TECTONOPHYSICS

ELSEVIER Tectonophysics 264 (1996) 175-189

Crustal image of the Ionian basin and its Calabrian margins

L. Cernobori a,b,*, A. Him c, J.H. McBride d, R. Nicolich a, L. Petronio a, M. Romanelli a,
STREAMERS/PROFILES Working Groups
a DINMA-Univ. of Trieste, Via Valerio 10, Trieste, Italy
b CNR-lst. Talassografico, Via le R. Gessi 2, Trieste, Italy
c LPG. de Paris, pl. Jussieu 4, Paris, France
a BIRPS, Bullard Laboratories, Madingley Road, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB30EZ, UK

Received 1 March 1995; accepted 30 November 1995

Abstract

Previous seismic investigation of the crustal structure in the Ionian basin has been limited to shallow penetration
seismics of the 1970's, characterized by inadequate source power and low fold. Earlier OBS and ESP seismic refraction
experiments have not been able to firmly resolve one of the principal scientific problems for this region which is whether
the Ionian basin is floored by oceanic crust or by highly attenuated continental crust. A second elusive problem is the
nature of the transition of the boundaries between the Ionian basin and its margins.
In this paper we describe and interpret new deep seismic reflection and wide-angle data collected in the western Ionian
Sea and the Calabria region of Italy. One of the principal features of our multichannel reflection data beneath the Ionian
basin is a band of 'layered' high-amplitude reflections near the base of the crust. This band shows a quasi-monochromatic
(ca. 8 to 10 Hz) frequency and a traveltime thickness of 1 to 1.5 s. These images contrast with the well known reflection
patterns of Mesozoic oceanic crust investigated in the Atlantic Ocean. There is evidence that the low-frequency band
dips down towards the edge of the Malta Escarpment (ME), where landward-dipping reflectors separate continental and
intermediate type crust in the central tract of the ME. The increased traveltimes of the lower-crustal reflectors and Moho,
from the basin towards the southern and eastern margins of southern Calabria, could be partially due to the velocity
pull-down effect of the sedimentary pile of the arc, although a true dip of 15 to 18%, over 60 km distance, can be
substantiated. Moreover, the reflecting band maintains its reflectivity and thickness until its abrupt termination beneath the
Ionian continuation of the Calabrian compressional crustal structures. The coincident acquisition of wide-angle seismic
data and marine reflection seismic data provided a landward extension of the survey which will complement existing
geologic information on the deep framework of the Ionian basin and its Calabrian margin.

Keywords: Ionian Basin; multi-channel seismic reflection; Calabrian margin; lower crust seismic stucture; crustal thinning

1. Introduction project in early 1992, is underlain by a deep basin

The western Ionian Sea (Fig. 1), which has been
surveyed by the S T R E A M E R S seismic acquisition
* Corresponding author. Tel. + 3 9 40 676-3478; Fax: + 3 9 40
676-3497.
where the sedimentary cover can be more than 8
k m thick, as known from both reflection and re-
fraction data (Finetti, 1982; Makris et al., 1986;
Ferrucci et al., 1991; de Voogd et al., 1992; Truffert
et al., 1993), and includes Mesozoic to Quaternary
sequences (Dercourt et al., 1986). The basin is lo-

0040-1951/96/$15.00 Copyright © 1996 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

PI1 S 0 0 4 0 - 1 9 5 1 ( 9 6 ) 0 0 1 2 5 - 4
 176 L. Cernobori et al./Tectonophysics 264 (1996) 175-189

19

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Fig. 1. Location map of the STREAMERS profiles (ION-l, -2, -3, -4, -5, -6) in the western Ionian (thick continuous lines). Additional
hatched boxes mark the portion of the profiles shown in Figs. 3 to 7. The land-stations location (TS-1) and the Serre profile are indicated
onshore Calabria. Dashed lines indicate DSS/79 (Ferrucci et al., 1991), DSS/81 (Makris et al., 1986) and ESP locations (de Voogd et al.,
1992). A = Calabrian-Peloritan nappes; B = Maghrebian arc; C = Hyblean plateau; 1 = main vertical extensional faults; 2 = thrust
faults on land.

cated within a complex geological area and played eas of stretched crust, crustal underplating, and a
a crucial role in the Tertiary and Quaternary tec- thrust belt in which arc-shaped structures have de-
tonic interaction between the African and European veloped comprise the interesting tectonic features of
continental margins. Extensional and compressive this region. Nevertheless, geophysical and structural
processes have developed over a short time span in data distinguish distinct crustal domains and de-
the central Mediterranean since the Tortonian: ar- limit the kinematic evolution of their margins which
 L. Cernobori et aL / Tectonophysics 264 (1996) 175-189
was strictly controlled by N-S collision between the
African and European plates:
- the Pelagian block that exhibits a normal to thin
continental crust affected by rifting processes;
- the thinned and stretched area of the southern
Tyrrhenian and Ionian domains, characterised by a
transitional or oceanic crust;
- the orogenic belt represented by the Apennine
and Maghrebian thrust system and by the Calabrian
arc (detailed structurations in C.N.R., 1983).
The timing of the deformation suggests that the
Tortonian to Quatemary tectonics of the central
Mediterranean is dominated by the extrusion of the
Calabrian arc towards the east, laterally restrained by
the N-S impingement of the continental indenter of
the Pelagic domain (Reuther et al., 1993). The mech-
anism of the interaction between the Calabrian block
and the Ionian domain and the nature of the Ionian
crust and its active or passive role in the collisional
process, are crucial points for the understanding of
the recent evolution of this complex area. Accord-
ing to a model of Mesozoic-Cenozoic plate-tectonic
evolution of the Eastern Mediterranean area (Der-
court et al., 1986), the extension within the Ionian
basin began in the Late Jurassic (150-130 Ma). In
the Aptian (about 110 Ma) a rotation of Apulia with
respect to Africa initiated the rapid subsidence of the
Ionian basin. The basin was expanding in the Late
Cretaceous and ceased its spreading in Cretaceous-
Paleocene time, which generally corresponds to the
collision north of Apulia. Gealy (1988) assigns the
spreading event, which led to the development of the
Eastern Mediterranean, to the Middle Cretaceous.
Geophysical data (seismic, gravimetric and heat
flow) are consistent with the suggested models of
thinning and basin formation. In particular, in the
western Ionian Sea, the depth of the Moho rises
to 19-20 km and finally reaches about 16-18 km
under the Ionian Abyssal Plain. Makris et al. (1986),
Ferrucci et al. (1991), de Voogd et al. (1992) and
Trnffert et al. (1993) have identified the Moho depth
from high, at least 8.1-8.2 km/s, refraction velocities
on OBS and ESP profiles. This P-wave velocity
corresponds to a density of 3350 to 3450 kg/m 3
(Truffert et al., 1993) which, in turn, correlates to
either a depleted mantle or with the presence of
eclogite (transformation of magmatic basalt lenses
into dense eclogite rocks after the cooling of the
177
basin). Furthermore, the positive Bouguer anomalies,
ranging up to about 310 mGal at the centre of the
Ionian abyssal plain (Morelli et al., 1975) in spite of
the rather deep Moho, provide convincing evidence
of a dense lens in the uppermost mantle. Moreover,
in the western Ionian basin the heat-flow values do
not exceed 40 mW/m 2 (Della Vedova and Pellis,
1992). This provides evidence of general cooling
related to the tectonic subsidence of the Ionian basin.
The STREAMERS survey provides new addi-
tional constraints on the tectonic development of this
region by imaging the reflectivity structure at higher
resolution than previously available. The most un-
expected and impressive image obtained with the
seismic data described in this paper is that of a lay-
ered band at the base of the crust, 1 to 1.5 s thick,
with monochromatic (8-10 Hz) reflectors and strong
amplitudes. According to the above mentioned DSS
and ESP results, this band corresponds to a wide,
thick (3.5 to 4.0 km), laminated lower crust or crust-
mantle transition, to which an interval velocity of
6.9 to 7.1 km/s was assigned. It appears to be a dis-
tinctive signature for the Ionian basin and, although
this area has been thought to be floored by oceanic
crust, differs from true oceanic reflection images as
observed in the eastem Atlantic Ocean (McBride et
al., 1994). Furthermore, this distinctive band can be
traced from the basin centre to its margins and then
used as a marker of the Moho topography and of de-
formations in the Ionian region since its formation.
This layered lower crust has also been clearly seen
in a profile shot in 1993 with a single-bubble airgun
array on board M/V Nadir (Ifremer) in the frame of
a study of Mt. Etna, Sicily (Cernobori et al., 1994;
Avedik et al., 1995).
2. The geological framework
2.1. The abyssal plain in front of the central sector
of the Malta Escarpment (ME)
Geophysical data indicate that the ME separates
two distinct domains corresponding to the Pelagian
and Ionian Seas. Casero and Roure (1994) interpret
the evolution of the ME as an essentially Torto-
nian feature, subdivided, along a N-S direction, into
tracts (Fig. 1), each of which had a distinct geody-
namic evolution due to important SW-NE-trending
178 L. Cernobori et al./Tectonophysics 264 (1996) 175-189
dislocations. Each tract shows structurally different
characteristics: the middle and southernmost ones
have developed parallel to zones characterised by
equal facies depositions during the Mesozoic, but the
northern tract crosscuts them (Casero et al., 1988).
The central sector corresponds to a continental mar-
gin facing an ancient sea. However, in analogy to
other Mesozoic margins, the central ME could have
been affected by listric faulting and subdivided into
tilted blocks of various sizes. The transition from a
thinned continental to a true oceanic crust towards
the centre of the basin, as interpreted by de Voogd
et al. (1992), is also a possibly important part of this
story.
2.2. The Ionian margin of southern Calabria
The Calabrian arc is divided into two sectors. The
northern one includes the Sila crystalline units and a
stack of Apennine carbonate formations partly over-
thrust by the Sila granite nappes. Since the Creta-
ceous, the northern sector, which was closely linked
to the evolution of the Apennine chain, has under-
gone nearly uninterrupted deformation along an area
perpendicular to the major Apennine orogenic move-
ments. The southern sector is linked to the evolution
of the Sicilian-Maghrebides chain (Boccaletti et al.,
1984). A dramatic uplift of this region (1-2 mm/yr.)
occurred in the Middle-Late Pleistocene with the
development of normal faulting tectonics. Detailed
onshore and some offshore geological information
are given in the Structural Model of Italy (C.N.R.,
1983).
From a tectonic point of view, the southern sector
is the most active area of the central Mediterranean.
Cassinis and Ranzoni (1987) have recognised, un-
derneath Calabria, a belt with a dense concentration
of earthquakes, subhorizontally distributed and con-
fined close to the crust-mantle boundary at 20 to
25 km depth. This information is supported by the
records obtained by a local seismological net (Cara-
belli et al., 1988) that reveals a layer possessing a
strong seismicity at a depth range of 15 to 25 km. A
second seismically active layer has been found at 50
km depth. These seismically active structures abut
on an area in the Tyrrhenian Sea, with deep-seated
seismicity (hypocentres located at depths reaching
more than 400 km).
From the above observations, active subduction
of the Ionian crust beneath the Calabrian arc has
been hypothesised. Other authors (Patacca and Scan-
done, 1989) maintain that the subduction system is
by now composed only of a narrow relic slab which
is now mechanically weak. Moreover, they forecast
the collapse of lithospheric blocks by gravity into
the mantle, which may be related to modern seismic
activity. However, the opening of the Tyrrhenian Sea
can be interpreted as an asymmetric passive rifting
developed as a consequence of the N-S collision
between the African and European plates or may
be the consequence of low-angle shear displacement
(i.e., a shear plane displaces the entire crust and it
is followed by a uniform stretching of the lower and
more ductile parts of the lithosphere). Such a delam-
ination model could explain the deformation style
of the continental lithosphere and the uplift of the
mantle due to tectonic denudation. Another model
could be proposed which involves the active role of
the mantle with asthenospheric intrusions as prod-
ucts of a transformation of the lithospheric mantle
(and crust), enhanced by a thermal anomaly and fluid
supply from deep mantle sources. The southeastward
motion of a less viscous and mobilised astheno-
spheric mass would then be the kinematic source
of the obduction of the Calabrian crustal units onto
the quasi-oceanic Ionian crust (Locardi and Nicolich,
1988).
Ferrucci et al. (1991, and references therein) have
recognised the base of the crust (Calabrian Moho?)
at depths of nearly 30 km, offshore the southern
tip of Calabria, and at depths of about 18 km in
the Serre region. More recently, a reflection seismic
profile has been acquired in the Serre mountain area
(LUschen et al., 1992). The interpretation of these
data confirms the relatively thin crust of the Calabria
block, characterised by reflective internal structures
and with the base at a depth of approximately 18
to 20 km, dipping southwards. The distribution of
interval velocities within the block, as revealed by
refraction seismic and modelling techniques applied
to the reflection section, never exceeds 6.0-6.4 km/s
until the base of the block is reached at 6.5 to 7.5
s (about 20 km depth). At the base, the velocity is
poorly constrained but is not greater than 7.5 km/s.
Therefore, we may consider the crustal structures
imaged by the Serre profile as representing a stack
 L. Cernobori et al. / Tectonophysics 264 (1996) 175-189
of strongly deformed and sheared metamorphic units
related to the Apennine collisional orogeny.
3. STREAMERS data acquisition and processing
Previous discussion of crustal structure beneath
the Ionian basin was limited by shallow penetra-
tion seismic of the 1970's which was shot with low
source power and low fold coverage (Finetti, 1982).
More vigorous programs, employing the full power
of multi-channel reflection seismic, have recently
been effective in imaging the crust underneath the
oceans (Rosendhal et al., 1992). These images of
oceanic crust have highlighted sharp lateral vari-
ations in the form of dipping events which cut
through the crust implying a non-uniform structure
for oceanic crust (McBride et al., 1994).
The acquisition of the STREAMERS data was
carried out with the Geko-Prakla M/V Bin Hai 511
using a 180-channel 4.5-km streamer and a 7118-
inch 3 tuned airgun source with shot spacing of 50
or 75 m providing high-fold coverage (3000% or
4500%). The six lines (ION-l, -2, -3, -4, -5, -6,
in Fig. 1) show good signal quality down to the
lower crust, due to the very large volume and areally
extensive airgun array. BIRPS was the technical
operator.
The major results obtained include: penetration
through the whole crust of the Ionian Sea, resolution
of the deep framework of the basin margins, hints
regarding the sediment/lower-crust relations, and the
successful acquisition of coincident near-normal in-
cidence and wide-angle data that allowed landward
extension of the marine coverage.
The processing sequence included conventional
techniques with minor modifications designed to en-
hance deep reflections. One important step was the
array simulation applied as a time variant weighted
trace mix, applied in the shot domain to simu-
late weighted receivers arrays up to 200 m over-
all length. This mixing suppressed steeply dipping
back-scattered noise and helped solve spatial alias-
ing problems when frequency-wavenumber filtering
was required. The post-stack processing was aimed
at the enhancement of the low-frequency lower-crust
reflecting band through resampling at 16 ms and the
application of robust band-pass filters. A further ap-
plication of an adaptive AGC (AAGC) enhanced the
179
main reflectors and provided the basis for the line
drawing interpretation.
Advanced processing was applied only to the
ION-1 line. Here a deconvolution before stack
(D.B.S.: operator length of 300 ms, lag of 32 ms
with two windows) was tested. This deconvolution
operator has improved the image of the upper sed-
imentary crust but did not affect the lower-crustal
reflectivity. A decisive factor in the processing se-
quence was the cancellation of the first coherent
sea-bottom multiple which has been obtained mak-
ing use of the median filtering technique normally
utilised in VSP data processing. The data were first
aligned, according to the moveout of the first mul-
tiple, and then the linearised coherent events were
rejected according to specified moveouts. An inverse
NMO correction restored the original position of
the signals. Removing the high-energy first multi-
ples from the sections usually generates a 'shadow
zone' in the amplitudes which cannot be recovered
by standard scalers. The adaptive AGC, utilising two
windows of different length (the shorter one being
adopted for the shadow zones), has counterbalanced
this effect.
The processing has been done in Athens by the
Petroleum Corporation of Greece (DEP-EKY) and at
the DINMA-University of Trieste.
4. Profile examples and line drawing
interpretation
The line drawing of the STREAMERS Ionian
profiles is given in Fig. 2. The line-drawing repre-
sents a first interpretation of the seismic lines, mark-
ing only the main reflections that have good spatial
correlation. Only on line ION-l, where the reflec-
tion layering is sub-horizontal and without complex
tectonic disruptions, it was possible to recognise
stratigraphic units (Fig. 3). The stratigraphic corre-
lation was made following the interpretation given
by Casero et al. (1984, 1988). The topmost horizon
(Fig. 3) corresponds to the base of the Late Pliocene
and Quaternary clays. Beneath this we have identi-
fied the Early Pliocene Trubi unit, and the Messinian
salt. This last unit cannot be very thick (only a few
hundred metres) because there is no evidence of salt
domes and, based on outcrops in Sicily and Calabria,
we prefer the interpretation of a quasi-transparent
 180 L. Cernobori et al. / Tectonophysics 264 (1996) 175-189

