Neogene to Quaternary evolution of the Calabrian Subduction System, (Central Mediterranean)

We construct an ESE striking to WNW geological cross-section across the Calabrian Subduction System (Central Mediterranean) using seismic near vertical profiles and field data. The interpreted profiles were time-to-depth converted, merged and translated in a geological section stretching from the Marsili Oceanic Basin (Southern Tyrrhenian Sea) to the Ionian accretionary complex . Moving toward the east, the resulting section through the Paola, Amantea, and Crati basins, the Coastal Chain and Sila Massif and Crotone basin. The maximum elongation of these basins change progressively moving toward the east: from NNW in the Paola to NS in the Crati to the NNE in the Crotone basins. Data we pres…

Plio-Quaternary tectonic evolution offshore the Capo Vaticano Promontory

We reconstruct the Plio-Quaternary tectono-stratigraphic evolution in the offshore Capo Vaticano (W Calabria, Italy) by integrating data obtained from single- and multi-channel reflection seismic profiles and a reprocessed version of the CROP M2A/III line. NW-trending, high-angle normal faults, dipping ~70° to the south-west formed along the continental slope connecting the south-west continental shelf of the Capo Vaticano Promontory to the Gioia Tauro Basin (Pepe et al., 2014). Faults generally have small displacements up to 40 m and are sealed by Pleistocene deposits. West of the Capo Vaticano promontory and in the Gioia Basin, a SE-dipping, normal fault system, more than 32 km long, is r…

SISTER 99: a seismic campaign to investigate the kinematics of South Tyrrhenian extensional region

Hyper-extended rifted margin in the Tyrrhenian Sea, upper plate of the Ionian subduction zone

The Tyrrhenian Sea is a Miocene to Present back-arc basin developed in the upper plate of the Ionian subduction zone. Refraction seismic data indicate that the central sector of the Marsili Basin is a zone of thin crust ∼7 km thick compatible with its oceanic origin (Steinmetz et al., 1983). Conventional models rather define a Continent-Ocean Transition (COT) with normal oceanic crust (i.e. Finetti et al., 2005). This does not seem to be the case for the whole Tyrrhenian Basin. Serpentinized peridotites, emplaced during Pliocene, have been drilled at ODP Site 651 (Sartori et al. 2004). The W Calabria segment of the Tyrrhenian continental margin is peculiar as seismic data has excluded the p…

Miocene to Present evolution of the Calabria Tyrrhenian continental margin (Southern Tyrrhenian Sea)

The Miocene to Present evolution of the Calabria Tyrrhenian Continental Margin (CTCM, Southern Tyrrhenian Sea) are reconstructed using two ENE-WSW oriented, near-vertical seismic profiles (CROP-M27 and SISTER 11 lines). The interpreted profiles were time-to-depth converted, merged and translated in a geological section, which was also extended to the Tyrrhenian bathial plain and the Calabrian arc using wide-angle seismic data [Scarascia et al., 1994], and tested with gravity modelling. Across the CTCM, top of KCU is laterally variable in depth forming basins filled by Oligo-Miocene clastic to terrigenous deposits up to 1500m thick. Basins are separated by major structures with contractional…