Faulting, basin formation and orogenic arcuation at the Dinaric–Hellenic junction (northern Albania and Kosovo)

Abstract The Dinaric–Hellenic mountain belt bends where two fault systems transect the orogen: (1) dextral Shkoder-Peja Transfer Zone (SPTZ), active sometime between Late Cretaceous and middle Eocene; (2) Normal Fault (SPNF), which accommodated NW–SE directed orogen-parallel extension. SPTZ dextrally offsets nappes by ~ 75 km, a displacement attributed to reactivation of an Early Mesozoic rift transfer zone in Adriatic margin during Paleogene subduction Pindos Ocean. This involved initial counter-clockwise rotation Hellenides with respect Dinarides around pole at NW end Budva–Krasta–Cukali–Pindos Basin. SPNF overprints is composite structure comprising five segments: four them (Cukali–Tropoja, Decani, Rožaje, Istog) were under ductile-to-brittle conditions. They downthrow West Vardar Ophiolite hanging wall. Cukali–Tropoja Decani segments exhume domes anchizonal-to-greenschist-facies metamorphism their footwalls. These structures formed first-phase extension clockwise rotation, whose Paleocene age constrained cross-cutting relationships. A second extensional phase was mainly fifth (Dukagjini) segment SPNF, subsurface normal bordering syn-rift, mid-late Miocene clastic lacustrine sediments Dukagjini Basin (DB) that are sealed Plio-Pleistocene strata. later subsidence Neogene basins junction coupled accelerated oroclinal bending. driving force for thought be bending rollback untorn part slab beneath Hellenides.