The effects of post-orogenic extension on different scales: an example from the Apennine-Maghrebide fold-and-thrust belt, SW Sicily

Many structures produced under one single deformation regime, namely extensional, contractional or strike-slip, exhibit remarkable geometrical analogies when analysed at different scales. By contrast, field examples that illustrate the scale effects on structures resulting from superimposed deformations, which were produced under different tectonic regimes, are rare. Yet the change from contraction to extension is known to occur often in the most thickened portions of the continental crust. The Apennine–Maghrebide fold-and-thrust belt of Sicily shows many examples of post-orogenic extensional deformations. Composite structures, resulting from late normal faults that offset folds and thrusts…