Apennine tectonics in southern Italy: a review

The southern Apennines thrust system developed in Late Cretaceous to Quater nary times in response to deformation processes induced by the convergence between the African and European plates. The structural associations recogn ized in the area permit us to attribute these processes to three main evolu tionary stages: an oceanic subduction, an obduction and a collisional to po st-collisional stage. Each stage covers a time period of about 10(7) years and comprises several deformation sequences of similar time scales (about 7 -9 x 10(6) years). In the southern sectors of the chain, in the Calabria-Lu cania borderland area, the earliest phases of deformation of the oceanic ac cretionary wedge are recorded by the metamorphic and structural signature o f oceanically-derived rock units. The progressive growth of the southern Ap ennines thrust system is attested by the overprinting relationships existin g among the different structural assemblages characterizing the obduction, collisional and post-collisional stages. The latter includes the Early Plei stocene development of strike-slip faults, which are responsible for strong lateral variations in the crustal structure of the chain, and for the comp artimentalization of the system into various sectors displaying different s ubsurface features. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.