Neotectonics and seismicity of the southern margin of the Pannonian basin in Serbia

This paper focuses on the tectonic activity in the area of the Serbian part of the Pannonian Basin (SPPB) and its far southern rim from the end of the Pliocene up to the recent time. The corresponding seismic implications are also discussed. It is shown that the major part of the Pannonian Basin in the territory of Serbia has been subsiding during the Quaternary, while its rim is uplifting. This is an identical situation to that in the whole Pannonian Basin, being a consequence of the deflection of the rheologically weakened Pannonian lithosphere within a compressive region Such a pattern has resulted in the generation of low seismicity in the SPPB. In the bordering zone of the SPPB and uplifted morphostructures of the Dinarides and the Carpathians, in the area of flexural transition from a thick crust towards a thinned one, i.e. from a rigid towards a weakened lithosphere, a great number of faults have been activated during the Quaternary. This is marked by the moderate seismic activity of these faults. Strike-slips prevail, but reverse, and rarely gravitational faulting is also present. Finally, the geodynamics of Quaternary deformations is presented. It has been determined that a model of Quaternary tectonic activity in the SPPB and its southern margin depended on: (1) compressive stress, induced in the border zone of the Adriatic plate and Dinaridic orogene, (2) crust thickness and rheological features of the lithosphere as a whole and (3) extension in the Aegean domain.