The significance of Crete for the evolution of the Eastern Mediterranean

Summary The Hellenic Arc is a convergent zone extending between Greece and Turkey associated with northward subduction of the African plate under the Aegean. The isopic zones of Greece are usually shown to extend parallel to the arc through Crete, implying that the present convergent pattern is long established. However, although Crete is situated in the centre of the Hellenic fore-arc the elongation of the island parallel to the arc is not due to convergence but to late Cenozoic regional extension. Our work in Crete indicates that Tertiary facies belts were orientated approximately N-S and that initial convergence in the region was oblique to the present arc. The Upper Nappes of Crete record two major deformational phases: D1 produced N-S folds and D2 produced E-W folds, whereas the lowest unit on Crete, the Plattenkalk Series, records only the D2 phase. We suggest that Crete records the Mesozoic extensional, and Tertiary compressional, history of the Apulian continental margin. Eocene E-W compression (D1) caused stacking of the Upper Nappes and HP/LT metamorphism. Oligocene N-S compression (D2) caused thrusting of the Upper Nappes onto the Plattenalk Series, and initiated the present convergent pattern which is unrelated to the earlier history of the region.