Neotectonic development of the Struma (Kraištid) Lineament, southwest Bulgaria and northern Greece

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Abstract
The Struma (Kraištid) Lineament is a part of a fault belt of regional importance. It strikes NNW-SSE and cuts through different Alpine tectonic zones along the whole Balkan Peninsula. Normal and strike-slip faults occurred in environments of extension and graben formation during collapse after or between collision epochs in the Palaeogene and Early Neogene, and in a back-arc extensional environment during the neotectonic (end of Middle Miocene-Quaternary) stage. The last Alpine compression phase occurred in the beginning of the Miocene, and Early-Middle Miocene planation formed the initial peneplain. New intense faulting marked the beginning of the neotectonic stage (Late Badenian), and the neotectonic development, including sedimentation, proceeded in four regional macrocycles: Badenian-Sarmatian; Maeotian; Pontian-Dacian; and Eopleistocene-Pleistocene. The neotectonic development was marked by formation of the Serbo-Macedonian Swell as well as by rifting (the Vardar and Struma rifts).