Tectonic analysis of a flexed foreland: the Ragusa Platform

Abstract

Detailed field studies of fracture patterns and paleostress reconstructions based on analyses of fault-slip data sets allow the identification of the Late Cenozoic stress pattern evolution of the Ragusa Platform. During the Late Miocene to Early Pleistocene period, a complex extensional pattern developed. It was dominated in almost the entire Hyblean Plateau by NW-SE to NNW-SSE extensions related to the flexure of the foreland under the load of the allochthonous units of the Sicilian Fold and Thrust Belt. These extensional tectonics were characterized by NE-SW to ENE-WSW trending normal faults and grabens. In eastern Hyblea, NE-SW to ENE-WSW extension have prevailed at least since the Late Cretaceous. They are linked to the effects of the Malta Escarpment. In the western Ragusa Platform, a third, minor, WNW-ESE extension associated with sets of NNE-SSW trending normal faults, may be correlated with the development of the Gela basin. In addition, these major extensions induced complex patterns of perpendicular normal fault systems through permutations between the principal stress axes σ2 and σ3. The Pliocene-Pleistocene extensional paleostress field evolution is marked in almost the entire platform by the alternation of two or three main extensional stress patterns (NE-SW to NNW-SSE, WNW-ESE and NE-SW to ENE-WSW extensions), each of them controlled by particular boundary conditions. Three minor compressional paleostress orientations have been identified. They correspond to three minor compressional events dominated by 020°–030°, 070°–080° and 100°–110° compressional directions. These events occurred in within the general Pliocene-Pleistocene extensive context. The 100°–110° event is of Early-Middle Pliocene age. Its large regional distribution suggests that this event may have resulted from interactions between the major blocks constituting the Africa-Eurasian boundary. The relative chronology shows that the 020°–030° compression predates the 070°–080° one. The origins of these compressional events are still uncertain due to poor regional control.