Tertiary structural evolution of the southern Rhodope metamorphic province: a fundamental revision

The Rhodope province is conventionally interpreted as a continental fragment that was caught between Apulia and Europe and deformed and metamorphosed in the hinterland of the Hellenic collisional orogen. Geologic mapping in the Strymon Valley region of northeastern Greece augmented by new U-Pb and ⁴⁰Ar/ ³⁹Ar geochronologic data support an alternative view that the southwestern Rhodope province represents the core of an Alpine collisional orogen that was extended and tectonically unroofed by a succession of three late Cenozoic low-angle normal fault systems that alternated in polarity.