Relation between recent tectonics and inherited Mesozoic structures of the central-southern Adria plate

The analysis of several seismic reflection profiles offshore the Adria plate reveals a complex spatial-temporal distribution of the carbonate platforms, often linked to different conditions of the crustal thicknesses. The �platform sequence�, the �platform-to-basin sequence� and the �oceanic sequence� seem to represent the principal paleogeographic domains and are associated with different crustal types which, during the Tertiary age, became the foreland of the southern Apennine/Calabrian Arc and the Dinaric/Hellenic Chain. In this work, we have tried to highlight how these main crustal domains affect recent tectonics in a remarkable way. The migration of the Calabrian Arc and the Hellenic Chain brought about a regional compressive regime, which currently affects the whole crustal thickness of the Adria plate, causing transpression along the main strike-slip systems of the plate, inversion tectonics in the Salento offshore, and underthrusting below the Dinaric front, whereas the external front of the central-southern Apennines does not seem to be active any more.