0000000000159024
AUTHOR
Nigro Fabrizio
The contribution of the pre-existing structures in mountain belt evolution: the example of the negative inversion in the Northen Sicily
Syn-orogenic extension has been recognised in Northern Sicily. Mesoscopic analysis has been carried out in three key areas, where folded-and-thrust Mesozoic-to-Tertiary rocks crop-out. The three examples are inherent to Portions Of tectonic Units Which occupy progressively more internal positions in the Sicilian chain from west to east. The extensional deformation is mainly represented by low-angle normal faults and shear bands. A common kinematic process seems to affect the other sector of the chain during the extension and is represented by a generalized negative inversion of previous layer-parallel shear bands and detachments related to the thrusting. The extensional deformation occurred…
Plio-Pleistocene strike-slip deformation in NE Sicily: the example of the area between Capo Calavà and Capo Tindari
The Peloritani Mts. in Northeastern Sicily are part of the Sicilian orogenic belt interposed between the Tyrrhenian basin and the Ionian Basin. In the Tyrrhenian basin crustal thinning has been active since the late Miocene, whereas wedge accretion (External Calabrian Arc) has occurred in the Ionian basin, due to the north-westward subduction of the Ionian Plate below the Calabrian-Peloritani Arc. Strike-slip tectonics in NE Sicily occurred during Plio-Pleistocene times. Faulting caused a non-uniform uplift rate of the Plio-Pleistocene deposits, which are elevated up to 500 m above sea level. The structural pattern is mainly represented by NW-SE and N-S/NNE-SSW trending transcurrent faults …
Integrated neotectonic and morphometric analysis of northern Sicily
Sicily is characterised by active deformations, as suggested by the presence of very recent faulted deposits and by widespread seismicity. The northern portion of the Sicilian belt has undergone strike-slip tectonics since the Pliocene, as the effect of the south Tyrrhenian border dynamics. Integrated methodologies of analysis have been utilised to evaluate the neotectonic setting of the northern sector of the island. To this aim, we have elaborated mesostructural, morphotectonic and morphometric data obtained from field survey, photogeological analysis and from the elaboration of digital elevation model (DEM) data relative to 31 drainage basins. The data sets have been compared with the up…
Transtensional/extensional fault activity from the Mesozoic rifting to Tertiary chain building in Northern Sicily (Central Mediterranean)
Extensional structures of different ages characterize the Sicilian fold-and-thrust belt. Normal faults ranging in geometry from stepped to listric and formed in different geodynamic settings significantly controlled the pattern of syn-tectonic deposits. Since Mesozoic times Sicily has experienced deformation related to the opening of the Tethys Ocean. Between the Upper Triassic and the Cretaceous normal, strike- and oblique-slip faults, developed in northern Sicily, in the framework of a transtensional deformation regime induced by the oblique rifting of the African and European continental passive margins. Since Tertiary times a reversal in the general relative plate motion induced converg…
Sequence of deformation in the sicilidi units (northern sicilian chain)
The foredeep deposits of Northern Sicily, indicated as Sicilidi units, have undergone different deformations' since Oligocene time. The resulting tectonic Structures, analysed in several outcrops in the Eastern Madonie Mts, are 1 cm-to- 100 m in scale and are similar to the larger structures forming the Sicily belt, allowing for scale extrapolation. Also the overprinting relationships of the minor structures recorded in the so-called Tufiti di Tusa reflect the sequence of fault activation which determined the present-day geometry of the tectonic units, suggesting that the tectonic evolution of the foreland basin developed during the stacking of the Maghrebide fold-and-thrust belt. The overp…