Complex basin development in a wrench-dominated back-arc area: Tectonic evolution of the Crati Basin, Calabria, Italy

Field data and seismic reflection profiles of various resolutions, calibrated by deep well logs, have been used to unravel the tectonic evolution of the Crati Basin (southern Italy). The study area is located in the northern portion of the Calabrian Arc, a well-developed arc-shaped feature of the circum-Mediterranean belts, consisting of a series of ophiolite-bearing tectonic units and overlying basement nappes. NW-SE oriented left-lateral strike-slip faults exerted a major control on the tectonic evolution of northern-central Calabria, from Middle Miocene to Lower Pleistocene times. Such faults, arranged in an en-echelon geometry and dissecting the pre-existing Late Oligocene-Early Miocene orogenic belt, led to a structural setting including major N-S striking synforms - as the offshore Paola Basin and the Crati Basin are interpreted based on our results - separated by a broad antiformal ridge. Since the Middle Pleistocene, both E- and W-dipping normal faults developed in the southernmost sector of the Crati Basin, probably as a consequence of both uplift of the orogenic edifice and Tyrrhenian back-arc extension. The pre-existing regional strike-slip faults became inactive in this sector of the belt. However, working as persistent barriers, it is envisaged here that they inhibited the southern propagation of the newly formed normal faults, which therefore propagated towards the north. A minimum value of cumulative displacement of ca. 600 m has been unraveled for the central sector of the Crati Basin since Middle Pleistocene times. This yields a vertical strain rate of ca. 0.9 mm/y during the last 700 ka. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.