NEW GEOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS AND BIOSTRATIGRAPHIC DATA ON THE ARGOLIS PENINSULA: PALAEOGEOGRAPHIC AND GEODYNAMIC IMPLICATIONS

Abstract

The ophiolites of the Dinaric-Hellenic belt still pose intriguing questions. In fact their ages, the oceanic domains of pertinence, the mechanisms of formation, the paleogeographic positions with respect to the nearby continents, have been and still are matter of very hot debates. We here present the preliminary results of our researches on the geology of the Argolis Peninsula. We studied the stratigraphic and structural organisation of the pile of the tectonic units and in particular focused our attention on the age of the radiolarian cherts at the top of the ophiolitic sequence, and on the tectonic-sedimentary features of the socalled ophiolite-bearing Ermioni Complex (Robertson et al., 1987). The petrography of the basalts has been object of a co-ordinate work by Saccani et al. (2002). The new data allowed to suggest a new tectonic interpretation of the Argolis Peninsula and of the Mesozoic geodynamic evolution of this sector of the Hellenides.