Constraining the Passive to Active Margin Tectonics of the Internal Central Apennines: Insights from Biostratigraphy, Structural, and Seismic Analysis

Abstract

The polyphase structural evolution of a sector of the internal Central Apennines, where the significance of pelagic deposits atop neritic carbonate platform and active margin sediments has been long debated, is here documented. The results of a new geological survey in the Volsci Range, supported by new stratigraphic constraints from the syn-orogenic deposits, are integrated with the analysis of 2D seismic reflection lines and available wells in the adjacent Latin Valley. Late Cretaceous syn-sedimentary faults are documented and interpreted as steps linking a carbonate platform to the adjacent pelagic basin, located to the west. During Tortonian time, the pelagic deposits were squeezed off and juxtaposed as mélange units on top of the carbonate platform. Subsurface data highlighted stacked thrust sheets that were first involved into an initial in-sequence propagation with top-to-the-ENE, synchronous to late Tortonian foredeep to wedge-top sedimentation. We distinguish up to four groups of thrust faults that occurred during in-sequence (thrusts 1–3; about 55–60 km shortening) and backthrusting (thrust 4). During Pliocene to recent times, the area has been uplifted and subsequently extended by normal faults cross-cutting the accretionary wedge. Beside regional interest, our findings bear implications on the kinematic evolution of an orogenic wedge affected by far-traveled units.

New data on the distribution of the Volturno spined loach Cobitis zanandreai (Teleostei: Cobitidae )

“…The range of C. zanandreai falls into the area that has been proposed as the Apulo-Campanian ichthyo-geographical district (Bianco, 2014;Ketmaier et al, 2009) which is characterized by the presence of other endemic fishes: Barbus fucini, a species of barbel recently revalidated by Lorenzoni et al (2021), Alburnus albidus, and the southern clade of Telestes muticellus (Buj et al, 2017), considered as a separate species by Bianco (2014). Considering the articulated tectonic setting established in the earliest Pliocene (Cardello et al, 2021) of faulting and volcanic eruptions, such as the emergence of the Roccamonfina volcano about 650,000 years BP (Radicati di Brozolo et al, 1988;Rouchon et al, 2008) and the disappearance of the Lirino Lake about 346,000 years BP (Devoto, 1965;Marra et al, 2021). Fish stocking was probably not involved in the origin of the C. zanandreai populations in southern Latium, as fish stocking practices for angling took place a long time after the first reports of the species in this area (Brunelli, 1930;Sabbatini, 1869; Vinciguerra, 1889).…”

Segmentation of the Apenninic Margin of the Tyrrhenian Back‐Arc Basin Forced by the Subduction of an Inherited Transform System

“…The Messinian age of a mélange in the footwall of the SE termination of the Volsci Range (Figure 2) (Accordi et al, 1967) and the lateral continuity with the Massico Mt. toward the south-east, where out-of-sequence thrusting at 5.1 ± 3.7 Ma (U-Pb dating) is documented (Smeraglia et al, 2019), suggest that thrusting of the Volsci Range could have lasted up until earliest Pliocene time (Cardello et al, 2021).…”

“…Toward the NE, the foredeep basins become progressively younger, and the syn-orogenic sediments in the footwall of the Volsci Range thrust are Burdigalian (Sabbatino et al, 2021) to Messinian in age (e.g., Centamore et al, 2007;Cosentino et al, 2002). Thrusting in the Volsci Range started during the Tortonian (Cavinato & Celles, 1999;Cardello et al, 2021;Cipollari & Cosentino, 1995). The Messinian age of a mélange in the footwall of the SE termination of the Volsci Range (Figure 2) (Accordi et al, 1967) and the lateral continuity with the Massico Mt.…”

“…A long-lasting issue in the literature addressing the tectonic evolution of the central Apennines is the degree of allochthony and the origin of the chaotic sediments bearing blocks of pelagic rocks (e.g., Cardello et al, 2021;Centamore et al, 2010;Ogniben, 1969;Sani et al, 2004). The amount of shortening that can be reconstructed for this part of the Apennines strongly depends on their interpretation.…”

The Mesozoic palaeoenvironmental richness of the Trieste Karst

“…Those belts developed three subduction zones associated with thrusts involving the Meso-Cenozoic carbonate successions (e.g. Sani et al, 2016;Cardello et al, 2019Cardello et al, , 2021. The structural setting of the Karst is the result of the interplay of the Dinaric and Alpine tectonic phases.…”