S TR EA M E R S P R O J E C T . line dratoing
SW NE s N
Om
ION I I j ION 2 j ION 3
0
2~
4~
6Z
~ 8~
10
12--
14----
16
ESE WNW E W
Om ION 6 I ION 5 ~ ION 4
__0
2~ Z2
4Z ~4
6~ ~6
8~ 8
~ -
--10~
Z12
14 ~ 14
I I [ I I I I I I I I ~ ."I
i6 ~ ----16
0 SO I00 Km
Fig. 2. Line drawing of the profiles.

layer of pre-evaporitic marls and sands, more than 1
km thick, to be the principal stratigraphic component
of the Messinian. The pinching-out of the Messinian
and of the well-layered Tortonian shales and marls
towards the ME (Casero et al., 1988) attests to the
importance of the post-Tortonian tectonic evolution
of the area. In fact, the Tortonian is locally absent
in the wells drilled in the Malta-Ragusa platform
(e.g. the well Pilade est 1, Fig, 1). The correlation
of the seismic lines to drill holes confirms the con-
tinuity through the Escarpment of the Serravallian
to Oligocene formations. The Cretaceous carbonates
are underlain by Jurassic limestones, but we cannot
make inferences about the Triassic or deeper crys-
talline units. However, Triassic limestone has been
collected at the base of the wall of the Escarpment
(Bizon et al., 1985).
As the lower-crust reflective band dips towards
the ME, it appears to form an arch, which becomes
more dramatic towards the northern tract of the ME
(Cernobori et al., 1994). In the middle of the ION-1
profile, the base of the crust can be identified at 16-
17 km depth. An important tectonic lineament (L in
the section of Fig. 3) separates this part of the Ionian
abyssal plain from the Calabrian arc structures and
the central Ionian Sea. A strike-slip interpretation has
been made for this feature (see also C.N.R., 1983)
and its recent activity is suggested by the presence
of syn-rift deposits apparently of Pleistocene age
(P in Fig. 3). The lineament sharply cuts the stack
of the reflectors below the Messinian pre-evaporitic
deposits down to the base of the crust. To the east
of it, we enter a severely mobilised domain, where
traces of reflective patterns of the carbonate forma-
tions of the Ragusa-Malta area are still recognisable
and where the topography of the base of the crust
appears variable because of deformation and/or ve-
locity pull-up or pull-down in the reflection times by
lateral velocity variations.
Profile ION-2 (Fig. 4) moves northward into the
Calabrian arc domain. Evidence of north-verging
thrust planes appears on the seismic line. The thick
sediments consist of a series of thrusts that affect
the sedimentary cover. The sediments are piled onto
the front of the basin and are severely deformed as
suggested by the very low P-velocities (Makris et
al., 1986). We have not recognised any outstanding
feature beneath the deformed sediments, other than
 L. Cernobori et al./Tectonophysics 264 (1996) 175-189 181

U') : ,.. o
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20110(:
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~~+#{':?+0+,:+ +°
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20235~
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182 L. Cernobori et al./Tectonophysics 264 (1996) 175-189

2. 000 2.000
2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 Krn
I

3. 000 3.000
S N
4.000 4.000

5.000 5.000

6.000 6.000

7.000 7.000

8.000 8. 000

9.000 9.000

I0.000 10.000

t l . O00 I1.000

12.000 t2.000

13. 000 13. 000

Fig. 4. Part of the line ION-2: a slight thickening of the crust towards the north can be observed. The lower crustal reflective band is
indicated.

the lower-crustal reflecting band which is still quite
visible and confirms the depth of the Moho, situated
at the base of reflectivity, at 18 to 20 km along the
line. Therefore, we have a slight crustal thickening
towards Calabria.
Profile ION-3 (Fig. 5) furnishes an image of the
interaction of the Ionian with the Catabrian block.
The superficial, unconsolidated sediments overlying
this crustal block are affected by major thrusting
and a wide piggy-back basin (the Spartivento basin).
This basin is related to accommodation processes oc-
curring at the rear of the accretionary wedge which
maintain the basin's stable geometry in response to
underplating. The line shows only a few indications
of the seaward extension of the Calabrian block with
southward-dipping reflectors recognised at 7 to 10
s. An important flexure of the Ionian lower crust
can be documented from the topography of the band
of lower-crustal reflectors. The time-deepening can
be partially due to the velocity pull-down of the
sedimentary pile of the arc, but a true dip of ap-
proximately 18% over 60 km distance appears to
be genuine, i.e., Moho deepening from about 20
km to 30 km. The average velocity used for the
depth conversion (approximately 5 km/s from the
sea bottom) has been obtained from the stack ve-
 000 .000

1.000 I.OOO

2.000 2.000

3.000 3.000

4.000 4.000

5. OOO 5. 000

0. 000 5. 000

7. 000 7. 000

8. 000 8. 000

9.000 9.000

t.~

0.000 10,000

xo
~o
l . OOO [~.000

2.000 - 12.000 I

',o

3.000 - 13.000

4.000 14.000

5,000 15.000

~ig. 5. Line ION-3: major thrusting and piggy-back basins (Spartivento) are imaged within the thick sedimentary cover and an important flexure of the Ionian lower crust is
Iocumented (bright reflections termination at 15 s TWT on the left). This line does not clearly show the seaward extension of the Calabrian block structures.
184 L. Cernobori et aL /Tectonophysics 264 (1996) 175-189

locity analyses integrated with the DSS data from
Makris et al. (1986). The abrupt termination of the
deep-crustal signature, typical of the Ionian domain,
below the southern tip of the Spartivento basin, can
be related to a poor signal-to-noise ratio at 15 s. It
could also be an effect of a sharp velocity increase in
the strata corresponding to the overthrust Calabrian
crystalline units, or possibly to extreme dips, or even
to tectonic discontinuities at depth in the collision
zone.
Similar images, from the eastward extension of
the Calabria block, appear on line ION-4 (Fig. 6).
Offshore well data (Luciana 1: AGIP, 1977) validate
the presence of crystalline units, which can be easily
followed along the line (dipping eastwards from 1 to
5 s). The sediments accumulated over the top of the

2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 Km
II

j~ WELL LUCIANA 1
[projected)
1
• 0 0 0 . 000

1.000 1.000

2.000 ?.OOO

3.000 3.000

4.000 d. O00

5.000 5.000

6.000 8. 000

7.000 7.000

8.000 8.000

9.000 9.008

lO. O 0 0 10.000

!1.080 II.O00

12.000 12.000

13.000 13.000

14.000 14.000

15.000 1S. OOO

Fig. 6. The position of the projected well on line ION-4 marks the reflection from the top of the granitic basement. It separates the large
stack of sediments from a layered intermediate crust of the Ionian extension of the Calabrian block. The base of this crustal unit can be
located at 9 - 1 0 s TWT, while a thick dot indicates the Ionian Moho depth from wide-angle data (Ferrucci et al., 1991).
 L. Cernobori et aL /Tectonophysics 264 (1996) 175-189 185

block represent Plio-Quaternary clays, Messinian
sands, shales and limestone, Tortonian marls and
shales and a stack of other units, probably compris-
ing Mesozoic carbonates, cropping out in Calabria
(C.N.R., 1983) and transported downslope by gravity
sliding. The image of internal structures of the crys-
talline crust down to the base of the crust at 21-22
km depth (about 10 s) are similar to those recorded
on land in the Serre (Ltischen et al., 1992). The dip
of these structures (approximately 10° towards the
southeast) is also confirmed. At the eastern termina-
tion of the ION-4 profile we observe the collision
structures within the Ionian crust. Here, we invoke
the aid of the refraction data (Ferrucci et al., 1991),
as the poor signal-to-noise ratio of the reflection data
provides only sparse information. According to the
wide-angle data, the Ionian Moho is again at 30 km
depth with a termination just beneath the seaward
extension of the Calabrian crystalline crust (thick
black dot in Fig. 6).
The signature of the Ionian lower crust is again
well-imaged on profile ION-5. The flexure of the
Ionian Moho is of the order of 15° over a distance
of about 60 km. The Calabrian arc structures are
also well described, with large thrusts transporting
consolidated sediments, as implied by the higher
velocities, 2.7 to 4.0 km/s, derived from the stacking
velocities and from Makris et al. (1986).
On the profile ION-6 (Fig. 7) we return to a
very thin crust (Moho at a depth of about 16 km,

0.000

1.000

2.000

2 4 6 8 l0 12 14 16 Krn
I 3.000

4.000

5.000

6.000

7.000

8.000

9. 000

I0.000

11.000
Fig. 7. Line ION-6: the lower crust reflectiveband is indicated and a depth of about 16 km has been computed for the Moho.
186 L. Cernobori et al. / Tectonophysics 264 (1996) 175-189
sea bottom at 3 kin, as on ION-l). On this line
we do not observe any important influence from
the Calabrian arc, but the seismic response does
not reveal significant layering or bedding of the
sedimentary crust. The lower-crust reflective band is
clearly arched with indication of dips both towards
the Calabrian arc (west) and the Hellenic arc (east),
a pattern comparable to that described by Ferrucci et
al. (1991, Fig. 3).
5. Sea-land connections
Land stations in Calabria, emplaced on outcrops
of the granitic basement, recorded the sea airgun
shots when the ship was approaching the coast from
the south (line ION-3) and when it was steam-
ing away towards the east (lines ION-4 and -5). A
single station (Reftek jr.) with Mark-L4-3D/2 Hz
geophones and one DFS-V recording system with 48
channels, two tape units and sixteen Mark L4-3D/2
Hz geophones distributed in a large array of 540
x 300 m, were installed. The recording conditions
were extremely severe with repeated interruptions of
the operations at sea, an unfavourable environment
and bad weather conditions with a very strong wind.
An example of the data is shown in Fig. 8. The
records were stacked for all the sixteen stations of
the array and summed (weighted mix) for five con-
secutive shots in order to increase the S/N ratio. The
time section was corrected for the water depth with
the replacement of the water by sediments having a
velocity of 3.0 km/s. The maximum source-receiver
offset, for which a coherent signal was recorded, was
about 82 kin, not enough to obtain a refracted first
arrival from the base of the crust. Bright wide-angle
multi-cyclic reflections from the base of the crust
were obtained in the LMO sections (Fig. 8a, with a
reduction velocity of 6 km/s), from the shots along
the line ION-4 and the beginning of the line ION-
5. In the NMO section (Fig. 8b, obtained after the
application of a velocity function with 4350 m/s at
twt = 0 s, 5700 m/s at twt = 12 s) the base of the
crust corresponds to a reflective marker at about 10
Fig. 8. Refraction and wide-angle data from land stations (array of 16 geophones, TS-1 in Fig. 1). In (a) a LMO correction with a
velocity reduction of 6 km/s was applied. In (b) a NMO correction was utilised for the correlation and landward extension of the ION-4
profile.
s, which correlates to the reflectors seen in the ION-4
multichannel line (about 22 km depth).
6. Concluding remarks
Earlier problems of signal-to-noise ratio and pen-
etration in the crust of the Ionian Sea and its margins
could be overcome by using up-to-date oil explo-
ration reflection seismic techniques. A well tuned
source, with a large airgun array supplying ca. 120
1 per shot and coverage as great as 30- or 45-
fold with a 4.5-km streamer were crucial. Advanced
data processing improved the definition of the seis-
mic stratigraphy within the basin and also of the
structures at the collision margin. A highly reflec-
tive interval within the lower crust has been recog-
nised. This reflective interval terminates against the
margins that have been deformed by collision or
where the crust thickens towards a passive continen-
tal margin (i.e., central tract of ME). Its topographic
variations suggest recent mobilisation of the mantle
possibly associated with extensional structures of the
northern tract of the ME. Alternatively, the topo-
graphic variation may be linked to the tectonically
controlled subsidence of the basin such as transcur-
rent motion along crust-cutting faults in response to
the stresses applied at the active margins (Ceruobori
et al., 1994), and to the loading of materials on a
thin, cold, and brittle crust. We noticed the differ-
ences with the images of the deep-crustal data in the
Mesozoic eastern Atlantic Ocean. Comparative data
in the Mediterranean do not confirm the presence of
a reflective band in the 'oceanic' areas (de Voogd
et al., 1991), but landward-dipping reflectors and
crustal thickening by a factor greater than five were
observed across the passive continental margin in the
Gulf of Lions. These features can be compared with
the seismic data on the prolongation of the ION-1
line across the ME (Nicolich et al., 1995).
The rapid subsidence of the Ionian basin still
remains unclear within the framework of the re-
construction of Dercourt et al. (1986): why did the
rotation of Apulia with respect to Africa, during the
 L. Cernobori et al./Tectonophysics 264 (1996) 1 7 5 - 1 8 9 187

18 k m offset from land station 82 km

• 000
• 000 . .. • , .- ..:~.~.~::..~:,:'..~::.~~..-z.'..:'~-.-.z~.~?~:S~.:~.~. -

~;-.-:.z -__ 2- -- -"~--__'~_ _:----"~--__"~-= ~- : ,. ~ -;- .~t; - . . :: :'.'.~.::i~;-~'~..7-~-~.

