Post-breakup Compression in the Tyrrhenian Basin

Nevio Zitellini, Filippo D'Oriano, Ingo Grevemeyer, Stefan Moeller, Marco Pastore, Giovanni Pezzati, Manel Prada, César R. Ranero, Valenti Sallares, and Montserrat G. Vendrell

The Tyrrhenian Sea is an area of neogenic extensional tectonics located at the rear of the Apennine- Maghrebide fold-thrust mountain belt. The lithospheric thinning of the Tyrrhenian region started in the Upper Miocene and was caused by the e ESE-SE retreat of the Apennine subduction system. The rifting of the basin was then followed by the oceanization of the center of the basin and later by the oceanization of its eastern part and it is currently though that the westward migration of the subduction system is still active in the eastern region, i.e. underneath the Calabrian Arc. Notwithstanding all the compelling evidences of past and on-going extensional tectonics, the studies of the natural seismicity of the Tyrrhenian region show the occurrence of compressive stress regime in the southern Tyrrhenian, along the northward continental margin of Sicily. Recent investigations in the basin together with a re-examination of the geophysical data set available seem to suggest the presence of more widespread compression than previous though. These new researches are then reinforcing the suggestion that extension is only a part of the recent story of the Tyrrhenian basin.

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