Unravelling post-Messinian evolution of the Aegean with tectonic integrations

International audienceThe geodynamic drivers responsible for the extension mechanisms presently seen in the Aegean Sea and the Hellenic Arc have been promoting scientific debate for decades. Back- arc crustal extension driven by rollback of the underthrusting African slab controls the slow north-south extension active since several tens of million years in the Aegean Sea. Younger fast east-west extension along steep faults trending N-S in the Hellenic Arc seem unrelated to subduction processes; normal faults are not strictly perpendicular to the subduction interface along strike, but instead open radially away from its southernmost tip. We strive to unravel the geodynamic drivers behind the apparently disagreeing extension modes in post- Messinian times by producing tectonic integrations at the scale of the Aegean. We produce integrations at two “zoom levels” (regional, 103-104 km; and tectonic, >105 km) that respect the particularities and complexity of the information of studies at the local-scale (