Birth and death of oceanic basins: geodynamic processes from rifting to continental collision in Mediterranean and circum-Mediterranean orogensGEOPROB ProjectG. CAPPONI, A. FESTA & G. REBAYPreface

The study of the evolution of ocean basins from birth to death is crucial for the understanding of the geodynamic evolution of orogenic systems. Exhumed ophiolite-bearing orogenic belts represent significant fossil analogues of different types of modern oceanic basins, allowing detailed multiscale and multidisciplinary investigations. Such investigations are highly important to our understanding of the ancient and modern geodynamic processes connected to the different stages of complete tectonic evolution, from rifting to subduction, collision and exhumation.