We present a new GPS velocity field covering the peri‐Adriatic tectonically active belts and the entire Balkan Peninsula. From the velocities, we calculate consistent strain rate and interpolated velocity fields. Significant features of the crustal deformation include (1) the eastward motion of the northern part of the Eastern Alps together with part the Alpine foreland and Bohemian Massif toward the Pannonian Basin, (2) shortening across the Dinarides, (3) a clockwise rotation of the Albanides‐Hellenides, and (4) a southward motion south of 44°N of the inner Balkan lithosphere between the rigid Apulia and Black Sea, toward the Aegean domain. Using this new velocity field, we derive the strain rate tensor to analyze the regional style of the deformation. Then, we devise a simple test based on the momentum balance equation, to investigate the role of horizontal gradients of gravitational potential energy in driving the deformation in the peri‐Adriatic tectonically active mountain belts: the Eastern Alps, the Dinarides, the Albanides, and the Apennines. We show that the strain rate fields observed in the Apennines and Albanides are consistent with a fluid, with viscosity η ∼ 3×1021 Pa s, deforming in response to horizontal gradients of gravitational potential energy. Conversely, both the Dinarides and Eastern Alps are probably deforming in response to the North and North‐East oriented motion of the Adria‐Apulia indenter, respectively, and as a consequence of horizontal lithospheric heterogeneity.

No abstract

No abstract

International audienceIn Albania, the Osum and Vjoje rivers cross the active graben system and the active frontal thrust system of the Albanides. The effects of climatic and geodynamic forcing on the development of these two rivers were investigated by the means of field mapping, topographic surveying and absolute exposure-age dating. We established the chronology of terraces abandonment from the compilation of new dating (14C and in situ produced 10Be) and previously published data. We identified nine fluvial terraces units developed since Marine Isotope Stage 6 up to historic times. From this reconstituted history, we quantified the vertical uplift on a time scale shorter than the glacial climatic cycle. Regional bulging produces an overall increase of the incision rate from the west to the east that reaches a maximum value of 2.8 m/ka in the hinterland. Local pulses of incision are generated by activation of normal faults. The most active faults have a SW–NE trend and a vertical slip rate ranging from 1.8 to 2.2 m/ka. This study outlines the geodynamic control in the development of rivers flowing through the Albanides on the scale of 103–105k

No abstract