No abstract

No abstract

The Lazio‐Abruzzi carbonate platform overrides the outermost sectors of the foreland fold and thrust belt of the central Apennines of Italy along an arcuate thrust front, which swings from E‐W to NNW‐SSE orientation. The E‐W striking, north verging thrust faults of the Gran Sasso cut in their footwall the N‐S oriented, east verging imbricates of the Marche thrust belt and the adjacent Adriatic foredeep. Our field mapping of the Gran Sasso imbricate system shows an array of six major thrust faults crosscutting each other in such a way that oblique propagation of higher thrust faults across the preexisting thrust sheets causes rethrusting of earlier imbricated units, decapitation of previous folds, and superposition of younger on older beds. Deformation in the Gran Sasso thrust belt mainly occurred between Messinian and middle Pliocene times and is partly synchronous with the development of the Marche thrust belt, thus implying that shortening resulted from a complex combination of northward and eastward propagating thrust systems. Increasing west to east shortening along the Gran Sasso thrust front indicates large, differential anticlockwise rotation by decoupling along a N‐S transpressive right‐lateral shear zone. This mechanism could have been induced by the Maiella foreland uplift, acting as a buttress against which the Lazio‐Abruzzi carbonate platform was stacked and forced to rotate anticlockwise, with consequent shortening by out‐of‐sequence thrust propagation.

In the peri-Adriatic region, mélanges represent a significant component of the Apennine and Dinaride–Albanide–Hellenide orogenic belts as well as ancient and present-day accretionary wedges. Different mélange types in this broad region provide an excellent case study to investigate the mode and nature of main processes (tectonic, sedimentary, and diapiric) involved in mélange formation in contrasting geodynamic settings. We present a preliminary subdivision and classification of the peri-Adriatic mélanges based on several years of field studies on chaotic rock bodies, including detailed structural and stratigraphic analyses. Six main categories of mélanges are distinguished on the basis of the processes and geodynamic settings of their formation. These mélange types are spatially and temporally associated with extensional tectonics, passive margin evolution, strike-slip tectonics, oceanic crust subduction, continental collision, and deformation. There appears to have been a strong interplay and some overlap between tectonic, sedimentary, and diapiric processes during mélange formation; however, in highly deformed regions, it is still possible to distinguish those mélanges that formed in different geodynamic environments and their main processes of formation. This study shows that a strong relationship exists between mélange-forming processes and the palaeogeographic settings and conditions of mélange formation. Given the differences in age, geographic location, and evolutionary patterns, we document the relative importance of mélanges and broken formations in the tectonic evolution of the peri-Adriatic mountain belts

Since early Pliocene times the Apenninic chain has been dissected by normal faults propagating towards the Adriatic foreland. In the Tyrrhenian Sea extension involved deep crustal sections, whereas in the ‘Central Apennines Downfaulted Area’ it affected the shallow crust. The Tyrrhenian back‐arc domain is connected to the overall flexural retreat of the Adriatic–Apulia plate in front of the Apenninic collisional wedge. In the outer Apenninic belt thin‐skinned delamination and gravitational collapse occurred in the hanging wall of a thickened wedge, overthrusting the uplifted, buoyant crust of the Apulia foreland. Differential sinking velocity of the foreland plate results from the inherited competence contrast between the rigid Gargano–Apulia carbonate platform to the south, and the low‐competence lithology of the pelagic sequence of the Adriatic basin to the north. During late Messinian–early Pliocene times this palaeogeographical boundary acted as a lithospheric tear, separating segments of the Apulia plate subjected to different subduction modes.