| Aegean Sea plate | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Type | Micro |
| Movement1 | south-west |
| Speed1 | 37 mm/year |
| Features | Greece,Turkey,Aegean Sea |
| 1Relative to theAfrican plate | |
TheAegean Sea plate (also called theHellenic plate orAegean plate) is a smalltectonic plate located in theEastern Mediterranean underSouthern Greece and westernTurkey. Its southern edge is theHellenic subduction zone south ofCrete, where theAfrican plate is being swept under the Aegean Sea plate.[1] Its northern margin is adivergent boundary with theEurasian plate.
The seafloor in this region is about 350 m below sea level, while the adjacentBlack Sea andMediterranean Sea are 1300–1500 m deep. For this reason it is considered a high plateau between the seas.[2] Evidence suggests the Aegean plate contains thinnedcontinental crust, rather thanoceanic crust. Since its creation the crust has been thinned through various processes, includingpost-orogenic collapse and crustal extension. This extension is responsible for the formation of theGulf of Corinth.[3][4]
Previous observations of the region's motion described the crust under the Aegean Sea as a part of theAnatolian plate, and the different directions of motion were explained as the plate rotating counterclockwise. Further measurements found that motion of the Aegean region differed from the previous model, so the two plates are now considered distinct from each other.[5]
The Aegean Sea area is thought to be an actively extendingback-arc region due toslab rollback on the Hellenic subduction zone.[3] This has resulted in extensive normal faulting andrifting, as well as the formation of aback-arc basin. This environment has created a number ofhorst and graben features on the seafloor, similar tobasin and range topography. Many of theAegean Islands are peaks from these features reaching above sea level.[6][7] The southern part of the plate is 20–22 km thick, while the northern part of the plate is 32–40 km thick, which suggests that the extensional environment has only recently begun affecting the northern region.[4]
Prior to the extensional environment, the region underwent the Aegean Orogeny (c. 70 – 14 Ma), followed bycrustal thinning due topost-orogenic collapse. This period enabledmetamorphism and then exhumation of many types of metamorphic rock found on the Aegean islands.[3]
The Aegean Sea and surrounding area is seismically active because of the Hellenic subduction zone, as well as the extension of the Aegean Plate. The African plate is subducting under the Aegean plate at a rate of about 40 mm/year, causing shallow earthquakes near the fault and deeper earthquakes near the Greek volcanic arc.[8] Some seismic activity is a result of the extension of the plate, which creates east–west trending faults that can slip and cause earthquakes.[9]
Media related toAegean tectonic plate at Wikimedia Commons
