the deep crustal configuration that should indicate opposite-vergent arcuate overthrusting (obduction) of the Tyrrhenian oceanic crust onto the Alpine (modern inactive front) and the Apennine (active front) foreland basements, respectively. The eastern, seismically active front is believed to have resulted from a process of Neogene Apenninization of the previous Alpine fold structures, triggered by the eastward migration of domal uplifts, transient in time and space.

In geological thought, you may be right today and wrong tomorrow. R.A. Daly

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Wezel, FC. (1985). Structural Features and Basin Tectonics of the Tyrrhenian Sea. In: Stanley, D.J., Wezel, FC. (eds) Geological Evolution of the Mediterranean Basin. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-8572-1_8

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