POSTULATED MECHANISM OF OPENING OF THE TYRRHENIAN BASIN

Abstract

The problem of the formation and development of back-arc basins remains one of the most controversial in plate tectonics. This also pertains to newly formed suboceanic basins which arose, for instance, within the Alpine belt in an environment of general compression. The Tyrrhenian Sea is a typical example of such a basin. There is no doubt that the crust in the central part of the basin, with a thickness 10 to 12 km is of oceanic origin. Within this oceanic basin, there are Vavilov and Marsigli submarine volcanoes which have been active in relatively recent times. The can be considered as centers of tectonomagmatic activity resembling spreading axes. It seems that the main process leading to the formation of the Tyrrhenian basin is interaction of a strong north-northeast to south-southwest asthenospheric flow from the Mid-Atantic Ridge, with a segment of the African lithospheric plate descending into the mantle, being subducted northwestward under Calabria.