'. :~.-z.--.---

:T.::-:x':.:. ...vz.'-.. -':.-:--~- : z - ~ z ~ - - ~ - ' : ' ~ ' : ~ :- : - . ' : " ~ ' ~ - ~ ' , - ' - ~ - : . ~ ~ ::5;:U-'::~-7.-.':"-: ;'..~.zr:-::~..

5.000 5,000
:--.'~5:.~ ": "-:'i" --'. "~:'~-'~-':2:::'::.<-::":"-~-~: >~.'---z --~....- - -.-:. z:-'...~_"-.".:~ . "-~" :'-:'.~.-;"2 - ~."~_ :L:~.:..':

.'~:..:..'~.- .-': I 2 " * "-'- : - . . ~ . : z . " :..:.:: .'..~ . . . z .:'. _ _~ . : ~ . _ _ ~ . _~..,;..~L.~.7.:...~:" :" .:~.._. : . ~:..:. :~.:..

~'~:.~.~ -::5:: .'~-;'-.:.r-...~.~:;:~.-.s.-::::÷:..'~4~:-> -,.--~ :- -_--:- ---:- - ~ ~:-.~-.'..~-~::.---~.: .-'_--.:.-~:.::_:,,~-~-2<~--_'..~=E-

;:a,.:~'.:.:~.~ :;-:- -- -;. : 2 : - - ' . ~ : ; '.-:'-.-.~:C'.:.-- ".~'~'~'' ::.-"~-. " :" - ; - : - :-":~'-":~. " ~ . " - ~ --'-" -"-""~:- "::: "-~:':": ~ : . % r

a)

IA|I t.
r>

5.000
0 S 10 15 20 KM
I

i0.000 10.000

t5.000 15. 0 0 0 b)
tec4914 Fig. 8
188 L. Cernobori et al. / Tectonophysics 264 (1996) 175-189
Aptian, result in rapid s u b s i d e n c e in the a d j a c e n t
basin? In the c o u r s e o f e x t e n s i o n (Late Jurassic) ac-
c o m p a n i e d by the t h i n n i n g o f the lithosphere, the
r o o f o f the u n d e r l y i n g a s t h e n o s p h e r e m o v e d up-
ward. T h e m a n t l e material uplifted at the r o o f o f
the a s t h e n o s p h e r e c o u l d h a v e partially melted, ow-
ing to the r e d u c t i o n o f pressure. Possibly, a portion
o f the m a g m a t i c m e l t p e n e t r a t e d through the crust
and led to the v o l c a n i c activity in this area in the
L a t e Jurassic. T h i s m a y h a v e p e r v a s i v e l y affected
the l o w e r portion o f the crust c h a n g i n g its petro-
logic and p h y s i c a l characteristics, as w e l l as those
o f the l o w e r l i t h o s p h e r e - u p p e r asthenosphere, es-
p e c i a l l y w h e n the t e m p e r a t u r e - p r e s s u r e conditions
c h a n g e d . T e c t o n i c s u b s i d e n c e o f the basin has devel-
o p e d subsequently. T h i s final tectonic stage o f basin
f o r m a t i o n does not contradict the m o d e l o f D e r c o u r t
et al. (1986) but rather c o m p l e m e n t s the m o d e l by
e x p l a i n i n g v e r t i c a l m o v e m e n t s within the crust of the
Eastern M e d i t e r r a n e a n .
Acknowledgements
We are i n d e b t e d to M. L o u k o y a n n a k i s and D e p -
Eky for the data processing. T h a n k s are due to
the G e c o - P r a k l a staff and c r e w o f the vessel Bin-
H a i 511. W e are grateful to H.B. H i r s c h l e b e r and
to an a n o n y m o u s r e v i e w e r for their helpful c o m -
m e n t s and s u g g e s t i o n s that i m p r o v e d the manuscript.
Funds for the data a c q u i s i t i o n h a v e b e e n m a i n l y pro-
v i d e d by E C contract S T R E A M E R S , J O U 2 90-CT-
0 0 1 3 2 (contractors: A. H i m , I P G de Paris; E. Banda,
C.S.I.C. B a r c e l o n a ; D. Blundell, R H B N Univ. o f
L o n d o n ; L.A. M e n d e s Victor, Univ. o f Lisbon; R.
N i c o l i c h , D I N M A Univ. o f Trieste; J. D r a k o p o u -
los, Univ. o f A t h e n s ; N. L a l e c h o s , P P C Athens)
and for the data p r o c e s s i n g by E C contract P R O -
F I L E S , J O U 2 - C T 9 3 - 0 3 1 3 (Contractors: A. H i m ,
I P G de Paris; R. N i c o l i c h , D I N M A Univ. o f Trieste;
A. L y m b e r o p o u l o s , P P C Athens). A d d i t i o n a l funds
w e r e also p r o v i d e d by the authors' institutions and
national r e s e a r c h p r o g r a m m e s .
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 ELSEVIER Earth and Planetary Science Letters 168 (1999) 243–254

Foredeep geometries at the front of the Apennines in the Ionian Sea

(central Mediterranean)
Carlo Doglioni a,Ł , Saverio Merlini b , Giuseppe Cantarella b
a Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università La Sapienza, P. le A. Moro 5,
00185, Rome, Italy
b ENI–AGIP, V. Emilia 1, 20097, San Donato Milanese, Italy

Received 29 January 1999; revised version received 1 March 1999; accepted 3 March 1999

Abstract

A new regional seismic section in the Ionian Sea across the Apennines belt and related foreland shows how the present
foredeep geometry may be an example for interpreting discontinuous, tilted and deformed earlier basins now incorporated
in the internal parts of the accretionary wedge. Onlap stratal terminations of the foredeep sediments on the foreland
monocline may simulate downlap geometries once involved and tilted by back-thrusting. The geometry of the Ionian
foredeep is controlled by the dip of the regional monocline, and internally by the variable dip and length of the limb of the
external fold, which may be either foreland-verging or hinterland-verging. The generation of a new fold within the foredeep
splits the basin into a new foredeep toward the foreland and a thrust-top basin toward the hinterland. The thrust-top basin
dimension is primarily controlled by the distance between the two folds and related thrusts at its margins. The foredeep, in
its overall history, is composed by a series of concave heterogeneous lenses, progressively displaced and piled up toward
the foreland to the east. The formation of each sedimentary lens is controlled by the development of a new fold and the
contemporaneous retreat of the regional monocline which creates new accommodation space. The complex 3D geometry
of the Apennines foredeep mainly results from lateral variations of the latter parameters, as well as variations in sediment
supply and eustasy.  1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: fore-arc basins; thrust faults; seismic profiles; Apennines; Ionian Sea

1. Introduction active margin basins is well differentiated from that

Foredeeps are those basins located at the mar-
gin of orogens or accretionary wedges, and they are
characterized by lens shaped clastic sedimentary se-
quences which are controlled by a number of well
known factors, i.e., subsidence, sediment supply, eu-
stasy and climate [1]. The internal geometry of these
Ł Corresponding author. Tel.: C39-6-4991-4549; Fax: C39-6-
4454-729; E-mail: doglioni@axrma.uniroma1.it
of passive margin basins, both in terms of lithology
and geometry of the basin. Foredeeps are located
and propagate on top of a regional monocline [2]
usually dipping toward the interior of the belt with
angles ranging between 1º and more than 10º [3].
The internal geometries of foredeep basins are no-
toriously controlled by growth folds (e.g., [4,5]).
The Apennines accretionary wedge presents a Plio–
Pleistocene somewhere 8 km deep basin which un-
derwent subsidence rates higher than 1 mm=yr. This

0012-821X/99/$ – see front matter  1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 0 1 2 - 8 2 1 X ( 9 9 ) 0 0 0 5 9 - X
244 C. Doglioni et al. / Earth and Planetary Science Letters 168 (1999) 243–254

Fig. 1. Location of the seismic section M5 (Fig. 2) in the frame of the Apennines Arc. The arc migrated ‘eastward’ since the early
Neogene. In grey is the frontal compressive part of the Apennines accretionary wedge which is followed to the west by an extensional
tectonic wave.

foredeep provides excellent examples of geometries 2. The Apennines accretionary wedge

[6] which may occur in similar basins.
During the last decade, a large effort for studying
the crust of Italy and the surrounding seas (Project
CROP) has been performed by a pool composed
by the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche of Italy,
CNR, the national oil company, Agip, and the na-
tional electric company, Enel. The several seismic
lines provided new insights on the structure of the
Italian crust. Offshore sections are the most read-
able seismic lines, and in this paper we present in
particular section M5 (Fig. 1) at the front of the off-
shore Apennines in the Ionian Sea. This paper aims
to present in particular a few details of this section
which highlights original geometries and kinematics
of the foredeep evolution (Fig. 2).
The Apennines belt is an arc shaping the Ital-
ian Peninsula, from Piemonte-Monferrato in north-
ern Italy, down to the northern Africa-Maghrebides
(Fig. 1). The arc formed on top of a west-directed
subduction zone which retreated ‘eastward’ during
the last 30 Ma [7–12]. The convex part of the arc is
the area where the roll-back of the subduction hinge
has been maximum. The most arcuate part of the
Apennines Arc is Calabria. The arc migrated ‘east-
ward’ about 775 km during the Late Oligocene in
a section crossing northern Calabria, the Tyrrhenian
Sea, Sardinia, and the Provençal basin [12]. This
value decreases moving either toward the northern
Apennines or to the south, toward Sicily and the
Maghrebides. The southern Apennines and Calabria,
 C. Doglioni et al. / Earth and Planetary Science Letters 168 (1999) 243–254
Fig. 2. Regional seismic section Crop M5 of the Ionian Sea across the Apennines accretionary wedge and its Apulian foreland. See location in Fig. 1. Note that the accretionary
wedge is lower than the foreland.

245
246 C. Doglioni et al. / Earth and Planetary Science Letters 168 (1999) 243–254
being located in the most arcuate part of the belt,
travelled eastward at the fastest rates (3–4 cm=yr;
[11,13,14]. The earlier foredeep stages were located
more internally and to the west they are now aban-
doned due to the high speed of the roll-back. Within
the southern Apennines and Calabrian Arc there are
remnants of the earlier foredeep since the Early
Miocene (‘pre-Irpinian’) [15], as it was observed
in the central-northern Apennines [16]. The fast
eastward advancement of the southern Apennines
foredeep is clearly evidenced by highly shortened
Plio–Pleistocene deposits, originally located in the
internal side of the foredeep, or discovered in wells
where the Pliocene sediments have been overridden
by Mesozoic thrust sheets.
The Apennines foredeep has been interpreted as
generated by the ‘eastward’ roll-back of the hinge
of the subduction induced by the slab pull or by the
relative eastward mantle flow [14,17]. There the sub-
sidence is among the fastest on the Earth’s surface
and it exceeds 1 mm=yr [3]. The foredeep eastward
migration in the Apennines should reflect the ve-
locity of the roll-back of the Adriatic slab, which
retreated faster in its southern part where the Ionian
oceanic lithosphere was undergoing subduction, in
contrast with the slower northern continental part.
This appears to be true both for the early Neogene
history of the foredeep but also for the later-to-pre-
sent stages of the subduction [18].
3. Seismic section M5 in the Ionian Sea
This seismic section is one of the most complete
lines across the Apennines front and its foreland.
The line runs from offshore eastern Calabria (south-
ern Italy) to the northeast, offshore southern Puglia.
In the Calabrian part the section crosses extensional
faults which are well known inland to the north
in Campania and Basilicata to form grabens (e.g.,
the Vallo di Diano, Val d’Agri) and be responsible
for the high seismicity of the southern Apennines
[19]. Moving northeastward, the section exhibits an
irregular seafloor, indicating active or very recent
tectonic activity. Below the Messinian unconformity
(Fig. 2) back-thrusts deform the Miocene sequences
and they determine the formation of triangle zones
in the central part of the section. The front of the ac-
cretionary wedge is marked by an eastward-verging
thrust overriding the narrow foredeep deposits of the
Taranto trench. (Fig. 3). The foreland is character-
ized by a steep westward dipping monocline made of
continental crust with an about 6 km thick Mesozoic
Apulian carbonate platform and a thin sequence of
Tertiary calcarenites and limestone. A few normal
faults also disrupt the seafloor of the foreland which
is even more elevated than the accretionary wedge to
the west (Fig. 2).
From the main section, two details have been
extracted in order to have clearer views of the front
of the accretionary wedge and the present foredeep
(Fig. 3) and a more internal part of the wedge which
was formerly the front of the belt, probably during
the Late Miocene (Fig. 4). These data allow us to
give a look into the complicated geometries of the
accretionary wedge. Dating of sediments is based on
projected unpublished Agip wells.
The frontal section (Fig. 3) shows a 8.5 km wide
foredeep, with a seafloor about 2350 m deep, and
sediments onlapping the westward-dipping mono-
cline. The onlap shows a progressive eastward dis-
placement. The accretionary wedge is composed of
Plio–Pleistocene sediments. The internal detail of
the section (Fig. 4) has been migrated and depth-con-
verted. It is characterized by two main back-thrusts
verging toward the southwest, generating two trian-
gle zones. Between the two hinterland-verging ramps
there is a basin which is made of two wedges, the
lower pointing toward the foreland, the upper point-
ing toward the hinterland. The lower wedge appears
as an earlier external foredeep now involved by the
accretionary wedge, and it is limited at the base by
apparent downlap stratal terminations at about 5 km
depth. The overlying upper wedge is a later thrust-
top basin onlapping the lower wedge with stratal
terminations shifting in the opposite direction toward
the southwest.
4. Discussion on the M5 section
Fig. 5 is an interpretation of the main features
visible on Fig. 4. This spectacular section indicates
that the two-stage basin shape is controlled by the
distance between the two back-thrusts in the up-
per wedge, that this upper basin formed during the
 C. Doglioni et al. / Earth and Planetary Science Letters 168 (1999) 243–254 247

