TIMING AND MODES OF DEFORMATION IN THE WESTERN SICILIAN THRUST SYSTEM, SOUTHERN ITALY

Abstract

Imbricate units in the western Sicilian fold‐and‐thrust belt originated on the southern continental margin of Neotethys, and were deformed during the Neogene‐Recent in response to convergence between the African and European Plates. Neogene‐Pleistocene synorogenic sediments, deposited in flexural foredeeps and satellite piggy‐back basins, contain a record of the belt's evolution. Progressive migration of the thrust front southwards into the foreland has been documented, beginning in the Tortonian and continuing to the present‐day particularly in western parts of the belt. In the eastern part, activity on Quaternary strike‐slip fault zones has produced asymmetric flower structures and other interference structures.In this paper, we present two regional sections across the western Sicilian foreland‐thrust belt system. These structural cross‐sections extend down as far as the top of the Hercynian basement and integrate our field observations with previously‐acquired well log, magnetic and seismic data. We show that complex interactions between the foreland‐migrating thrust belt, which developed between the Late Miocene and the Pleistocene, and Pleistocene strike‐slip faults led to the development of structural traps which constitute potential targets for hydrocarbon exploration.