Large-scale gravity-driven phenomena in the Crotone Basin, southern Italy

Abstract

The aim of this study is to better define the scale, timing and driving mechanisms of a seaward-gliding landmass currently affecting the Crotone Basin, a forearc basin on the Ionian side of Calabria (southern Italy). An integrated approach of seismic, well and field data, together with literature information, have revealed that the slide includes an onshore updip extensional domain compatible with the presence of a curved seaward-dipping fault system to the NW, which is connected southward to an offshore downdip compressional domain through a buried detachment surface lying at a Messinian halite layer. The landmass, which involves Messinian-Pleistocene deposits, has started to slide since the Zanclean, and experienced a paroxysmal episode between late Zanclean and early Piacenzian linked to transpressional tectonics. After a phase of inactivity during the Calabrian, the gravitational collapse underwent a second reactivation since middle Pleistocene due to regional uplift, which seems to be restricted to the offshore sector, the Crotone peninsula and probably the eastern coastal area. • A better definition of the scale, timing and driving mechanisms of the Crotone Megalandslide is provided. • A first phase of activity started during the Zanclean and ended during the Gelasian, and involved the whole basin. • A second phase of activity persists since the middle Pleistocene and involved only the Crotone peninsula and the offshore area.