The best suggestion I have had from an experienced geologist so far is that the African plate is being subducted under the Eurasian plate.

Initially this did not seem to make sense, but looking further I realised that an image of plates converging from East and West on either side of Africa was an oversimplification. As the map below shows, the movement is towards the North-East and North-West; giving a net movement in a northerly direction. Apparently satellite tracking indicates that the Med is closing. Oceanic crust must be going somewhere.


There never was nothing.