The Malta Graben: Insight into recent tectonic activity in the Sicily Channel (Central Mediterranean Sea) in response to Africa-Eurasia convergence

The NW-SE-trending Malta Graben is one of the main extensional structures of the Sicily Channel, whose tectonic evolution within the broader Africa-Eurasia convergent setting remains debated. We reconstruct the tectono-stratigraphic evolution of the Malta Graben since the Pliocene through the interpretation of seismic reflection profiles, integrated with bathymetric, geodetic, and seismological data. The Plio–Pleistocene succession is organized into syn-extensional sequences, which are bounded by unconformities and record the progressive development of the rift above a Miocene–Mesozoic basement. The structural architecture is dominated by high-angle normal faults and negative flower structures, which controlled the growth of the graben. Moreover, some normal faults remain active today, while some have been locally inverted, producing folding and a prominent seafloor bulge in the northern part of the Malta Graben. The geometry and distribution of these inverted structures indicate that contractional reactivation occurred in recent geological times, since the Upper Pliocene-Lower Pleistocene. We propose that these coeval extensional and contractional structures reflect differential foreland deformation style within the Sicily Channel in response to the Africa–Eurasia plate convergence. The Malta Graben is therefore a valuable natural laboratory for better understanding how foreland region responds locally to competing tectonic forces at major plate boundaries.