Heritage of Tethyan Oceanic Transform Faults Within Alpine Orogens: Paleomagnetic Evidence From the Shkoder‐Peja Transverse Zone (Northern Albania)

Abstract The Shkoder‐Peja transverse zone (SPTZ) of Northern Albania marks the boundary between the Dinarides and Albano‐Hellenides and is marked by a ∼100 km SW‐ward shift of the ophiolitic nappe front. The SPTZ has been variably interpreted as a paleogeographic inheritance, a dextral strike‐slip fault, the hinge of the clockwise (CW) rotating Albano‐Hellenides, and a Miocene normal fault. Here we report on the paleomagnetism of 23 Triassic‐Cretaceous sites from the Krasta‐Cukali and Albanian Alps domains, located both within and north of the SPTZ. Six sites yielded only a pre‐tilt magnetization, 14 sites were found to be remagnetized after late Eocene‐Aquitanian tilt, and 3 sites showed both pre‐ and post‐tilt magnetizations. Both pre‐ and post‐tilt paleomagnetic directions yielded a ∼70° CW rotation with respect to Adria/Africa, except 9 sites from the Koman zone at the boundary with the ophiolitic nappe, which record a 38° ± 15° CW rotation. Thus, the well‐known regional CW rotation of the Albano‐Hellenides extends northward in the southern Dinarides, and the SPTZ is not a rotation boundary as previously assumed. The ∼70° CW rotation is interpreted as the sum of a 30° rotation associated with Late Oligocene‐Aquitanian thrusting of the Krasta‐Cukali nappe over the Kruja zone, plus the 40° Miocene‐Pleistocene rotation well‐documented in the external Kruja and Ionian zones of Albania. We suggest that the SPTZ is the heritage of a Lower‐Middle Triassic transform fault of the Maliac Tethyan Ocean, later overprinted by the Lower Cretaceous obduction of the Vardar Ocean that rejuvenated Maliac since the Middle Jurassic.