PALEOZOIC SEQUENCES AND EVOLUTION OF THE CALABRIAN-PELORITAN ARC (SOUTHERN ITALY)

Three Palaeozoic sequences belonging to three different basins crop ou t in the Calabrian-Peloritan Arc. Their age covers the time span from middle (?) Cambrian to early Carboniferous, The sequences comprise ter rigenous, volcanic and carbonate rocks, and show low-grade metamorphis m. The basement is of pre-middle Cambrian age, crops out in the Calabr ian-Peloritan Arc, and was metamorphosed prior to the opening to the P alaeozoic basins. The Palaeozoic basins existed no later than the midd le Carboniferous, with inferred maximum crustal extension in the Cambr o-Ordovician. By Devonian time, the tectonic regime was compressional overall with middle Devonian island-are type volcanic activity that co ntinued until the closure of the basins. Approximately 330 Myr, the Pa laeozoic sequences experienced low-pressure greenschist facies metamor phism and continuing subduction controlled the Variscan tectonogenesis with 280 Myr island-are type intrusive magmas. Subduction ceased and late-stage 280-270 Myr granitic magmas were emplaced during continenta l collision.The crustal sector carrying the Palaeozoic basins is inter preted as comprising fragments of an active continental margin, one of the several microplates, located at the southern margin of the Euro-A sia continent which faced a large (at least 1500 km in width) ocean ba sin.