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Neogene-Quaternary wedge-top-basins arose during the Sicilian fold and thrust belt (FTB) build-up. The infilling sedimentary successions are: i) middle-upper Miocene silicoclastics succession, accommodated on top of the accreted Sicilide and Numidian flysch nappes; ii) upper Miocene-lower Pliocene deepening-upwards sediments unconformably overlying the inner Meso-Cenozoic deep-water, Imerese and Sicanian thrust units; iii) Upper Pliocene-Quaternary coastal-open shelf deposits unconformably covering (in the outer sector of the FTB) a tectonic stack (Gela thrust system). These successions are characterized by a basal unconformity on the deformed substrate believed to be the depositional interface common both to the coeval wedge-top and foredeep basins. The tectono-sedimentary evolution of the syn-tectonic basins was controlled by the progressive deepening of the structural levels, which were active during the growing of the FTB. The palinspastic restoration of a crustal geological transect in central Sicily points to: i) the occurrence of two subsequent, basal main thrusts (MT1 and MT2) active during the Neogene-middle Pleistocene tectonic evolution, as well as ii) a decrease in slip- and shortening-rate, estimated for the later MT2 as compared to earlier MT1 basal main thrust. The foreland-basin system evolution recorded during these two steps suggests: – the regional lithofacies distribution, during late Tortonian-early Pliocene, accounted for a wide depozone including the Iblean plateau and its offshore;– a crucial change was recorded by the late Pliocene-Pleistocene wedge-top depozone, when the deeper basal main thrust (MT2) involved and thickened (in the inner sector of the FTB) the crystalline basement (thin- to thick-skinned thrust tectonics); this change influenced the depozones, progressively narrowing up to the present-day setting. As regards this general evolutionary framework, thin-skinned and thick-skinned thrust tectonics can be recognized in the Sicilian FTB evolution. The late Tortonian-early Pliocene, thin-skinned thrust tectonics include two main tectonic events, a “shallow-seated” Event 1 and a “deep-seated” Event 2, with the Pliocene-Pleistocene thick-skinned thrust tectonics representing a third tectonic event (Event 3).

The present paper aims to show, both from a stratigraphic and structural points of view, the main features of a wedge-top syntectonic basin which evolved recording polyphase and non-coaxial tectonics. The study area is the Scillato Basin (SB), a roughly N-S-oriented structural depression located in the central-northern sector of the Sicililian Maghrebides. There, an approximately 1300 m-thick upper Serravallian to upper Tortonian succession of clastic units outcrops as a portion of the Neogene syntectonic covers of the Sicilian fold and thrust belt. Within the outcropping succession the upper Tortonian Terravecchia Fm represents the main topic of this paper. A multidisciplinary approach was carried out through an integration of sedimentology, facies, stratal pattern and structural analyses; this was applied to the formation enabling one to recognize in the Scillato Basin a fining to coarsening upward succession, deposited recording an early transgressive and a late regressive depositional stage. In our model these two main depositional stages developed and are directly relatable to a two-step structural evolution of the basin. During the first step, a NW-SE-oriented structural depression existed, enclosed between structural highs and accommodating the lower and middle portion of the upper Tortonian succession. Subsequently, during the second step, the NW-SE depression was non-coaxially deformed by superimposition of high-angle transpressive faults (many of which were SE-dipping), developed in response to the upward propagation of structures enucleated at deeper structural levels. This step was recorded in the basin by development of both depositional and structural interferences recognizable along the upper portion of the Scillato Basin succession. A comparison between field data and deep geophysical data interpreted at the preliminary stage, raises questions about the late Miocene geological evolution of this sector of the Sicilian chain, including: (i) the syn-tectonic deposition of the Terravecchia Fm. in the Scillato Basin clearly recorded the interference of two main and non-coaxial tectonic events; (ii) the younger of these two events has a clear tranpressional character and was active during the very late Tortonian; (iii) as also indicated by many authors in neighboring orogenic wedges, the main control on the location, geometry and depositional evolution of the Scillato wedge-top Basin was carried out by compressional and transpressional structures developed at a deeper structural level. Their deformation propagated upward both into the shallow structural level and sedimentary covers; therefore (iv) the late Miocene structural scenario here depicted is not consistent either with the back-arc-related extension or with the late orogenic gravitational collapse models previously invoked by other authors with regard to this sector of the Sicilian thrust belt.

The study of geological evolution of a multiphase orogenic belt is complex, expecially when the tectonic events are superimposed in a coaxial fashion. The Sicilian fold-and-thrust belt represents an interesting case study, as a non-coaxial superimposition of structures is recognizable, owing to large synkinematic clockwise rotations during each of two subsequent compressional events. These rotations involved also the syntectonic basins that developed in the wedge-top depozone. This study aims to constrain the tectono-depositional evolution of the NW Sicily fold-and-thrust belt and the associated wedge-top depozone between the middle Miocene and the early Pliocene. Integrated analyses of stratigraphic, sedimentological and structural field data allow us to better constrain the transition between the two tectonic events. The syntectonic basins developed during the first (late Serravallian–early Tortonian) tectonic event were relatively wide and characterized by marine sedimentation. The onset of the second (latest Tortonian) transpressional event induced localized deformation into the wedge-top depozone and the syntectonic successions were accommodated as basin fill in progressively narrower and laterally discontinuous basins, bounded by transpressional structures. The lateral correlation of the wedge-top successions suggests a latest Miocene regional palaeoslope with a present-day WSW dip, which fits well with the tectonic transport calculated for the early compressional event.

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