Structural style at the thrust front of the southern Dinarides and its connection to the Albanides

The deformation of the Outer Dinarides, which fringe the eastern side of the Adriatic Sea, has been completed in the early Miocene. However, the southern portion of the thrust belt, which is mostly located in the Adriatic offshore, presents seismicity and evidence of active tectonics. This segment of the Dinarides, which turns from NW-SE to E-W, continues to the south into the Albanides, although the way in which this connection occurs, is not fully understood; see for instance the controversial interpretation of the Skutari-Pec Line. This contribution addresses the structural style of the southern segment of the Outer Dinarides and its continuation into the Albanides using a data set composed of proprietary and commercial multichannel seismic profiles. The data show that the structural style at the front of the southern Dinarides varies considerably along strike, in places reworking an intra-platform basin which has been inverted. The occurrence of a marked Messinian erosional surface and of Pliocene growth strata allows to constrain the timing of activity of the thrust front. Deformation has typically spared the western side of the Dalmatian carbonate platform, which faces the Ionian basinal domain. The surface marking the top of the Cretaceous shallow water platform becomes deeper towards the SE, suggesting that the load of the fold-and-thrust belt increases in that direction. The Dalmatian platform passes southward to the Kruja platform of Albania, a completely uprooted unit which has been incorporated into the Albanide thrust belt. The sediments of the Cenozoic foreland basin are currently accreting at the front of the Albanides. Offshore seismic reflection data contribute to understanding the structural relationship between the Dinarides and the Albanides and allow some inferences to be drawn about seismicity and tectonic rotation within the fold-thrust belt.