Fig. 3. The frontal thrust and related fold of the Apennines accretionary wedge in the Ionian Sea with the related foredeep. Deep facies
sediments onlap the foreland monocline. See location in Fig. 2.

growth of the two anticlines (in particular it pinches-
out on the back-limb of the internal anticline to
the southwest), and that the lower foreland pinch-
ing-out wedge has an apparent downlap of sedi-
ments toward the right. The Messinian unconformity
eroded the two folds and post-dates the underly-
ing sediments. The Miocene sequences are laterally
displaced, with the younger one more to the right,
toward the foreland, and laterally overlying the mar-
gin of the previous internal section. Therefore, the
relative depocentres are progressively displaced to-
ward the east. Fig. 6 proposes an interpretation of the
kinematics of the geometries occurring in Fig. 4: the
original foredeep sedimentary wedge (first stage) is
incorporated and tilted by a back-thrust with syntec-
tonic sedimentation (second stage). Original onlap
248 C. Doglioni et al. / Earth and Planetary Science Letters 168 (1999) 243–254
 C. Doglioni et al. / Earth and Planetary Science Letters 168 (1999) 243–254 249

Fig. 5. Interpretation of Fig. 4. The original sediments onlapping the foreland have been tilted by the ramp of the back-thrust of a triangle
zone. They now simulate an apparent downlap plane (foreland pinching-out wedge), Miocene 1. While it uplifted, the growth fold to the
left determined a wedge of sediments onlapping its internal limb and pinching-out in the opposite direction toward the left (hinterland
pinching-out wedge), called Miocene 2. The section may be divided into two main sedimentary packages which are differentiated on the
basis of their tectonic control.

geometries are tilted to appear as downlap strata ter-
minations. The first sedimentary wedge is thinning
toward the foreland, whereas the second overlying
basin is thinning toward the hinterland on the back-
limb of the fold. Therefore, the first stage should
correspond to the external foredeep located on the
foreland monocline and limited to the southwest by
the frontal fold of the accretionary wedge. The sec-
ond stage of the basin formed instead on top of
active thrusts, and the first-stage foredeep became a
piggy-back basin confined by two hinterland-verging
structures (Fig. 6). These geometries and kinemat-
ics may be a key to unravel along-strike inland
deep geometries in the southern Apennines, e.g., the
Sant’Arcangelo basin where onshore seismic data
are of lower quality but the outcrops are spectacular
[20,21].
4.1. Internal geometries of the thrust belt
Within a foreland-propagating accretionary wedge
there may form back-thrusts. When associated to a
basal decollement, a back-thrust forms a triangle zone
[22]. This feature is well developed within the M5
seismic section (Fig. 5). The association of thrusts
may generate different combinations of vergences
which may be entirely or partly opposite to the accre-
tionary wedge main direction of propagation (Fig. 7).

Fig. 4. Detail of internal part of the Apennines accretionary wedge in the Ionian Sea. This is characterized by triangle zones. M D
Messinian unconformity. See location in Fig. 2. This section has been migrated and depth-converted.
250 C. Doglioni et al. / Earth and Planetary Science Letters 168 (1999) 243–254

Fig. 6. Kinematic interpretation of the geometric structural and stratigraphic pattern of Fig. 4. The frontal early foredeep stage thinning
toward the right is interpreted as the present setting at the front of the Apennines accretionary wedge. The front could have later been
involved by a back-thrust. This generated the opposite pinching-out of the sedimentary packages associated with the two-stage evolution.
Original onlap geometries then appear as a downlap plane. The intra-folds basin is contemporaneously filled by a wedge thinning toward
the west. The shape and width of the basin is controlled by ramp distances and vergences.

Basin margins are shaped by the dip and evolution of
the fold limbs: internal limbs are longer and less steep
with respect to frontal fold limbs which are frequently
short and overturned in fault-propagation folds [23].
In one of his classic papers on thrust belt struc-
tural analysis, Mitra [24] shows how the distance
between the ramps and the ramp length control the
final internal geometry of an imbricate fan or a du-
plex. When the distance between the ramps is large
and the displacement of the associated thrusts small
enough to maintain an undeformed flat sequence be-
tween the back limb of the external fold and the
fore-limb of the internal fold, there may form a syn-
folding basin, e.g., a thrust-top basin, or also called
piggy-back basin [25]. In this respect, when the dis-
tance between the ramps varies, the basin dimension
 C. Doglioni et al. / Earth and Planetary Science Letters 168 (1999) 243–254 251

Fig. 7. Two examples (A and B) in which M1 and M2 are sedimentary packages differentiated by the growth of the second fold which
splits the basin into two sub-basins. The depocentre of M2 is shifted toward the foreland with respect to M1. The central piggy-back
basin forms on top of older external foredeep sediments and it is controlled by the distance of the two ramps. (A) The fold vergences
coincide with the regional vergence. (B) The fold vergences are opposed to the regional vergence. The foredeep sediments are thinning
both toward the foreland monocline and toward the back-limb of the frontal fold which is longer and less steep with respect to example
(A). The scale is based on the examples included in Fig. 2.

also varies. In other words, the shape and dimension
of a piggy-back basin forming on the top of an ac-
cretionary wedge may be analyzed in terms of ramp
distances. In Fig. 4 it is evident that the width of the
basin (about 7 km) confined between the two anti-
clines is proportional and determined by the distance
between the two folds which is in turn controlled
by the distance between the ramps of the two main
thrusts (about 11 km).
The foreland migration of the southern Apennines
foredeep since the Miocene to recent times gener-
ated a variety of lens-shaped basins progressively
252 C. Doglioni et al. / Earth and Planetary Science Letters 168 (1999) 243–254
displaced eastward. This is evident inland, for in-
stance for the Tortonian Gorgoglione Flysch [26],
and it occurs at the front of the northern Apennines
in the Po basin [6]. As already demonstrated by Ricci
Lucchi [16] for the northern Apennines, the onlap on
the regional monocline contemporaneously migrated
toward the foreland to the east. The basins shapes are
controlled by thrust-ramps distance, fold vergence,
dip of the foreland monocline, and the along-strike
variation of the former parameters. Two thrusts can
laterally branch into a single thrust and the distance
between the two ramps may decrease to zero; there-
fore, also the possible associated thrust-top basin
narrows (see the example of the Gorgoglione Flysch
[26]). Usually the distance among major ramps in
the Apennines ranges between 5 and 25 km at the
front of the accretionary prism. Large thrust sheets
of more that 40–50 km of displacement have also
been interpreted, which implies an equal amount
of ramps distance. The Apennines foredeep sedi-
ments are sometimes so irregular to form several
isolated sub-basins. This could partly explain the
large number of formational names which have been
introduced in the literature to describe the Neogene
and Quaternary foredeep stratigraphy of this belt.
This large variety may be explained by the frequent
undulations of the thrust belt, along transfer zones
induced by the inherited lateral variations in the
rheological parameters of the pre-existing Mesozoic
stratigraphy and the underlying basement.
4.2. Foredeep evolution
The foredeep basin is in general a sedimentary
wedge bounded internally by the frontal thrust, while
it expands laterally toward the foreland, with a pro-
gressive onlap of the foredeep sediments [27]. The
formation of a new anticline within a foredeep basin
may generate two sub-basins, a new more external
foredeep sensu stricto, and a thrust-top basin (Fig. 7)
which forms on top of the earlier frontal foredeep.
From that moment on, the two basins are also dif-
ferentiated in terms of sediment supply from the
foreland monocline, the hinterland, or other exter-
nal sources along the foredeep axis. This is usually
contextual to a progressive retreat of the foreland
monocline which determines subsidence and new
accommodation space. The stratigraphic packages
may be punctuated and differentiated in shape by
the growth of the new fold, which has a given dis-
tance with respect to the pre-existing internal fold.
The frontal fold may have either foreland vergence
(Fig. 7A) or hinterland vergence (Fig. 7B). The main
difference is the onlap on the frontal fold which oc-
curs respectively on the forelimb or in the back-limb.
Back-limb is less steep and longer with respect to the
forelimb, and this generates different shapes of the
internal margin of the basin. The schematic sections
of Fig. 7 represent a model of the kinematics of fore-
deep propagation based on the geometries observed
in the M5 seismic section. In particular Fig. 5 shows
the effect of back-thrusting in generating an isolated
sub-basin (Fig. 7B).
The development of a fold may start at any
moment during a third-order sea-level fluctuation.
Therefore, the eustasy-controlled depositional se-
quences [1] may be perturbed by the isolation of
new basins which determine variations in the sedi-
ment supply and in the water depth in the area of the
growing fold.
5. Conclusions
The seismic section M5 of the Apennines accre-
tionary wedge in the Ionian Sea (Fig. 2) supports
the interpretation that the geometry and kinematics
of foredeep and piggy-back basins are primarily con-
trolled by the dip of the foreland monocline, the
distance between thrust ramps, and the vergence of
the single folds with respect to the regional vergence
which may be either in the same direction or op-
posite. Subsidence in foredeeps controls the dip and
retreat rate of the foreland monocline, parameters
which are primarily determined by the subduction
type [3]. Different geometries of basins associated
with active margins result by the combination and
variation of these parameters and the other sedimen-
tary factors such as sediment supply and eustasy.
As it is a classic rule in geology, the present ge-
ometries of a foredeep may be powerful keys in
illuminating and interpreting internal shortened com-
plex parts of an accretionary wedge (Fig. 6). The
example of the Ionian Sea foredeep allows us to
predict other variable patterns of foredeep geometry
and kinematics. A common feature in the Apennines
 C. Doglioni et al. / Earth and Planetary Science Letters 168 (1999) 243–254
is the formation of concave lenses progressively dis-
placed and piled up toward the foreland to the east
(Fig. 7). The stratigraphic packages may be punctu-
ated and differentiated in shape by the growth of a
new fold, its vergence and distance with respect to
the pre-existing internal fold. In this regard, tecton-
ics could deeply influence depositional sequences,
independently from eustasy.
Acknowledgements
The paper benefited from critical reviews by an
anonymous referee who made a thoughtful review
and by J.P. Rehault. Many thanks to A. Bernasconi,
D. Bernoulli, G. Mariotti, G. Pialli, P. Pieri, C. Sauli
and M. Tropeano for helpful discussions. The CNR
(grants 97.00246.CT05, 98.00228.CT05) and Murst
(cofinanziamento 1997) supported this study. [RV]
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 Tectonophysics 324 (2000) 239–265
www.elsevier.com/locate/tecto

Deep structure of the Campanian–Lucanian Arc

(Southern Apennine, Italy)
A. Menardi Noguera, G. Rea *
ENI–AGIP Division, 20097, San Donato Milanese, Italy

Abstract

Recent exploration activities and successful discovery of large oil fields in the upper Val d’Agri area (Southern
Apennine, Italy) have encouraged the collection of large quantities of geological and geophysical data, and their
integration into comprehensive geological models. Here we present a series of structural profiles based on several
hundred kilometres of seismic lines (two- and three-dimensional ) and the results of many deep wells. The best seismic
lines have been extensively reprocessed, and also tied to magnetotelluric data. Geological interpretations of those lines
have been interactively tested, and verified by gravity and magnetic modelling and structural balancing.
The wells and seismic data demonstrate that the fundamental tracts of the deep architecture of the orogen, as it
appears today, were developed only at the end of the Late Pliocene. The final closure of the ensialic shear-zone
responsible for the subduction of at least 150 km of continental lithosphere originally underlying the Lagonegro Basin
can be dated as Early Pliocene. The involvement of the Inner Apulian Platform in the core of the belt and the
activation of a new and more external ( left-lateral ) oblique ensialic shear-zone can be constrained to the Late
Pliocene–Pleistocene. The seismic profiles clearly show the underthrusting of the Outer Apulian Platform unit beneath
the Inner Apulian Platform unit.
The thick-skinned character of the Plio-Pleistocene contractional structures is evident from the structural profiles.
This geometry is constrained by gravity–magnetic data and structural considerations, according to the relatively steep
angle of dip (about 10°) of the Apulian foreland beneath the chain.
The structural profiles depict the general architecture of the Campanian–Lucanian Arc: the Apennine Platform
and Lagonegro Unit are largely allochthonous and a part of the Lagonegro basement could be buried below the
Apennine Platform sole-thrust. The Neogene plastic successions of the Apennine Platform and Lagonegro Basin were
detached and now outcrop in the Bradanic Foredeep. The Inner Apulian Platform constitutes a huge thrust-sheet,
structured as a wide antiform in the core of the belt; its regional culmination roughly corresponds to the Val d’Agri
area. Extensional and transtensional structures cross cut the pre-existing compressional structures as shown by the
Quaternary valleys of Vallo di Diano and Val d’Agri.
The profiles shown also highlight the existing contrast between the deep structures in the core of the belt and the
tectonic style of the Lagonegro, Liguride and Sicilide Units. These units were in fact subjected to brittle–ductile deformation
under metamorphic (part of Liguridi Units) and deep diagenetic to anchizonal conditions (Lagonegro Units) and were
affected by a general overthrust-shear directed towards the NE. The Inner Apulian Platform was, on the contrary, involved
in the thrust-belt together with its basement, whereas the Outer Apulian Platform, affected by A-subduction, underwent a
regional bending with associated normal faulting. © 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Neogene tectonics; Southern Apennine; structural evolution; thick-skinned tectonics

* Corresponding author. Present Address: Nigerian Agip Oil Co. NAOC, Mile 4, Ikwerre Road, P.O. Box 923, Port Harcourt,
Nigeria, Tel.: 084-236400-9/3226; Fax 084-236400-9/3526.
E-mail address: giuseppe.rea@naoc.agip.it (G. Rea)

