Pleistocene strike‐slip tectonics in the Lucanian Apennine (southern Italy)

Abstract

Structural studies carried out in the Lucanian Apennines (Southern Italy) show that strike‐slip faulting was the principal mode of deformation of this area during middle‐upper Pleistocene time. W‐NW to E‐SE trending left strike‐slip fault systems dissect the entire Apennine mountain belt and affect the preexisting thrust geometry. Strike‐slip faults, activated by a roughly E‐W shortening, are characterized by different geometries representing the surface response to lateral motion occurring along deep‐seated structures. The occurrence of different structural patterns which characterize different segments of strike‐slip system is related to (1) the depth of a major decoupling surface which separates the upper tectonic multilayered horizon (Apennines thrust belt system) from the lower rigid horizon (Apulian belt) in which strike‐slip structures have originated and (2) the geometric relationships between the strike‐slip faults and the thrust belt pattern which characterize the upper horizon. The different segments of the strike‐slip system are interpreted as internal deformation developed within a crustal shear zone. This zone, which corresponds to the boundary between the Apulian block and the Apennine chain, is characterized by sinistral movement as a response to the northwesterly convergent motion of the African plate with respect to Europe.