Publication Date:
2016-05-21
Description:
Newly collected structural data in Eastern Sardinia (Italy) integrated with numerical techniques led to the reconstruction of a 2D admissible and balanced model revealing the presence of a widespread Cenozoic fold-and-thrust belt. The model was achieved with the Forc software, obtaining a 3D (2D + time) numerical reconstruction of the continuous evolution of the structure through time. The Mesozoic carbonate units of Eastern Sardinia and their basement present a fold-and-thrust tectonic setting, with a westward direction of tectonic transport (referred to the present day coordinates). The tectonic style of the upper levels is thin-skinned, with flat sectors prevailing over ramps and younger-on-older thrusts. Three regional tectonic units are present, bounded by two regional thrusts. Strike-slip faults overprint the fold-and-thrust belt and developed during the Sardinia-Corsica Block rotation along the strike of the pre-existing fault ramps, not affecting the numerical section balancing. This fold-and-thrust belt represents the southward prosecution of the Alpine Corsica collisional chain, and the missing link between the Alpine Chain and the Calabria-Peloritani Block. Relative ages relate its evolution to the meso-Alpine event (Eocene-Oligocene times), prior to the opening of the Tyrrhenian Sea (Tortonian). Results fill a gap of information about the geodynamic evolution of the European margin in Central Mediterranean, between Corsica and the Calabria-Peloritani Block, and imply the presence of remnants of this double-verging belt, missing in the Southern Tyrrhenian basin, within the Southern Apennine chain. The used methodology proved effective for constraining balanced cross-sections also for areas lacking exposures of the large scale structures, as the case of Eastern Sardinia.
Print ISSN:
0278-7407
Electronic ISSN:
1944-9194
Topics:
Geosciences
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