Fracture stratigraphy of Mesozoic platform carbonates, Agri Valley, southern Italy

The outcropping platform carbonates form a layered succession crosscut by a dense array of bed-parallel pressure solution seams and veins, oblique-to-bedding pressure solution seams, and high-angle joints, veins, and pressure solution seams. Altogether, these structural elements form sub-seismic heterogeneities that formed during the polyphase tectonic evolution of the southern Apennines fold and-thrust belt, Italy. Aiming at assessing the role exerted by the primary carbonate architecture on failure modes and fracture geometry and distribution, we conduct a multi-disciplinary study by performing stratigraphic, petrographic, mineralogical, and mesoscale structural analyses. Based on carbona…