Evidences Of Extensional and Strike Slip Faulting in the Southern Apennines Thrust Belt. Impact on the Fault and Fracture Network and Dynamics in the Subsurface

Raffaele Di Cuia, Alberto Riva, Raffaele Bitonte, and Alessandro Criscenti

The Southern Apennines are a complex thrust belt system that evolved in a very short interval of time in relationship with the opening of the Tyrrhenian basin.

The thrust belt is made of a series of tectonic units related to the Mesozoic paleogeographic domains that are thrusted one on top of the other and that have also involved in the eastern most part of the thrust belts the Tertiary flysch and foredeep deposits.

The building of the thrust belt was very rapid and the presence of a wide foreland made of thick and massive carbonates belonging to the Apulian Platform has strongly affected the last tectonic phases and geometries of the thrust belt.

The integration of satellite images, earthquake focal mechanisms and field observations highlight the presence of a strong extensional and strike slip component of the main structural lineaments in the core of the thrust belt. Major oil fields and exploration targets in the fractured carbonates of the Apulian Platform are located underneath the allocthonous units in the central part of the thrust belt.

The presence and impact of the most recent extensional and strike slip faulting system on the fault and fracture network in the subsurface is a fundamental point to better understand the fluid circulation within the low porosity fractured carbonate reservoirs present in the area.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90161©2013 AAPG European Regional Conference, Barcelona, Spain, 8-10 April 2013