Geological and Geophysical Studies Worldwide

The western Mediterranean sits at a complex junction where the African and Eurasian plates have been interacting since the Mesozoic, producing the Atlas mountain system, the Alboran Sea basin, and a tangle of subduction zones whose geometry remains incompletely mapped. Geophysicists and geodynamicists working in this region use seismic tomography, geodetic measurements, and structural geology to reconstruct how lithospheric slabs have rolled back, torn, and stalled over tens of millions of years. A central open question is whether the anomalously thin and seismically active lithosphere beneath the Alboran region reflects a delamination event, a detached slab, or some combination of both processes. Understanding the answer has direct consequences for seismic hazard assessment across densely populated coastlines in Spain, Morocco, and Algeria.

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94,448

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478,390

Keywords

Western Mediterraneangeodynamicssubductiontectonic evolutionAtlas systemAlboran region