Structural analysis of the ‘Internal’ Units of Cilento, Italy: New constraints on the Miocene tectonic evolution of the southern Apennine accretionary wedge

Abstract

Based on the structural analysis of the ‘Internal’ Units cropping out in the Cilento area (southern Italy), this article provides new geodynamic constraints on the Miocene tectonic evolution of the southern Apennine accretionary wedge. The studied sedimentary successions, forming part of the tectonically superposed Nord-Calabrese (in the hanging-wall) and Parasicilide Units, are characterized by three superposed fold sets. The analysis of the attitudes of the main structures allowed us to unravel the shortening directions experienced by the accretionary wedge in the Miocene time. The reconstructed deformation sequence, characterized by initial NW-SE shortening and subsequently by west-east and NE-SW shortening, is related to the inclusion of the studied successions into the accretionary wedge and to their subsequent tectonic emplacement on top of outer domains of the foreland plate. Accretionary wedge overthickening and uplift, probably associated with footwall imbrication involving carbonate units of the foreland plate, was followed by wedge thinning, which also enhanced the creation of accommodation space in wedge-top basin depocentres.