Velocities (rates and direction) for Africa (N-Afr, E-Afr), Europe, Adria and Iberian terranes (W-Ib, S-Ib, Ebro) along paths defined in Figure 21. Graphs on the left panel (A, B, C) refer to relative plate motions, rates and direction (arrows), with respect to Europe and those on the right panel (D, E, F) are illustrating absolute plate motions (relative to mantle). (A) Relative motions for N-AFr (blue), E-Afr (yellow), Adria (pink). (B) Relative motions for W-Ib (grey), S-Ib (brown) and Ebro (black). (C) Zoom of (B) for the period younger than 100 Ma. (D) Absolute motions for N-AFr (blue), E-Afr (yellow), Adria (dark pink) and Europe (pink). (E) Absolute motions for W-Ib (grey), S-Ib (brown) and Ebro (black). (F) Zoom of (E) for the period younger than 100 Ma. Arrows depict the directions of motion (North up) with colors corresponding to each continental block. Motion for Europe and Africa are those of Müller et al. (2019). Grey dashed lines labelled DvH indicate Adria’s motion according to model of van Hinsbergen et al. (2019a, 2019b). Contraction and extension in left panel are indicated in red and blue color gradients, respectively. Number in (A) refer to deformation regimes (red for extension, blue for contraction). Extension dominates in Western Europe as Neo-Tethys developed (1) followed by Atlantic (2). Rotation of Iberian terranes obliquely to Adria resulted in contractional episodes in southern Alpine Tethys (3). Early stages of clockwise rotation of Adria initiated subduction in the Alps (4). From Late Cretaceous, contraction spread rapidly over whole Europe (5). Kinematic reorganization occurred at 35–25 Ma as back-arc extension in the Western Mediterranean (6). Numbers and stars in (B) refer to plume-related magmatic events: CAMP LIP (1) at 200 Ma (Marzoli et al., 1999a, 199b, 2019), Karoo LIP (2) at ∼ 180 Ma (Jourdan et al., 2005), Etendeka-Paranà plume (3) at 135–130 Ma (Marzoli et al., 1999a, 199b; Beccaluva et al., 2020), Morondava LIP (4) at 92–84 Ma, Réunion LIP (5) and Icelandic plume (6) at about the same time (62–65 Ma), Afar plume (7) at 45–30 Ma. Green color gradient indicates slowed Africa’s motion during the Late Cretaceous-Paleogene.