Central Mediterranean tectonics : a key player in the geomorphology of the Maltese Islands

Abstract

Spectacular landforms, both coastal and inland, on the Maltese Islands, are directly related to mainly vertical tectonic movements that mostly occurred within the past 10 million years. These movements form part of complex geodynamical processes that have shaped the Central Mediterranean and are still active today. A simple stratigraphic sequence of limestones and marls, that emerged above sea level around 10 million years ago (mya), has been intensely faulted, tilted, weathered and sculpted over these periods, with differing lithostratigraphic properties giving rise to a large variety of landforms, making the Maltese Islands a natural and easily accessible laboratory for studying neotectonic processes and the resulting geomorphology.