0040-1951/00/$ - see front matter © 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
PII: S0 0 4 0- 1 9 51 ( 0 0 ) 0 01 3 7 -2
240 A.M. Noguera, G. Rea / Tectonophysics 324 (2000) 239–265
1. Introduction
The intense exploration work in the Southern
Apennine over the last decade has produced a
sharp increase in data and knowledge that has led
to the discovery of the Val d’Agri oil fields. The
geological model and structural evolution pro-
posed for the Campanian–Lucanian Apennine is
based on the interpretation of a grid (30×20 km2
grid ) of regional seismic profiles tied to a large
number of wells. The best seismic lines from this
grid were reprocessed and migrated with identical
schemes. The interpreted profiles were then depth-
converted and tested through gravity and magnetic
modelling. The sections were integrated with data
acquired from stratigraphic revisions carried out
in all the available wells and the up-holes drilled
during seismic investigations. This integration of
surface and subsurface geological data allowed
confident interpretation of the seismic horizons of
the allochthonous cover of the Internal Apulian
Platform, the target of hydrocarbon exploration
in the Val d’Agri.
Selected profiles were subjected to structural
balancing tests. The interpretation of regional pro-
files were checked at several stages against inter-
pretations of magnetotelluric data and finally
modified with the aid of detailed seismic grids
acquired, reinterpreted or reprocessed during the
exploration cycle. It was thus possible to give
geological significance to some reflectors and signal
patterns that would otherwise have been given
little consideration. This method was used to over-
come resolution problems that often make of little
value the regional interpretations developed in a
mainly two-dimensional way. Detailed geological
mapping carried out in areas where the connection
between surface geology and subsurface geology
and geophysics is particularly critical supported
this activity. The research was performed with
particular care to reduce to a minimum the implicit
differences between the different scales of observa-
tion among field, well, detailed seismic and regional
seismic studies. The results of these studies, which
paid special attention to the three-dimensional
development of the structure, were made to be
incorporated into the geological sections A–A∞
(Capo Palinuro, Val d’Agri, Fiume Basento) and
B–B∞ (Golfo di Policastro, S.Fele, Venosa). These
sections were chosen since they cut through the
entire thrust-belt–foredeep–foreland system start-
ing from the innermost areas and traverse the main
oil fields discovered to date. They are thus emi-
nently suitable to exemplify the model that has
been developed, and which is described below.
2. Structure and regional geology of the
Campanian–Lucanian arc (CLA)
The CLA lies between the WNW–ESE-trending
Ofanto River syncline to the north and the E–W-
trending structures of the Calabrian Arc to the
south (Figs. 1 and 2). The structural axes of the
CLA trend WNW–ESE and NW–SE in the north-
ern sector and NW–SE and N–S in the southern
part. The Ofanto syncline represents the zone of
separation between the Campanian–Lucanian and
the Molise Southern Apennine sector. The CLA is
overprinted at the southernmost boundary by the
E–W-trending structures of the Mt. Bulgheria–Mt.
Coccovello–Mt. La Spina alignment. These struc-
tures are the expression of a thrust sheet trending
NW–SE to the south ( Figs. 1 and 2) and deformed
by a left-lateral strike-slip fault zone known as the
Linea del Pollino (D’Argenio, 1966; Ghisetti and
Vezzani, 1982; Moussat, 1983).
The Southern Apennine thrust-belt is character-
ised by several geophysical and geological peculiar-
ities compared with the Alps or the Andean thrust-
belts. Among these the Southern Apennine thrust-
belt is characterised by the absence of thick crust
along the axis of the belt, the coexistence of
shallow and deep seismicity, low morphological
and structural elevation and the association with
a back arc basin (Doglioni et al., 1996).
The Southern Tyrrhenian Basin is characterised
by marked crustal thinning and by an oceanic
crust in correspondence with the Marsili Basin and
Mt. Vavilov where MORB composition basalts
outcrop. Southern Tyrrhenian extensional activity
is coeval with compression at the Southern
Apennine front based on ODP data (Malinverno
and Ryan, 1986; Kastens et al., 1987; Patacca
et al., 1992a,b).
The inner and the axial zones of the Southern
 A.M. Noguera, G. Rea / Tectonophysics 324 (2000) 239–265 241

Fig. 1. Main structural elements of the Southern Apennine.

Apennine have no deep crustal roots as shown by
the seismic refraction data (Nicolich, 1981;
Scarascia et al., 1994); however, these data are
insufficient in resolution and density. According
to the literature, the Moho runs parallel to the
bottom of the Apulian Platform and reaches a
depth of about 35 km close to the Cilento
Peninsula (Adriatic Moho). At the immediate
Tyrrhenian offshore its depth is recognised as being
about 20–25 km ( Tyrrhenian Moho; Figs. 3 and
4; Giese and Reutter, 1978; Nicolich, 1981;
Scarascia et al., 1994).
The distribution of regional seismicity shows
the existence of both shallow and deep earth-
quakes; the shallow earthquakes have hypocentral
depths of less than 30 km with extensional or
transtensive focal mechanisms (Pingue et al., 1988;
Amato et al., 1993; Alessio et al., 1995). The deep
seismicity occurs with hypocentral depths of 300–
500 km, which have been related to the west-
dipping subduction of the Neotethyan lithosphere
and Apulian plate lithosphere (Giardini and
Veloná, 1991; Amato et al., 1991; Patacca et al.,
1991; Doglioni et al., 1994). The subduction of a
lithospheric slab to a depth of 500 km is also
documented by tomographic images (Spakman,
1988).
The Bradanic foredeep and the Murge peri-
pheral bulge (Royden and Karner, 1984; Royden,
1993) are the expression of the Apulian lithosphere
subduction. This gives rise to the clear positive
gravity anomaly of the Murge bulge and the
negative anomaly of the Bradano foredeep ( Fig. 5;
Amato and Selvaggi, 1991; Royden, 1993), which
242 A.M. Noguera, G. Rea / Tectonophysics 324 (2000) 239–265

Fig. 2. Structural map of the CLA.

 A.M. Noguera, G. Rea / Tectonophysics 324 (2000) 239–265 243

Fig. 3. Moho depth contour map and location of crustal cross-section, modified after Scarascia et al. (1994).

Fig. 4. Crustal cross-section through the Southern Apennine, after Scarascia et al. (1994); see Fig. 3 for location.
244 A.M. Noguera, G. Rea / Tectonophysics 324 (2000) 239–265
Fig. 5. Bouguer gravity anomaly, density 2.6 g/cm3. Note the positive anomaly of the foreland (Murge) and the large NW–SE negative
anomaly of the foredeep.
reaches its minimum value just outside the
Apennine Arc. This cannot be justified only by the
low-density foredeep sediments (Royden et al.,
1987).
Magnetic data (Arisi Rota and Fichera, 1987)
show the magnetic basement to be relatively high
in the axial part of the belt and to sink in a
westerly direction starting from the foreland.
The present configuration of the Southern
Apennine is the result of progressive polyphase
non-coaxial deformation characterised by a succes-
sion in time of different stress regimes consisting
of a series of compression, extension and strike-
slip phases. This deformation history has involved
different paleogeographic domains in a pro-
gressively eastern position (Sgrosso, 1986; Casero
et al., 1988). The structures derived from these
deformations are, in general, markedly non-cylin-
drical and originated in non-plane strain
conditions.
As regards mechanical stratigraphy, the terrains
forming the Southern Apennine belt cannot be
considered as a single multi-layer sedimentary unit
[e.g. the Umbro-Marchigiano Basin involved in
the central Apennine thrust-belt; see Bally et al.
(1986) and Lavecchia et al. (1987)]. The alterna-
tion in space and time of carbonate platforms and
basins has given rise to considerable diversity in
the structural style observable in the various
Southern Apennine tectono-stratigraphic units.
These characteristics, together with the discontinu-
ous nature of the paleogeographic domains, make
the balancing and modelling of geological profiles
a difficult task. For example, field, wells and seismic
image data prove that the basinal facies terrains
of the Lagonegro Units (see further on) are highly
allochthonous. These units have undergone large-
scale internal brittle–ductile deformation. In con-
trast, the footwall of the nappes, consisting of a
thick succession of carbonate platform facies
[Inner Apulian Platform (IAP)], was subjected
mainly to brittle deformation and limited shorten-
ing (see below). As a consequence, disharmonic
deformation between the IAP end the allochtho-
nous units is very common.
The present foreland (Fig. 2) is represented by
the Outer Apulian Platform (OAP) consisting of
7000–8000 m thick carbonate sequence. The base
 A.M. Noguera, G. Rea / Tectonophysics 324 (2000) 239–265
of this sequence (penetrated by the Puglia 1 well )
consists of dolomites and clastic sediments of
transitional environment (Lower Triassic). The
reflecting horizons corresponding to this strati-
graphic level, easily recognisable on regional
seismic sections, show that the Apulian carbonate
sequences gradually thicken from NW to SE along
the Salento Peninsula. The thickening is particu-
larly evident for the Cretaceous interval.
In the axial zone of the belt, the OAP
underthrusts the IAP carbonates and is tectonically
covered by the stack of thrust sheets deriving from
the deformation of the Lagonegro Basin (LB)
described by Scandone (1967, 1972) and
D’Argenio et al. (1974). The Mesozoic thrust
sheets of the LB tectonically lie over their Tertiary
cover and these in turn lie over the Lower Pliocene
stratigraphic horizons of the IAP. These sheets
tectonically underlie the allochthonous units of the
Apennine Platform (APP) and the Sicilide and
Liguride Complexes, which represent the geometri-
cally highest structural units. Piggyback basin
deposits of Upper Miocene (Monte Sacro and
Gorgoglione cycle) to Plio-Pleistocene age
(Calvello and S. Arcangelo basins) unconformably
cover the entire thrust sheet stacks. The
Quaternary Bradanic cycle of the foreland covers
the allochthonous thrust front.
Commonly accepted geological models for the
tectonic evolution of the Southern Apennine
Fig. 6. (a) Sintetic lithostratigraphic columns and thrust geometry of the main tectono-stratigraphic units of the CLA.
245
assume that deformation propagated from the
West (within the belt) towards the East (outside
the belt). In palinspastic reconstruction the struc-
turally highest units should therefore be placed in
the most internal paleogeographic position. The
paleogeography, which may be deduced from
direct and elementary application of this principle
(Ogniben, 1969), leads, therefore, to the following
west to east arrangement of basinal and carbonate
platform domains ( Fig. 6):
$ Liguride–Sicilide basinal domain
$ APP
$ LB
$ Apulian Platform.
The Liguride basin was formed on oceanic crust
(Neotethyan Domain), whereas the APP, LB and
Apulian Platform were formed on continental crust
(Adria plate), which probably thinned out in corre-
spondence with the LB [ for a review see Sgrosso
(1993)].
In an alternative to this paleogeographic model,
other authors (D’Argenio et al., 1974, 1993;
Sgrosso, 1986; Marsella et al. 1995) presented
interpretations that differ considerably as regards
the tectonic evolution and paleogeography of the
Southern Apennine. In particular, Marsella et al.
(1995) reproposed the original model of Selli
(1962), attributing a more internal location of the
LB in relation to the APP.
From a morphological and structural point of
246 A.M. Noguera, G. Rea / Tectonophysics 324 (2000) 239–265
view, the orogen may be subdivided ( Fig. 2) into
an internal zone comprising the area between
Cilento and Vallo di Diano, an axial zone roughly
corresponding to the Mt. Sirino and Mt. Vulturino
mountain groups and an external zone comprising
the Bradano Valley and Murge. This simple tripar-
tition reflects the structural style and evolution of
the Apennine Orogen. In the internal zone the
compressional structures that affect the Liguride
complex and APP units are, in fact, overlain by
the effects of the Plio-Quaternary extensional tec-
tonics that originated large-scale systems of NW–
SE-trending normal faults dipping both westward
and eastward. This zone underwent an important
uplifting phase in the Lower Pleistocene
(Calabrian), which ceased to be active in the Upper
Pleistocene (Amato and Cinque, 1992; Cinque
et al., 1993; Westaway, 1993).
In the axial part of the belt, the Lagonegro
Units are exposed through some tectonic windows
in the footwall of AP carbonates and Liguride and
Sicilide nappes. The Lagonegro Units are featured
by a series of polyphasic folds and thrust sheets
[break thrust folds, sensu Willis (1893), in Fischer
et al. (1992)]. According to Mazzoli (1992) the
Lagonegro Units underwent an E- to NE-verging
deformation and were successively refolded by
roughly N–S-oriented shortening. These units were
finally deformed by a post-nappe folding phase,
which generated the wide antiforms easily recogni-
sable on large-scale geological maps. The main
axes of these antiforms determine the outcrops of
Lagonegro Units in tectonic windows and lie along
convex to the east alignments. These alignments
repeat the cartographic trend common to all the
major units of the Campanian–Lucanian segment
of the Southern Apennine representing the struc-
ture known as the ‘‘CLA’’. According to Cinque
et al. (1993), the formation of this arc dates to the
Upper Pliocene. The integrated interpretation of
seismic and geological data, shows that the shallow
structures of the CLA originated from the IAP
deep structuring, which has been stratigraphically
dated by hydrocarbon exploration wells as no
older than Upper Pliocene (e.g. Costa Molina 2
well, Fig. 7).
The IAP contractional structures are interpret-
able as non-cylindrical ramp anticlines (with a left-
lateral component of motion) and the associated
back-thrust in the western limb of the structures
is related to the ramp geometry.
According to the theoretical models of
Sanderson (1982), wrench-type shear arises if shear
strain varies for differential transport of thrust
sheets. The existence of the CLA implies both the
presence of differential transport of thrust sheets
and of a heterogeneous wrench shear component
on a horizontal plane. Considering that the IAP
was subjected to brittle deformation, the wrench-
shear component should be manifest along the arc
through strike-slip faults or transfer zones between
different bending and folded sectors of the belt.
Detailed seismic mapping of the top of the IAP
carbonates along the entire CLA led to the identi-
fication of these discontinuities as lateral ramps of
the major thrust-sheets. The en-echelon geometry
of the lateral ramps (with NE–SW and NW–SE
trend ) of the main thrusts mapped within the IAP
indicates the presence of complex transfer zones,
which often show significant dip of IAP carbon-
ates. It is in these zones that the Calvello, Potenza
and Ofanto basins were formed.
These transfer zones are represented in subsur-
face by the lateral ramps of the Val d’Agri deep
structures (IAP). The huge thrust sheet penetrated
by Costa Molina 2 well (Fig. 7) represents the
regional culmination of the compressional struc-
tures in the carbonates. This configuration suggests
that the overall shortening of the IAP varies along
the trend of the arc and that it reaches its maximum
in the central sector.
The Monte Alpi tectonic window (a peak having
the same name as the oilfield but lying much
farther south) represents the only outcrop of the
IAP ( Fig. 2). This unit, in fact, comes to the
surface due to the effect of a transpressive back
thrust [see van Dijk et al. (2000)].
In the axial zone of the belt the effects of strike-
slip and extensional tectonics are documented by
the Vallo di Diano and Val d’Agri faults. The axial
zone was affected by strong uplifting starting from
the end of the Lower Pleistocene, as proven by
Sicilian deposits outcropping 1000 m above sea
level (Cinque et al., 1993).
Finally, in the external zone the Cretaceous–
Miocene basinal units (External Flysch Complex)
 A.M. Noguera, G. Rea / Tectonophysics 324 (2000) 239–265

