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Geologists had previously believed that the Dalmatian Islands and the Dinaride Mountains had stopped growing 20 to 30 million years ago.
From a region northwest of Dubrovnik, the new fault runs northwest at least 200 km (124 miles) under the sea floor.
The Croatian coast and the 1,185 Dalmatian Islands are an increasing popular tourist destination. Dubrovnik, known as "the Pearl of the Adriatic," is a UNESCO-designated World Heritage site.
At the fault, the leading edge of the Eurasian plate is scraping and sliding its way over a former piece of the African plate called the South Adria microplate, said lead researcher Richard A. Bennett of The University of Arizona in Tucson.
"It's a collision zone," said Bennett, a UA assistant professor of geosciences. "Two continents are colliding and building mountains."
Bennett and his colleagues found that Italy's boot heel is moving toward the Croatian coast at the rate of about 4 mm (0.16 inches) per year. By contrast, movement along parts of California's San Andreas fault can be 10 times greater.
The region along the undersea fault has no evidence of large-magnitude earthquakes occurring in the last 2,000 years. However, if the fault is the type that could move abruptly and cause earthquakes, tsunami calculations for the region need to be redone, he said.
"It has implications for southern Italy, Croatia, Montenegro and Albania."
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