The goal of avoiding distraction (e.g., ignoring words when naming their print colors in a Stroop task) is opposed intrinsically by the penchant to process conspicuous and correlated characteristics of the environment (e.g., noticing trial-to-trial associations between the colors and the words). To reconcile these opposing forces, the authors propose a tectonic theory of selective attention in ...

In the early 1920s, the continental displacement theory of Wegener, latitude studies of Koppen and Wegener, and Argand's ideas on mountain building led to the first mobilistic paleogeography. In the 1930s and 1940s, many factors caused its general abandonment. Mobilism was revived in the 1950s and 1960s by measurements of long-term displacement of crustal blocks relative to each other (tectonic...

Magnetic lineation in rocks is given by a cluster of the principal axes of maximum susceptibility (Kmax) of the Anisotropy of Magnetic Susceptibility (AMS) tensor. In deformed rocks, magnetic lineations are generally considered to be the result of either bedding and cleavage intersection or they parallel the tectonic extension direction in high strain zones. Our AMS determinations, based on a v...

The Tirgan Formation (Barremian – Aptian) is exposed in the Kopet Dagh in northeast Iran. One stratigraphic section in Zavin was measured with a thickness of 110 meters. This Formation in section consists of three parts (including lower carbonate, limy shale – marl and upper carbonate rocks). Based on the study of 94 thin sections, 10 carbonate and 2 siliciclastic lithofacies have been identifi...

The Alboran Basin and the surrounding Betic-Rif Cordilleras (see Fig. 1) constitute an arc-shaped thrust-belt that exempli®es contemporaneous internal extension and frontal thrusting in an overall compressional setting. The complex tectonic evolution of the region is the result of ongoing convergence between Africa and Eurasia since late Mesozoic. Until the amalgamation of Iberia with Europe, f...

The rocks of the Wadi Umm Gheig/El-Shush area in the central Eastern Desert of Egypt form part of the Nubian Shield, a component of the Neoproterozoic Pan-African Orogeny. The rocks have been divided into three units: (i) low-grade metamorphosed rocks, which consist of metavolcanic rocks interleaved with slices of ophiolitic melange; (ii) high-grade metamorphic rocks, which consist of syn-tecto...

A viscous flow model of a subduction zone is used to calculate the near-trench deformation and topography of the overriding plate in response to tectonic and buoyancy forces. The tectonic force, which is associated with global plate motion, arises from subduction of a cold oceanic lithosphere that shears the overriding lithosphere along the contact between the two plates. The buoyancy force ari...