Fig. 7. Structural cross-section across the CLA (A–A∞ profile) and gravity modelling. The gravity modelling was made using the following density values: Liguride and
Sicilide Complex=2.4 g/cm3, Piggyback basins and APP clastics terrains=2.4–2.45 g/cm3, Extenal Flysch Complex=2.4 g/cm3, LB=2.55 g/cm3, IAP and OAP car-
bonatic succession=2.72 g/cm3, Bradanic Foredeep and Pliocene of IAP and OAP=2.35 g/cm3, Paleozoic and Basement=2.68 g/cm3, Mantle=3.2 g/cm3.
247
248 A.M. Noguera, G. Rea / Tectonophysics 324 (2000) 239–265
overthrust the Bradano foredeep. The leading edge
of this complex represents the buried thrust front
of the Southern Apennine.
More to the east the foreland constituted by
the OAP is westward dipping with a relatively
steep angle of around 10°. The vast anticlinorium
of the Murge corresponds to the peripheral bulge
of the foreland ( Royden and Karner, 1984; Patacca
et al., 1992a,b), the extreme limit of the system
deformed during the orogeny.
Proceeding from the Murge towards the axial
zone of the belt, seismic and well data (Sella et al.,
1988) show a gradual dipping of the OAP and its
Pliocene terrigenous cover below the external
allochthonous complex. The regional dip of the
OAP below the belt progressively increases
towards the SE. The marked bending of the
Apulian Platform is also shown by the present
arrangement of the hydrographic grid influenced
by the Apulian Platform deep structures.
2.1. Stratigraphic framework
The Southern Apennine represents a small por-
tion of a thrust and fold belts system extending
continuously from the central Mediterranean
through North Africa, Sicily and the Italian penin-
sula. This system developed during the Alpine
Cycle ( Trias–Quaternary) by deformation of the
southern margin of the Mesozoic Tethys
(Laubscher and Bernoulli, 1977). The paleogeog-
raphy of this passive margin in the Mesozoic times
was characterised by an alternation of carbonate
platforms and pelagic basins (Dercourt et al.,
1992). Starting from Cretaceous–Paleocene times
this margin began to shorten severely, originating
the Alpine belts. The Apennine deformation took
place during the Neogene, its evolution being
directly determined by the relative motions of the
European and African plates (Dewey et al., 1989).
The age of the first terrigenous sediments depos-
ited on the carbonate platforms or in the basins
and the age of the piggyback basins are linked to
the migration of the bending of the foreland litho-
sphere and to the incorporation into the thrust-
belt of progressively more outlying domains of the
Apulian plate. The dating of these events allows
the progression of the deformation to be clearly
defined and enables the setting of upper and lower
limits to the main deformation phases connected
with the evolution of the orogen (Sgrosso, 1986;
Casero et al., 1988; Patacca and Scandone, 1989).
The order adopted in the following summarised
descriptions of the stratigraphic units composing
the thrust-belt–foredeep–foreland system proceeds
from top to bottom and from the internal to the
external part of the system.
2.1.1. Apennine piggyback basins
This definition includes various sedimentary
cycles of Lower Pleistocene to Middle Miocene
age. The fan delta deposits of the Sauro and Agri
Cycles of the S. Arcangelo Basin (Pieri et al.,
1994) constitute the most recent cycles (Lower–
Middle Pleistocene and Lower Pleistocene). The
Middle Pliocene sedimentary cycle is well devel-
oped throughout the CLA (S. Arcangelo, Calvello,
Ofanto, Ariano and Benevento basins) and forms
a typical transgressive–regressive sequence depos-
ited on top of the thrust sheets as they advanced
towards the Apulian foreland (Amore et al., 1996).
The Upper Miocene deposits are represented in
the CLA by the well-known Altavilla–Anzano
cycles, consisting mainly of evaporitic sediments
and subordinately of terrigenous deposits
(Crostella and Vezzani, 1964). The latter are dis-
cordantly deposited on the S. Bartolomeo Fm.,
which represents a large-scale succession, in places
over 1500 m thick, consisting of turbiditic mud-
stones with metamorphic pebble inclusions at the
bottom and by an overlying pelitic sandstone
sequence (Crostella and Vezzani, 1964). This suc-
cession, belonging to the ‘‘Irpine Unit’’ family
(Cocco et al., 1972) and dated to the Upper
Langhian, was recently reattributed to the Lower
Messinian (Patacca et al., 1991).
The Gorgoglione Fm. sedimentary cycle
outcrops widely in Basilicata and unconformably
overlies the Liguride and Silicide Units and the
Albidona Fm. It consists of a thick (often over
1500 m) sequence of quartzarenites with pebbles
passing to pelitic sandstone deposits at the top.
Recent dating places the Gorgoglione formation
from Langhian to Tortonian (Patacca et al., 1991).
 A.M. Noguera, G. Rea / Tectonophysics 324 (2000) 239–265
2.1.2. Liguride–Sicilide Complex
This complex includes the allochthonous succes-
sions that constitute the highest units in the chain,
which were deposited in a basin lying partially on
the oceanic crust. The Liguride Units are repre-
sented by Frido, Crete Nere, Saraceno and
Albidona formations (Amore et al., 1988). These
units are made of Jurassic to Oligocene rocks
(Ogniben, 1969; Knot, 1994) incorporating ophio-
litc suites including blueschist-facies, showing a
lower greenschist-facies retrograde overprint (Cello
and Mazzoli, 1999). According to Knot (1994),
these units are the remnants of a subduction
complex, whereas the Albidona Fm. represents a
foredeep basin situated between the Liguridi accre-
tionary wedge to the west and the AP to the east.
According to Bonardi et al. (1985) the Albidona
Fm. has been attributed to the Burdigalian–
Langhian and interpreted [according to Selli
(1962)] as a piggyback basin deposited on Liguridi,
AP and LB units. New stratigraphic data on the
Albidona Fm. (Baruffini et al., 1999) shows that
this formation can be interpreted as an Eocene
foredeep basin situated upon the Liguride Units
to the west and the AP to the east.
The formations constituting the allochthonous
Silicide complex (Ogniben, 1969) are of Cretaceous
to Lower Miocene age. They are lithologically
dominated by varicoloured clays, resedimented
limestones with intercalations of red marls (similar
to the Helmintoid–Flysch of the Northern
Apennine) and fine sandstones. The overall thick-
ness is over 2000 m. Detailed stratigraphic data
and a new definition of the Sicilide Unit in the
Southern Apennine are lacking, so two different
attributions are followed in the literature:
$ internal origin (Ogniben, 1969; Amore et al.,
1988; Patacca and Scandone, 1989, Monaco
and Tortorici, 1995).
$ external origin, deposited on LB (Mostardini
and Merlini, 1986; Casero et al., 1988; Pescatore
et al., 1988).
According to Casero et al. (1988) and
Mostardini and Merlini (1986), the Sicilide Units
on the APP are related to a large back thrust
activity during the first phase of basin inversion.
Regional evidence suggests an internal origin of
part of the Sicilide Complex, as inferred by the
249
correlation with the Helmintoid Flysch of the
Northern Apennine. The terrains of Sicilidi
Affinity mapped in the Cilento region by Bonardi
et al. (1988) and the Sicilidi Unit outcropping in
the Sele Valley could represent internal units. The
Sicilidi Units mapped in the axial zone of the belt
(e.g. Mt. La Ricciola, Mt. Tangia) and the strati-
graphic successions described by Pescatore et. al.
(1988) could have been deposited during the Upper
Cretaceous–Lower Miocene on the LB (see below).
2.1.3. APP Unit
This unit consists of a series of stratigraphic
successions containing westward transition facies
(towards the Liguride Basin), internal platform
facies and eastern transition facies (towards the
LB). The internal transition succession (thickness
1500–2000 m) outcrops in the Capri Island and at
Mt. Bulgheria. It consists of shallow water
Triassic–Liassic carbonates followed by resedi-
mented carbonates interbedded with marls of
Lower Cretaceous–Miocene age.
The Alburno–Cervati succession represents the
open shallow platform facies. Triassic dolomites
and dolomitic limestones form the base of the
succession, followed by a monotonous succession
of shallow-water carbonates showing a strati-
graphic gap between the Upper Cretaceous and
the Paleocene. Miocene sediments (Cerchiara Fm.,
Selli, 1962) follow in conformable transgression as
progressively deepening carbonate slope facies
characterised by final complete drowning, as
shown by the development of Upper Burdigalian
terrigenous deposits (Bifurto Fm., Patacca et al.,
1992a,b). Clastic sedimentation ended with the
deposition of rudites and sandstones of
Serravallian–Tortonian age (Santo, 1996). The
thickness of this succession is about 5000 m.
The Mt. Foraporta succession, structurally lying
between the Alburno–Cervati Unit (below) and
the Triassic dolomites of the Mts Maddalena Unit
(Bonardi, 1966), outcrops to the west of the
Lagonegro town. The Mt. Foraporta succession
has been described by Boni et al. (1974), and
Scandone (1972). It consists of resedimented black
dolomites and bivalves limestones (Lithiotis facies
Auct., Bonardi, 1966) dating to the Upper
Triassic–Lower Jurassic. The thickness is about
250 A.M. Noguera, G. Rea / Tectonophysics 324 (2000) 239–265
500 m. According to Boni et al. (1974) the Mt.
Foraporta succession represents an euxinic intra-
platform basin originally located between the
Alburno–Cervati and Maddalena Units.
The Mt. Maddalena succession shows evidence
of a transition facies between the APP and the LB
(Marsella and Pappone, 1986; Marsella, 1988). This
2000 m thick sequence consists of restricted plat-
form dolomites and limestones from the Triassic–
Lower Jurassic interval. These are followed by slope
resedimented carbonates of Middle Jurassic to
Paleogene age. Numidian Flysch (Burdigalian–
Langhian, Patacca et al., 1992a,b) represents the
Miocene deposits. The Maddalena Unit foredeep
phase is documented by the Castelvetere Fm. con-
sisting of turbidite deposits with inclusions of con-
glomerates containing crystalline rock pebbles
(Pescatore et al., 1969). According to Patacca et al.
(1992) this formation was deposited at the
Tortonian–Messinian boundary.
2.1.4. Lagonegro Unit
The LB sequences are structured into two main
regional tectonic units, which in turn can be subdi-
vided into numerous tectonic sub-units. The upper
unit is about 2000 m thick and the lower one is
1500 m thick. The LB evolution starts with the
deformation of a carbonate platform (Ladinic lime-
stones, organogenic member of Monte Facito Fm.)
under an extensional tectonic regime associated
with crustal thinning and regional subsidence of the
Hercinian basement ( Wood, 1981). Starting from
Upper Triassic the LB probably constituted the
westward extension of the southern branch of the
Neo-Tethys Ocean (Ciarapica and Passeri, 1998).
The representative ‘calcareous–siliceous–marly
succession’ (Scandone, 1967, 1972; Wood, 1981;
Miconnet, 1983, Marsella et al., 1991) consists,
from bottom to top, of:
$ siliciclastic deposits including Ladinic lime-
stones and dolomites covered by pelagic lamelli-
branch-bearing shales (Monte Facito Fm.,
Lower Triassic–Upper Triassic);
$ cherty limestones (Calcari con Selce Fm., Upper
Triassic);
$ radiolarites and siliceous siltstones (Scisti Silicei
Fm., Jurassic);
$ shales and limestones (Galestri Fm., Lower
Cretaceous);
$ resedimented limestones, calcilutites and marls
(‘Red Flysch’, Auctorum, Upper Cretaceous –
Lower Miocene).
The latter formation is in stratigraphic continuity
with the ‘Numidian Flysch’ (Lower Burdigalian;
Sgrosso, 1986; Patacca et al., 1992a,b).
According to the interpretation originally pro-
posed by Ogniben (1969) and followed by
Scandone (1972), D’Argenio et al. (1974) and
Carbone et al. (1988, 1991), the terranes outcrop-
ping along the external edge of the belt represent
the Upper Miocene part of the LB sequence,
detached and overthrust beyond its Lower-
Miocenic–Mesozoic substrate. This external com-
plex (Pescatore et al., 1988) is, in fact, constituted
by the ‘Red Flysch’ Fm., passing upward to the
Numidian Sandstones. These quartzarenites are
largely represented in the Mediterranean area
(Durand Delga, 1980; Ogniben, 1963), and accord-
ing to Wezel (1970) their origin is from the slope
of the African Platform. The Numidian Sandstones
cover the APP and the LB, and according to
Patacca et al. (1992) they were deposited in a
foreland basin not yet reached by the compres-
sional front.
The Serrapalazzo Fm. ( Upper Tortonian), con-
sisting of marly limestones, sandstones and marls,
stratigraphically covers the Numidian Sandstones.
The Serrapalazzo Fm. is considered as the distal
portion of the foredeep deposits in the Upper
Tortonian. According to Pescatore et al. (1988),
the terranes outcropping in the Middle Basento
Valley and Stigliano ridge, attributed to the Silicide
Units (Argille Varicolori, Corleto Perticara and
Tufiti di Tusa), could represent the Upper
Cretaceous–Neogene portion of the LB deposited
in the axial part of the basin while the Flysch
Rosso Fm. was deposited near a carbonate
platform.
2.1.5. Apulian Platform Unit
Two large tectonic units, the IAP and the OAP,
represent the Apulian Platform. The IAP outcrops
in the Mt. Alpi di Latronico (Sgrosso, 1988) and
is known in the subsurface from well and seismic
data. The OAP forms the present foreland.
 A.M. Noguera, G. Rea / Tectonophysics 324 (2000) 239–265
According to Mostardini and Merlini (1986), the
IAP is characterised by shortening features and
the OAP by extensional features.
The stratigraphic succession of the IAP pene-
trated by wells is generically constituted of a Lower
and Upper Cretaceous carbonates sequence with
shallow-water and carbonate basin transition
facies. ‘Scaglia facies’, representing parts of the
Paleocene, were penetrated by some wells in Val
d’Agri (e.g. Costa Molina 2 well ).
The Miocene evolution of the Apulian Platform
testifies to a progressive drowning, demonstrated
by the deposition of increasingly deeper carbonate
slope facies limestones. The Upper Miocene por-
tion of this succession consists of regressive facies
(mudstones passing to anhydrite and gypsum in
the Messinian). The deposition of mudstones and
sandstones shows the existence of a foredeep sedi-
mentary cycle at the end of the Lower Pliocene.
The OAP features a thick succession (7000–
8000 m) of shallow-water carbonates whose oldest
portion is only known through deep subsurface
investigations. The base of this succession is
formed of Permian slates and continental sand-
stones unconformably covered by a transgressive
succession formed by calcareous breccias and sand-
stones of Scythian age (Puglia 1 well; Ricchetti,
1994). The calcareous breccias bear some fusuli-
nids, indicating a Paleozoic carbonate platform
source. The Middle–Upper Triassic succession
consists of dolomites and marls followed by dolo-
mites and anhydrites, which pass upwards to
Jurassic limestones and dolomites ( Ugento
Dolomites) and to the Cretaceous limestones of
the Calcari di Cupello Fm.
Discontinuous bodies of Tertiary and
Pleistocene limestones are known in the subsur-
face. These limestones are conformably covered
by on-lapping foredeep Middle Pliocene terrige-
nous deposits. These are, in turn, conformably
overlain by sediments of the Bradanic Cycle, repre-
senting a Pleistocene regressive megasequence
(Patacca et al., 1992a,b).
3. Regional structural profiles
Oil exploration in the Southern Apennine has
proven that the exposed part of the orogen is just
251
the remains of an Upper Miocene thrust-belt that
underwent a major translational event during the
Pliocene. The low morphological and structural
elevation make the reconstruction of deep cross-
sections without use of seismic lines and well data
an impossible task. The fundamental outlines of
the Southern Apennine deep structure, as seen
from regional seismic grids and well stratigraphy,
have only been acquired at the end of the Lower
Pliocene. It was in this period that the final activity
of the ensialic shear zone took place. This event
led to the subduction and total disappearance of
the basement of the LB and to the thrusting of
the Lagonegro Units and internal units, as well
as the onset of deformation of the Apulian
Platform.
A more recent event datable to the Plio-
Pleistocene is the structuring of the Apulian
Platform and the activation of a new ensialic shear
zone that led the IAP to overthrust the OAP.
The geological sections show the thick-skinned
nature of the Plio-Pleistocene thrust-belt (Figs. 7
and 8), an interpretation that differs from those
proposed by Mostardini and Merlini (1986),
Finetti et al. (1996), Marsella et al. (1995), Patacca
and Scandone (1987) and Picha (1996). All these
authors consider the orogen to be thin-skinned
with generalised detachment of all the sedimentary
covers from the basement. Casero et al. (1988)
and Roure et al. (1991) envisaged a quite different
tectonic style; they postulated an efficient detach-
ment between basement and cover in the Apulian
Platform and the thrusting of the basement along
a deep shear plane, this plane defining the existence
of a basement indenter.
The thick-skinned interpretation of the CLA is
in agreement with the magnetic basement geometry
described by Arisi Rota and Fichera (1987). It is
also backed up by the seismic recognition and
interpretation extended to a regional level of deep
reflecting horizons relating to the bottom of the
Apulian carbonates, which is attributed to the
Lower Triassic (Figs. 7 and 8).
The geological sections (Figs. 7 and 8) clearly
show the notable contrast between the tectonic
style of the deep structures at the core of the chain,
which form the hydrocarbon targets, and the tec-
tonic style of the Lagonegro, Sicilide and Liguride
 252
A.M. Noguera, G. Rea / Tectonophysics 324 (2000) 239–265

