Introduction: aspects of the geological evolution of the Eastern Mediterranean

Summary We review extensively the evidence and arguments bearing on the nature of Palaeotethys in relation to the age of formation, location and multiplicity of Neotethyan strands and their fate. We conclude that Palaeotethys did not die early but was only finally subducted northwards in the Tertiary along the Vardar-Intra Pontide-East Anatolian suture. Neotethyan strands must have opened into it at all times. The Adriatic promontory remained attached to Africa but rotated anti-clockwise in the mid-Tertiary. The Pontides are considered to be Eurasian and the Cimmerides are viewed as a ‘collage terrain’ formed along an oblique-convergence margin. The south Aegean, Greek and Turkish microcontinental blocks were rifted-off Gondwana in the Triassic but formation of braided Neotethyan oceanic crustal strands was essentially confined to mid-Jurassic in the Hellenides and to the Cretaceous in Turkey. We propose a new model of ophiolite genesis by asymmetrical spreading-ridge collapse in an attempt to explain both arc-like ophiolite chemistry prior to major volcanic arc edifice construction, and the synchroneity of sub-ophiolite metamorphic sole formation with Atlantic opening phases. Jurassic dispersal of Hellenide blocks had little effect in the unexpanded Turkish mosaic, but northwards Cretaceous opening of Tauride Neotethyan strands caused oblique collision deformation in the Pelagonian zone and unresolvable complexity in the Aegean. Late Cretaceous and Tertiary arc-volcanism was related in part to continuing Palaeotethyan subduction, and in part to Neotethyan destruction initiated after ridge-collapse. Diachronous collisions ensued from the Late Cretaceous onwards but significant oceanic tracts must have persisted at least to Mid-Tertiary to satisfy Africa-Eurasia separation constraints determined from Atlantic anomaly fitting. Our favoured plate evolutionary model is presented in 7 sketch-maps.