Journal of Petroleum Geology, Vol.18, No.2, pp. 149-170, 1995

©Copyright 2000 Scientific Press, Ltd.

PALINSPASTIC AND CRUSTAL SETTING OF THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN

F. Hirsch*, A. Flexer**, A. Rosenfeld* and A. Yellin-Dror**

* Geological Survey of Israel, Malkhe Yisrael Street 30, 95501 Jerusalem, Israel.

** Dept. of Geophysics and Planetary Sciences, Sackler Faculty of Exact Sciences, Tel Aviv University, 69978 Tel Aviv, Israel.

Abstract

The nature and tectonic setting of the Eastern Mediterranean Basin are analyzed from geological and geophysical points of view. Palaeozoic and Mesozoic stratigraphy and palaeo-biogeography suggest that epicontinental Africa, Apulia and Arabia were united almost continuously during the entire Phanerozoic eon, prior to and after the Early Triassic opening of the Mesozoic Tethys. The allochthonous ophiolite-bearing terranes, that were thrust over the edges of the Gondwanan plate, fit well within a palinspastic model of a single Tethys ocean, north of the African-Apulian-Arabian palaeo-edge.