Fig. 8. Structural cross-section across the CLA (B–B∞ profile) and gravity modelling. For the density values see Fig. 9.
 A.M. Noguera, G. Rea / Tectonophysics 324 (2000) 239–265 253

nappes (detached thrust sheets). The Lagonegro

Units on the top of the IAP consist exclusively of
sedimentary cover characterised by brittle–ductile
internal deformation in a metamorphic environ-
ment that does not exceed the anchizone (Pozzuoli
et al., 1977) and represents the effect of a north-
eastward verging overthrust shear. The Upper
Cretaceous–Neogene covers of the LB were
detached and transported towards the foreland
with a duplex geometry (see below).
On the other hand, the deformation undergone
by the IAP also involved the basement, while the
OAP was affected by extensional tectonics due to
the progressive bending of the foreland whose
lithosphere was undergoing ensialic subduction.
The structures of the Lagonegro Units and the
allochthonous units above them, which can be
referred to the detachment and translation phase,
were thus transported onto the sole-thrust of these
units and thus are completely unrelated to the
deep structures of the IAP. This is also indepen- Fig. 9. Vitrinite and bitumen reflectance from the Val d’Agri
wells are characterised by a major discontinuity along the thrust
dently demonstrated by geochemical data: all the
surface at the Lagonegro–Undifferentiated Miocene unit con-
vitrinite reflectance diagrams from the wells show tact, where the maturity level sharply decreases.
a saw-tooth profile with a sharp downturn of the
indexes in correspondence with the sole-thrust of
the nappes (Fig. 9). The sole-thrust of the nappes 7, 8 and 10). The response is excellent up to the
consists of a thick shear zone with high fluid maximum recording time (6 s, TWT ), which for
pressure and is folded at regional level by the the velocities involved corresponds to depths of
reverse fault system affecting the IAP. over 12 km below sea level. The outcrops mainly
The structural arrangement and evolution consist of APP terrains with their terrigenous cover
described here also provide an explanation for the overthrusted by the Liguride and Sicilide Units.
successful oil exploration efforts in the Val d’Agri At the western side of the geological section, the
area, which is located in the internal part of the Mesozoic and Miocene successions appear thick-
thrust-belt, and thus in a fairly unfavourable posi- ened due to the effect of the frontal ramp of Mt.
tion for hydrocarbon exploration. Bulgheria ( Fig. 7). The APP consists of various
The three-part morphological–structural subdi- tectonic units, from top to bottom: the Alburno–
vision used here to explain the CLA on the basis Cervati Unit, Foraporta Unit, Monte Marzano
of surface data shows a natural correspondence Unit and Mts Maddalena Unit. The common
with the deep-lying structural styles illustrated by detachment level of these units is probably located
the geological sections ( Figs. 7 and 8). The descrip- at the bottom of the Triassic (Figs. 10 and 11).
tion of the sections is thus presented proceeding In the Cilento Peninsula subsurface, the seismic
from the internal zone towards the external zone. lines utilised for the A–A∞ and B–B∞ geological
sections show that the horizons attributed to the
3.1. Internal zone Triassic–Lower Paleozoic and the basement are
deformed into a thick, complex system of duplexes.
Seismic data are particularly good for the The latter overthrusts the IAP, which in the Cilento
Internal Zone ( lying between the coastline and the Peninsula subsurface appears to be characterised
western side of the Mts Maddalena Unit, Figs. 2, by a particular seismic facies (Fig. 10). We believe
 254
A.M. Noguera, G. Rea / Tectonophysics 324 (2000) 239–265

Fig. 10. Migrated seismic line across the Cilento Region (a) and interpretation (b). This line shows the seismic expression of the inner zone of the CLA. Note the
prominent reflectors of the top and bottom of the APP. This one representing the detachment level of the APP. The huge thickness of the APP (about 3 s TWT ) is
due to the compressional features (see Fig. 14). The strong reflections below the APP bottom can be interpreted as Paleozoic ‘basement’ thrust sheets of the LB or
APP. The seismic facies characterised by high amplitude reflectors (SW dipping), below the ‘basement’ and APP is interpreted as the transitional or basinal facies of
the IAP towards the LB. Finally, note the seismic expression of the east-dipping normal fault affecting the early compressional structures.
 A.M. Noguera, G. Rea / Tectonophysics 324 (2000) 239–265
Fig. 11. Geometrical relationship between Alburno–Cervati–Maddalena and Marzano Units before strike-slip tectonics.
this facies may refer to the buried margin of the
Apulian Platform (transition facies), probably
towards the LB. The nappes of the LB could
therefore have overthrusted the IAP along its
carbonate platform slope during the LB tectonic
inversion phase ( Upper Miocene times).
Surface mapping in the Alburno–Cervati region
points to the existence of two antiforms with
WNW–ESE-trending axial planes, characterised
by a slight NW plunge. These features are cut by
a Plio-Pleistocene left-lateral transtensive system
of NNW–SSE- to WNW–ESE-trending faults dip-
ping about 60° to the SW and NE (Ascione et al.
1992a,b). The NE–SW-trending fault system dis-
places the Alburno–Cervati structures towards the
NW in the Sele Plain.
The AP sole-thrust is clearly visible on the
seismic images that show its progressive shallowing
eastward up-dip ( Figs. 7, 8 and 10). This disconti-
nuity lies at 7000 m below sea level and reaches
the surface along the western flank of the Val
d’Agri. Proceeding northwards with respect to the
255
section A–A∞ along an NE–SW transect (Fig. 2),
the Alburno–Cervati Unit appears to be limited
by a WNW–ESE-trending system of left-lateral
transtensive faults dipping to the north-east. This
system also controls the morphology of the
Tanagro Valley (Ascione et al., 1992a). The Monte
Marzano Unit that overlies the Mts Maddalena
Units (see Fig. 11) constitutes the eastern end of
this valley.
In the internal zone the normal faults that affect
the IAP and the Liguride Complex are featured at
depth by listric geometry. On seismic lines the
fault block rotations are evident. The main faults
dip towards the Tyrrhenian Sea and flatten at the
bottom of the AP sole-thrust, which is probably
reactivated as a low-angle normal fault (Figs. 7, 8
and 10).
3.2. Axial zone
The axial zone extends from the western side of
the Diano Valley to the S. Fele and Stigliano
256 A.M. Noguera, G. Rea / Tectonophysics 324 (2000) 239–265

Ridge. This area corresponds to the culmination
of the IAP. The difference in tectonic style of the
frontal portion of the AP and Lagonegro Units
with respect to the IAP structures is very clear.
The LB terranes are structured into two large,
regionally overthrusted tectonic units (upper and
lower units, see Fig. 2), in turn subdivided into
numerous tectonic elements. Surface mapping and
subsurface data ( Figs. 2 and 7) show that the
lower unit outcrops extensively in the axial culmi-
nation zone of the CLA corresponding to the Mt.
Volturino, Mt. Enoc and Mt. Caldarosa ridge and
continues across the Val d’Agri until Mt. Sirino
(Fig. 2). Towards north and east ( Figs. 2 and 8)
the tectonic thickness of the upper unit exceeds
5300 m from the ground level in the area of S.
Fele town, while to the south the upper unit is
partially eroded and outcrops only at Mt. Torrette
and Timpa di Roccarossa ( Fig. 2). The Lagonegro
Units overthrust formations of the External Flysch
Complex and the Lower Pliocene of the IAP.
The surface units show high shortening, whereas
the deep carbonates are affected by overthrusting
with slight displacement that involves the Lower
Triassic, and probably the Paleozoic and the crys-
talline basement. The effect of the oblique ramp
of the IAP leads to a variable displacement of the
crystalline basement on cross-sections. A regional
interpretation of the seismic profiles shows that
the shortening of the IAP is maximum along the
B–B∞ regional section (Fig. 7) and decreases
towards NW (Fig. 8). The comparison of the two
sections presented demonstrates the NW axial
plunge of the IAP and the tectonic thickening of
the Lagonegro terranes in this direction.
In the Val d’Agri (Figs. 7 and 12) a transtensive
( left-lateral ) fault affects the pre-existing compres-
sive structures and also the basement. The NW–
SE-trending and westward dipping ‘Vallo di Diano
fault’ represents one of the main extensional linea-
ments, which can be observed from both seismic
data and field geology. The east-dipping normal
fault to the east of the Vallo di Diano (Fig. 8)
could be inferred as the extension of the Irpinia
earthquake seismogenetic fault [23/11/80; see
Funicello et al. (1988) and Pingue et al. (1988)]. In
this case, this fault should also cut the IAP and
would transfer the displacement to a thrust fault of
the IAP ( listric fault) or the displacement could be
accommodated in the ductile crust (planar fault).
The leading edge thrust of the IAP is character-
ised by a ( left-lateral transpressive) oblique ramp
(NW–SE trend ) that involves the basement and
may separate the Adriatic Moho from the
Tyrrhenan Moho.
Although the IAP units are also detached from
the underlying basement ( Figs. 7 and 8), the lead-
ing edge thrust of the IAP could be detached on

