Main recent deformation and seismotectonics in the Central Mediterranean Region.

Late Neogene-Quaternary tectonics in the Central Mediterranean region has been entirely controlled by the Africa-Adria-Europe plate interaction and by the passive subduction of the south-western margin of Adria. Presently the western, northern and eastern boundaries of Adria are outlined by first-order geological features (Apennines, Alps and Dinarides); the southern boundary, on the contrary, is still undefined and its location is controversial. The reconstruction of the Neogene-Quaternary relative motion of Adria versus Europe is well constrained by the geometrical configuration of the Insubric indenter and by the geometry of the young thrust systems in the Southern Alps, Dinarides and Hellenides. The major structural features of these areas may be simultaneously justified by a counterclockwise rotation of Adria around a pole located in the Western Mediterranean Sea not far from the Corsica coast. The slip vectors obtained by such a rotation pole satisfactorily account for the overall kinematic processes along the external margin of Adria during Neogene-Quaternary times.