Motion at the junction of the Dinarides and Hellenides in light of new thermochronological ages (northern Albania, Kosovo and Montenegro)

The junction of the Dinarides and Hellenides has been the site of repeated motion since Mesozoic time. Today, it is marked by the Shkoder-Peja Normal Fault (SPNF) that downthrows and rotates the Hellenic segment in its hangingwall clockwise with respect to the Dinaric segment in its footwall. The SPNF overprints an older transcurrent fault of uncertain (presumably Mesozoic) age, referred to as the Shkoder-Peja Transverse Zone (SPTZ), that dextrally offsets the Dinaric and Hellenic nappes, especially the front of the West Vardar Ophiolite (WVO), by some 80 km. The SPTZ is not treated further below.

Here, we combine thermometry by Raman spectroscopy on carbonaceous matter (RCSM) with low-T thermochronology (apatite and zircon fission track, respectively, AFT, ZFT; zircon U-Th/He or ZHe) to gain insight into the thermal history of the SPNF and adjacent units. Accretion of the Adriatic margin involved SW-directed Dinaric nappe stacking and post-nappe ductile folding at peak temperatures (T_p) of 180-220°C between 46-49 Ma as constrained by ZHe cooling ages. Higher T_p (300-460°C) are restricted to Middle Triassic granitoids in one of these nappes (East Bosnian Durmitor Nappe) and yield broadly scattered Cretaceous ZFT and ZHe ages. These may reflect shearing and/or the precipitation of carbonaceous matter during post-intrusive fluid activity, and have nothing to do with the later Dinaric temperature field.

Orogen-parallel extension along the SPNF was accompanied in its footwall by doming and mylonitic overprinting of the Dinaric folds. ZHe and AFT ages mostly in the footwall of the SPNF bracket its age at between 48 and 21 Ma. Within this range, a late Oligo-to-Miocene age is favored on stratigraphic grounds. Continued extension involved cataclastic overprinting along the SPNF and mid-Miocene to Pliocene (16-5 Ma) sedimentation in the Metohia-Dukagjini Basin. Subsequent extension in Plio-Pleistocene time (5-3 Ma) migrated into the southern part of this basin.

The SPNF is part of a system of Neogene normal faults that continues to accommodate clockwise arcuation and attenuation of the Dinaric-Hellenic chain in response to slab tearing and Hellenic roll-back subduction. It accommodated only ~10° of clockwise rotation of the Albanian segment of the Hellenic orogen with respect to the Dinarides and Europe. The pole for this modest intracrustal rotation is situated near the Albanian town of Shkoder. SE of Shkoder, Neogene normal faulting gives way to coeval top-WSW thrusting. Most post-40 Ma clockwise bending (50-70°) of the Dinaric-Hellenic chain is interpreted to have occurred about the Adria-Apulia plate rotational pole located in the southern Dinarides between 42 and 43°N latitude, possibly offshore of Dalmatia in Croatia (e.g., near the Mid-Adriatic Ridge, Handy et al. 2019) or inland within the southern Dinarides (Ferriozzi et al. 2025, Lesić et al. 2026).

 

Feriozzi, F, Siravo G, Speranza F (2025) Tectonics, 44, https://doi.org/10.1029/2024TC008743

Handy MR, Giese J, Pleuger J, Schmid SM, Spakman W, Onuzi K, Ustaszewski K (2019), Tectonics, DOI: 10.1029/2019TC005524

Lesić V, Màrton E., Đaković M, Ćosović V, Gàbor I, Radusinović S (2025) Int. Journal of Earth Sciences, 114, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00531-026-02596-5