Strike-slip generated rifting and recent tectonic stresses on the African foreland (Central Mediterranean region)

On the southern foreland of the Central Mediterranean Afro-European zone of convergence strike-slip processes induced the formation of the Pantelleria Rift between Sicily end Tunisia (Streit of Sicily). The complex rift system is about 380 km long and 100 km wide and consists of pull-apart basins linked by east trending dextral and north-northwest trending sinistral transfer faults. The pull-aparts merge into composite pull-apart grabens and transfer basins displaying a general NE-SW orientation of minimum stress G3 (horizontal). The evolution of the neotectonic fault pattern on the African foreland is partly controlled by older structures. The present maximum horizontal stress was determined in-situ in Malta and southern Sicily and trends parallel to the NW-SE oriented main grabens of Pantelleria, Linosa and Malta. Structural analysis on the Maltese and Pelagian islands demonstrates that the active tectonic stress field has been initiated during the Late Miocene (Messinian)