Crustal Structures from the Eastern Algerian Basin to the Ionian Ocean - Central Mediterranean

Results from the interpretation of deep seismic lines (CROP Italian Deep Crust Project) provide the first, continuous, 900-km-long crustal geologic transect crossing the Central Mediterranean from the Algerian Sea to the lonian Sea (Fig. 1). The geoseismic section (Fig. 2) reveals crustal and Moho reflections to a depth of about 30 km and elucidates the crustal architecture and processes associated with the opening of the Oligo-Miocene Algerian-Provencal basin, the Tertiary mountain building of the Alpidic chain and the Mesozoic continental rifting to oceanic spreading of Malta-Iblean margin-lonian abyssal plain.