Lithospheric Structure across the Northern Apennines, Dinarides and Pannonian basin, based on Integrated Geophysical-petrological Modeling

Abstract:

The present-day lithospheric structure of the Central Mediterranean Orogenic system is largely the result of tectonic and geodynamic processes related to the full subduction of the Tethyan oceanic domains. During the last decades, this region has been the target of numerous geological and geophysical studies to unravel the crustal and lithospheric structure. However, the contribution of the chemical composition and phase transitions on the physical properties in the lithospheric mantle are usually not considered. We aim at constraining and characterizing the present-day lithosphere and mantle structure along a geo-transect crossing the Northern Tyrrhenian Sea, the Northern Apennines, the Adriatic Sea, the Dinarides fold belt and the Pannonian back-arc basin by applying the integrated petrological-geophysical modelling tool, LitMod2D_2.0. Key properties of rocks (i.e., density, thermal conductivity and seismic velocities) and their spatial distribution are inferred from geophysical data (gravity, seismic, elevation, and heat flow) consistently with the thermochemical conditions and with the isostatic equilibrium along the section. Our results imply prominently lateral variations in the present-day lithospheric structure along the modeled geo-transect, affecting crustal and lithospheric mantle thickness, temperature, density distribution, and mantle composition that reveals the imprint of the complex geodynamic evolution of the area. This is a GeoCAM contribution (PGC2018-095154-B-I00)