The analysis of several seismic reflection profiles offshore the Adria plate reveals acomplex spatial-temporal distribution of the carbonate platforms, often linked todifferent conditions of the crustal thicknesses. The “platform sequence”, the“platform-to-basin sequence” and the “oceanic sequence” seem to represent theprincipal paleogeographic domains and are associated with different crustal typeswhich, during the Tertiary age, became the foreland of the southernApennine/Calabrian Arc and the Dinaric/Hellenic Chain. In this work, we have triedto highlight how these main crustal domains affect recent tectonics in a remarkableway. The migration of the Calabrian Arc and the Hellenic Chain brought about aregional compressive regime, which currently affects the whole crustal thickness ofthe Adria plate, causing transpression along the main strike-slip systems of the plate,inversion tectonics in the Salento offshore, and underthrusting below the Dinaric front,whereas the external front of the central-southern Apennines does not seem to beactive any more.
