--> Abstract: Present-Day 3D Structural Architecture of the Po Valley basin, Northern Italy (with special emphasis on the Top Mesozoic Geometries), by Claudio Turrini, Olivier Lacombe, and Francois M. Roure; #90161 (2013)

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Present-Day 3D Structural Architecture of the Po Valley basin, Northern Italy (with special emphasis on the Top Mesozoic Geometries)

Claudio Turrini, Olivier Lacombe, and Francois M. Roure

By integrating the dataset available from the public domain (DEM, wells, isobath-maps, cross-sections, outcrop-trends), a 3D structural model of the Po Valley basin (Northern Italy), one of the most productive hydrocarbon provinces of continental Europe, has been built using the MOVE package (Midland Valley).

The Po Valley structural architecture appears to be extremely complex, and only a 3D structural reconstruction is capable to better "quantify" the derived complexity (compared to previous/usual 2D representations) while supporting the necessary geometrical compatibility across the xyz space. In addition, slicing the volume along any direction allows to better visualize and understand the current relationships among shallow and deep structures.

Preliminary results include:

1)the Po-Valley Moho is a poorly-deformed surface which is simply bulged in its Eastern sector (Adriatic), likely folded below the Northern Apennines, underthrusted by the Europe mantle below the Alps, finally extruded towards the surface at the Po-Valley/Western-Alp boundary (Ivrea); 2)the magnetic basement and the overlying Mesozoic cover are conformably deformed (thick-skinned tectonics) across the foreland Po Valley domain while they are partly detached from each other (thin-skinned tectonics) in the Northern-Apennines and South-Alpine foothill regions; 3)at the regional scale, the related isopach (Top Mesozoic-Top Basement) is thinning southwards and westwards and thickening northwards and eastwards ; 4)the Top Mesozoic 3D GRID illustrates the various structural trends which model the Po Valley (e.g., the N-S Lacchiarella inverted Jurassic structure, the Ferrara Arch and the Veneto Dome); 5)the comparison of the 3D Top Mesozoic surface with the available 2D geological and seismic sections outlines the structural interference of the mutually perpendicular pre-Alpine extensional and Alpine compressional structures; 6)the Top Pliocene structures compared to the Top Mesozoic ones show the degree and distribution of the mechanical (de)coupling of the Tertiary clastics with respect to their substratum.

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