3.3. Within the Africa-Europe Collision Zone: The Apennines-Aegean-Anatolian Region
The Apennines-Aegean-Anatolian region offers a natural laboratory for analyzing dynamic processes that control ongoing deformation of the lithosphere under syn-orogenic conditions at strain rates of up to 3 cm/y (Jiménez-Munt et al., 2003). The Aegean regions, as well as northern and southeastern Anatolia are seismically very active and therefore exposed to very high earthquake hazards (Erdik et al., 1999; Giardini et al., 2003). In these areas major mountainous areas as well as submarine topography developed during Neogene to Quaternary times. Geohazards, apart from destructive earthquakes (e.g. Izmit Mw 7.4 of 1999.08.17; Fig. 47), include flooding due to land subsidence, landslides, volcanism and tsunamis (e.g. Santorini 1658 BC).
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| Fig. 47. Fault system in the Istanbul-Izmit area, showing epicentre distribution of about 2000 aftershocks of the Mw. 7.4 Izmit earthquake, 17 August 1999 (courtesy GFZ-Potsdam). |
The central Mediterranean region is a crucial site for analyzing the ongoing surface response to deep mantle evolution. Recent (middle Pleistocene and onward) rapid uplift of the Apennines-Calabrian orogenic belt is most probably dynamically related to mantle circulation induced by the subducting slab and its ongoing deformation. As in the Aegean and Anatolia, tectonic activity in the Apennines-Calabrian belt and in Sicily gives rise to natural hazards (including for megacities), such as landslides, destructive earthquakes, explosive volcanism (Vesuvius and Phlegrean fields) and tsunamis.