Tectonic evolution of the ‘Liguride’ accretionary wedge in the Cilento area, southern Italy: A record of early Apennine geodynamics

Abstract

Abstract The early stages of southern Apennine development have been unraveled by integrating the available stratigraphic record provided by synorogenic strata (of both foredeep and wedge-top basin environments) with new structural data on the Liguride accretionary wedge cropping out in the Cilento area, southern Italy. Our results indicate that the final oceanic subduction stages and early deformation of the distal part of the Apulian continental margin were controlled by dominant NW–SE shortening. Early Miocene subduction-accretion, subsequent wedge emplacement on top of the Apulian continental margin and onset of footwall imbrication involving detached Apulian continental margin carbonate successions were followed by extensional deformation of the previously ‘obducted’ accretionary wedge. Wedge thinning also enhanced the development of accommodation space, filled by the dominantly siliciclastic Cilento Group deposits. The accretionary wedge units and the unconformably overlying wedge-top basin sediments experienced renewed NW–SE shortening immediately following the deposition of the Cilento Group (reaching the early Tortonian), confirming that the preceding wedge thinning represented an episode of synorogenic extension occurring within the general framework of NW–SE convergence. The documented Early to the Late Miocene steps of southern Apennine development are clearly distinct with respect to the subsequent (late Tortonian-Quaternary) stages of fold and thrust belt evolution coeval with Tyrrhenian back-arc extension, which were characterized by NE-directed thrusting in the southern Apennines.