Evidence for a developing plate boundary in the western Mediterranean

Laura Gómez de la Peña (), César R. Ranero, Eulàlia Gràcia, Guillermo Booth-Rea, José Miguel Azañón, Umberta Tinivella and Abdelkarim Yelles-Chaouche
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Laura Gómez de la Peña: Instituto de Ciencias del Mar, CSIC
César R. Ranero: Instituto de Ciencias del Mar, CSIC
Eulàlia Gràcia: Instituto de Ciencias del Mar, CSIC
Guillermo Booth-Rea: Universidad de Granada
José Miguel Azañón: Universidad de Granada
Umberta Tinivella: Istituto Nazionale di Ocenagrafia e di Geofisica Sperimentale
Abdelkarim Yelles-Chaouche: Centre de Recherche en Astronomie, Astrophysique et Géophysique

Nature Communications, 2022, vol. 13, issue 1, 1-12

Abstract: Abstract The current diffuse-strain model of the collision between Africa and Eurasia in the western Mediterranean predicts a broad region with deformation distributed among numerous faults and moderate-magnitude seismicity. However, the model is untested because most deformation occurs underwater, at poorly characterized faults of undetermined slip. Here we assess the diffuse-strain model analysing two active offshore fault systems associated with the most prominent seafloor relief in the region. We use pre-stack depth migrated seismic images to estimate, for the first time, the total Plio-Holocene slip of the right-lateral Yusuf and reverse Alboran Ridge structurally linked fault system. We show that kinematic restoration of deformational structures predicts a slip of 16 ± 4.7 km for the Alboran Ridge Fault and a minimum of 12 km for the Yusuf Fault. Thus, this fault system forms a well-defined narrow plate boundary that has absorbed most of the 24 ± 5 km Plio-Holocene Africa-Eurasia convergence and represents an underappreciated hazard.

Date: 2022
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-31895-z

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