Paleomagnetic data from the Western Mediterranean: a review

Abstract

A review is given of palaeomagnetic data that have become available during the last years. The accent of this review is on the palaeomagnetic results from the Italian peninsula, since most of the new data came from there. It is shown that the data from the Italian peninsula are consistent and define the movements of the Adriatic block. The Adriatic block moved together with Africa during post-Hercynian times until the Early Tertiary. In a post-Early Tertiary movement phase this block was detached from the African continent. The Tertiary rotation pole that describes this detachment is derived according to a new method for fitting apparent polar wander curves.