Publication Date:
2021-05-12
Description:
Mapping and luminescence aging of raised marine terraces and aeolian ridges along an ∼90 km coastal stretch in southwestern Sicily provide the first quantitative assessment of vertical tectonic deformation in this region, which spans the frontal part of an active thrust belt. We recognized a staircase of eleven terraces and nine related aeolian ridges. The elevation profile of terraces parallel to the coast shows a 〉90 km long bell-shaped pattern, onto which shorter-wavelength (∼10 km long) undulations are superimposed. Luminescence ages from terraced beach deposits and aeolian sediments constrain the position of paleoshorelines formed during MIS 5e, 7a and 7c, with a maximum uplift rate of ∼0.75 mm/a, and indicate a late Middle-Late Pleistocene (80–400 ka) age for the sequence of terraces. The elevation of Lower Pleistocene morpho-depositional markers points that uplift may have occurred at similar rates at the beginning of the Early Pleistocene, but almost zeroed between ∼1.5 and 0.4 Ma before the recent renewal. The uneven elevation of Middle-Upper Pleistocene paleoshorelines observed moving along the coast documents that uplift embeds both a regional and a local component. The regional, symmetric bell-shaped uplift is related to involvement in the thrust belt of thicker crustal portions of the northern African continental margin. The short-wavelength undulations represent the local component and correspond to actively growing bedrock folds. The present study contributes to unravel the different spatial and temporal scales of deformation processes at a collisional margin.
Description:
Published
Description:
106812
Description:
2T. Deformazione crostale attiva
Description:
JCR Journal
Keywords:
Marine terraces
;
Aeolian ridges
;
Luminescence dating
;
Pleistocene
;
Frontal thrust belt
;
Fold growth
;
Southwestern Sicily
;
Mediterranean sea
;
04.04. Geology
Repository Name:
Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV)
Type:
article
