Understanding paleomagnetic rotations in Sicily: Thrust vs. transpressive structures

2016

Since the 1970s, paleomagnetic data collected in Sicily have documented large magnitude clockwise (CW) rotations around vertical axis with respect to Africa and the Hyblean foreland. Many Authors argued that rotations arise from rotational thrusting of large coherent nappes coinciding with paleogeographic units. In the forward thrust propagation process, each nappe rotates the overlying nappe stack. This would explain the stepwise decrease of rotation magnitudes from the internal Panormide unit (90°-140°) to the external Saccense unit, yielding no rotation. However, other Authors later proposed that rotations of Sicily are the consequence of dextral shear occurring since late Miocene times …