Fig. 12. The Southern Apennine thrust tectonics are clearly exposed along the slopes of the Val d’Agri, a Quaternary graben originated
by transtensive faults, where the APP limestones spectacularly overthrust the Lagonegro Unit (LB). Lagonegro and other underlying
Miocene Flysch are the allochthonous cover of the IAP reached by wells at an average depth of 3000 m below sea level.
 A.M. Noguera, G. Rea / Tectonophysics 324 (2000) 239–265
the Adriatic Moho (crustal delamination) and the
shortening transferred to the ductile crust.
Left-lateral transpressive structures are also pre-
sent within the OAP in the area explored by the
wells Tursi 1 and Rotondella 1, as seen from the
regional seismic grid sections and the field geology
(Fig. 2).
3.3. External zone
The external zone represents the portion of the
orogenic wedge not yet affected by the extensional
tectonics, which involve the whole of the internal
and axial parts of the thrust-belt. Here the alloch-
thonous terranes are represented by the Neogene
portion of the LB detached from their substratum
( External Flysch Complex). The buried thrust
front of the external zone was active in the north-
ern part of CLA at least until the end of the Plio-
Pleistocene (G. inflata Zone). According to evi-
dence from the Calvino 1 well (Fig. 8), it also
involves the Upper Pliocene sediments in an inter-
cutaneous back-thrust, whereas the buried thrust
front in the Southern part of the CLA was active
(Fig. 7) until the Pleistocene ( Emiliano).
The OAP is affected by disjunctive tectonics
(Sella et al., 1988) originated by the regional
bending of the Apulian lithosphere (Doglioni
et al., 1994).
The most evident structural elements in the
sections shown in Fig. 7, Figs. 7 and 8 are NW–
SE-trending normal faults. The main faults dis-
place the top of the OAP downthrown to the west
that gradually dips below the buried thrust front
of the belt. In some cases these faults clearly
displace the bottom of the OAP carbonates.
The seismic images of the external zone also
demonstrate the existence of growth structures
within the carbonate sequence, indicating synsedi-
mentary extensional tectonics of probable Middle
Cretaceous age.
3.4. Geometrical modelling and structural evolution
The selected sections are roughly oriented paral-
lel to the regional compression direction (NE–
SW ). Notwithstanding the presence of strike-slip
structures that reduce the accuracy in balancing
257
cross-sections (Hossack, 1979), it was possible to
satisfactorily balance and restore the APP (Fig. 13,
section A–A∞). The restoring of Lagonegro thrust-
nappes was carried out in a simplified way owing
to the polyphase deformation affecting these units.
The APP was balanced and restored exclusively
along the A–A∞ section (Fig. 8), since this lies
perpendicular to the main structures. Considering
the regional scale of the section, the effects due to
the transtensional tectonics identified in the
Alburni Mountain region were negligible.
The seismic lines across the APP allow recogni-
tion of the platform bottom and top only. The
internal geometry was therefore reconstructed by
integrating the depth-converted seismic interpreta-
tion with the surface structural data and strati-
graphic thickness investigated in accordance with
the classic principles of Woodward et al. (1989)
and Mitra (1992). The first step was the recon-
struction of the shortening structures before
normal faulting. Then the geometrical hypotheses
were finally checked through structural balancing
and restoring.
According to field and well data (Contursi 1
well ), the APP foredeep terrigenous sequences
were assumed to be detached from their substra-
tum and only recognisable at the footwall of Mt.
Puglie anticline.
The eastward thinning of the APP is linked to
the facies variations which lead to the transition
from the shallow platform (Mt. Cervati and Mt.
Alburno) to the carbonate slope deposits (Mt.
Maddalena), and probably to the intra-platform
basin of the Foraporta Unit.
The shortening1 of the AP in this sector, as
calculated between the considered pin lines, is 23%.
Since the LB nappes are affected by polyphase
deformation ( Torrente, 1990; Mazzoli, 1992) gen-
erated in a deep diagenetic to anchizonal metamor-
phic environment (Mazzoli, 1993; Pozzuoli et al.,
1977) they are difficult to balance and restore. It
is not always possible to describe the structures
with the necessary precision. Therefore, they have
been restored in a simplified form ( Fig. 14). The
1 The shortening R was calculated using the expression R=
(L −L /L )×100, where L is the initial length, and L the
i d i i d
deformed length.
258 A.M. Noguera, G. Rea / Tectonophysics 324 (2000) 239–265

Fig. 13. Balanced and restored structural cross-section through Alburno–Cervati and Maddalena Mts (APP). The eastward thinning
of the AAP is related to basinal and transitional facies between the Alburno–Cervati platform and the Foraporta–Maddalena facies.
The calculated shortening is 23%.

original width of the BL along the examined
sections was estimated to be 130 km at least,
implying a minimum shortening1 of 51% (Fig. 14).
The seismic lines across the OAP clearly show
a westward down-dip of the horizons representing
the bottom and top of the thick Apulian carbonate
sequence.
To the west of the IAP thrust front, the bottom
of the carbonate succession is only discontinuously
recognisable. In particular, the geometry of the
oblique ramp and the degree of overthrusting of
the IAP onto the OAP cannot be deduced directly
from the seismic images. In order to quantify this
shortening, and above all to ‘geometrically close’
the Southern Apennine thrust system, gravity mod-
elling, using the Moho geometry and refraction
seismic data published by Scarascia et al. (1994),
was performed.
The shortening1 of the Apulian Platform (IAP
and OAP) along section A–A∞ can be hypothesised
as being not less than 15%, while along section B–
B∞ shortening is estimated as being not less than 22%.
The sum of the lengths of the various paleogeo-
graphic domains (APP, LB, IAP and OAP)
included between the considered pin lines can be
estimated to be about 330 km. The calculated total
shortening1 is therefore over 62%. This value is a
minimum estimate, but nonetheless compatible
with the dimensions of the segment of lithosphere
that was subducted overall. The deep seismicity
data (Giardini and Velonà, 1991) and tomographic
images (Spakman, 1988) for the Southern
Tyrrhenian Sea indicate a lithospheric slab down
to a depth of 500 km. Therefore, the involved
sedimentary cover does not exceed the dimensions
of the slab that underwent subduction.
 A.M. Noguera, G. Rea / Tectonophysics 324 (2000) 239–265 259

Fig. 14. Palinspastic reconstruction for the A–A∞and B–B∞ profiles. Stage 1: until Burdigalian–Langhian times, the APP, LB and
Apulian Platform formed the foreland of the developing orogen; only the innermost sectors of the APP were already overthrust by
the Liguride and Sicilide nappes. The original length between the pin lines can be estimated as about 330 km. Stage 2: during the
Serravallian, the APP began to shorten and be thrust over the LB, which in turn started to be deformed under overburden conditions
and its continental substratum was subducted. The already-deformed Lagonegro Units and the APP overthrust the Apulian Platform
during the Early Pliocene.

The set of available geological and geophysical gates regularly from SW to NE during the
data allows us to propose a structural evolution Neogene. The envisaged structural evolution is
model ( Fig. 15) in which the deformation propa- described below.
260 A.M. Noguera, G. Rea / Tectonophysics 324 (2000) 239–265

Fig. 15. Structural evolution of the Southern Apennine (see text for explanation).

In a time T1 (pre-Langhian) the sedimentation
domain of the APP, LB and Apulian Platform
constituted the foreland and the Apennine defor-
mation front only affected the innermost domains
of the APP, which was overthrusted by the
Liguride and Sicilide nappes. Subsequently, during
the Serravallian–Lower Messinian ( T2) the APP
started to become shortened and overthrusted the
LB, which in turn deformed under overburden
conditions. We hypothesise that during this phase
the Meso-Cenozoic terranes forming the External
Flysch Complex were detached from their sub-
strate and translated, with the aid of gravity slid-
ing, towards the Apulian foredeep (Fig. 15). We
consider that after this event the External Flysch
Complex sole-thrust was breached (sensu Butler,
1987) by a subsequent thrusting that put the
Mesozoic LB sequence on top of the Miocene
terranes. Deposits of the Gorgoglione, Monte
Sacro and S. Bartolomeo piggyback basins then
overlaid the Liguridi, Sicilidi, APP and LB nappes.
In a successive phase ( Upper Messinian–Lower
Pliocene, phase T3) the deformed LB and APP
overthrusted the Inner Apulian Platform. This
 A.M. Noguera, G. Rea / Tectonophysics 324 (2000) 239–265
compressional deformation phase lasted until the
Lower Pliocene (G. margaritae–G. punticulata
Zone) leading to the complete subduction of the
thinned (?) lithosphere of the LB. The crystalline
basement in the subsurface of the Cilento
Peninsula probably sutures up the ancient ensialic
shear zone along which subduction of the thinned
continental crust of the LB took place.
Finally, in the Upper Pliocene ( T4), the IAP
and OAP were deformed. Overthrusting of the IAP
on top of OAP involved the Paleozoic strata and
the basement. The most important part of the
deformation of the IAP seems to have been origi-
nated from the left-lateral transpressive activity of
its oblique ramp, which cut the basement and
divided a Tyrrhenian Moho to the west from an
Adriatic Moho to the east. This oblique thrusting
(with a left-lateral component of motion) originated
the huge antiform of the CLA. It refolded at the
regional scale the previously formed stack of nappes
controlling the geometry of the intra-arc basin.
In the Middle Pleistocene the effects of the left-
lateral strike-slip tectonics induced by the south-
eastward migration of the Calabrian Arc become
predominant. This strike-slip system ( WNW–ESE
trending) is well known in the Calabrian–Lucanian
borderland. It corresponds to the area lying
between the Pollino Massif and the ridge explored
by the wells Rotondella 1, Tursi 1 and Letizia 1.
We consider the Mt. Bulgheria–Pollino thrust
sheet ( Fig. 1, Fig. 2) to be an outcropping expres-
sion of a buried ramp that allowed the Calabrian–
Lucanian border structures to overthrust the CLA.
This deformation zone could lie along the south-
western part of the buried margin between the
Apulian Platform and the LB.
The extensional events, which affected the chain
from the Tortonian onwards with the formation of
oceanic lithosphere in the Tyrrhenian Basin, fol-
lowed a migration pattern that progressively
affected the external sectors of the orogen. They
occurred parallel to the migration of compressional
fronts. Some seismic sections close to the
Tyrrhenian Sea (Cilento Region), provide good
documentation of important eastward-dipping dis-
continuities which can be interpreted as deep (about
10–15 km) normal faults that delaminate the
Tyrrhenian crust (Fig. 10). These appear to be
261
master faults from which the normal (westward-
dipping) faults observed in the Cilento Peninsula
are branching. The effects of extensional tectonics
linked with the rifting and sea floor spreading of
the Tyrrhenian Basin are particularly evident in the
inner and axial zones of the belt, whereas they seem
to be more limited proceeding towards the eastern
front.
From the Early Pleistocene onward, extensional
systems characterised by E–W-trending normal
faults were generated close to the Tyrrhenian coast
(e.g. Sele Plain). These still-active faults are related
to the Thyrrhenian opening (Patacca et al., 1992b)
and are compatible with the opening direction of
the Marsili Basin (Sartori, 1989). As an alternate
hypothesis, these faults have been related to the
longitudinal extensional stress component due to
the oroclinal bending of the Apennine–Calabrian
Arc system (Oldow et al., 1993) or to the final
lateral stretching induced by the subducted slab
(Doglioni, 1991).
Extensive uplifting has been documented in the
internal zone of the chain during the Calabrian,
whereas these phenomena occur in the axial zone
during the Sicilian (Cinque et al., 1993). This uplift
and the recent extension of the belt have been
related to the isostatic relaxation after the
detachment of the lithospheric slab undergoing
subduction (Cinque et al., 1993; Westaway, 1993;
Hyppolyte et al., 1994).
4. Conclusions
The structural interpretation of new geological
and geophysical data acquired for hydrocarbon
exploration suggest a geological model of the
Campanian–Lucanian sector of the Southern
Apennine thrust-belt that is outlined as follows.
The thin-skinned tectonic models derived from
investigation of the non-involved basement zone of
the Rocky Mountains, utilised by Bally et al. (1986)
for the interpretation of the Umbro-Marchigiano
Apennine and by Marsella et al. (1995), Mostardini
and Merlini (1986) and Patacca and Scandone
(1987) for the Southern Apennine, can explain
shallower structures, but are not as robust as models
that include the deep involvement of basement in
terms of regional features.
262 A.M. Noguera, G. Rea / Tectonophysics 324 (2000) 239–265
The Southern Apennine deep structures
(Apulian Platform deformation) are essentially
Plio-Pleistocene in age and related to a basement-
involved thrust tectonics. The IAP constitutes a
huge thrust sheet with oblique thrust ramps ( left
lateral ), structured as a wide antiform in the core
belt. The deformation of the IAP led to refolding
and breaching (sensu Butler, 1987) of the overlay-
ing allochthonous nappes and generated large tec-
tonic windows along the axial zone of the thrust-
belt.
The overthrusts propagated in a piggyback
sequence (sensu Butler, 1987) towards the fore-
land, regularly involving progressively more exter-
nal units. Only the minor thrust sheets within the
nappes (APP, LB, etc.) and the IAP could have
developed out of sequence (sensu McClay, 1992).
The basement in the Cilento Peninsula subsur-
face probably represents the hanging-wall of an
ancient ensialic shear zone, where the LB
(thinned?) crust was subducted.
The well-known left-lateral strike-slip tectonic
activity in the Calabrian–Lucanian borderland can
be interpreted as the surface effect of a regional
buried lateral ramp. This allowed overthrusting of
the structures of the Calabrian–Lucanian border-
land on the CLA and the south-eastward migration
of the Calabrian Arc.
Extensional features induced by the Tortonian
opening and oceanisation of the Tyrrhenian Basin
are superimposed onto the pre-existing compres-
sional and strike-slip structures, which were dis-
placed and fragmented. Seismic data document the
deep extensional reactivation of overthrust zones
for certain westward-dipping listric master-faults.
The total length of the various paleogeographic
domains, between the pin lines (Fig. 14), may be
estimated as about 330 km. The shortening is 62%.
These figures could be considered an underesti-
mate, but they are still compatible with the south-
ern Tyrrhenian subducted lithospheric slab
extension documented by tomographic image data
down to a 500 km depth.
Acknowledgements
We are grateful to F. Benelli and P. Quattrone
for the precious advice and encouragement; thanks
have to be addressed also to the colleagues of the
Southern Apennine Exploration Team and
Structural Geology Department for helpful discus-
sions on the Southern Apennine Geology and the
field mapping. Thanks to P. Bernardelli, D. Casini
Ropa and I. Giori for having provided the gravity
modelling. Special mention is accorded to A.
Argnani and C. Cooper for the critical review and
helpful suggestions. Thanks to S. Mazzoli and the
anonymous reviewer for the constructive criticism
and G. Rossi and A. Pizzochero for the computer
graphics.
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 Geophys. J. Int. (2000) 143, 1±24

On the Mesozoic Ionian Basin

R. Catalano,1.C. Doglioni2.and S. Merlini3.

1
Dipartimento di Geologia, UniversitaÁ di Palermo, Italy
2
Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, UniversitaÁ La Sapienza, Roma, Italy
3
Eni-Agip SpA, S. Donato Milanese, Italy

Accepted 2000 July 14. Received 2000 February 28; in original form 1999 July 14

SUMMARY
New seismic re¯ection pro®les of the Italian deep crust project CROP provide new
insights on the structure of the Ionian sea. In spite of the Apennines and Hellenides
Neogene subduction zones, two conjugate passive continental margins are preserved
at the margins of the Ionian sea, along the Malta escarpment to the southwest and
the Apulian escarpment to the northeast. The Ionian sea is likely to be a remnant of the
Mesozoic Tethys Ocean, con®ned by these two conjugate passive continental margins.
The transition from continental to oceanic crust appears sharper to the northeast than to
the southwest. The basin between southeast Sicily and southwest Puglia was about
330 km wide and suggests a low spreading rate. The inferred oceanic ridge should have
been ¯attened by thermal cooling and buried by later sediments.
Based on stratigraphic and structural constraints to the north in the Apennines
; belt, the ocean continued a. nd was transferred to the northwest. This palaeogeography is
supported by the seismicity of the Apennines slab underneath the southern Tyrrhenian
sea, which implies downgoing oceanic lithosphere. The adjacent absence or paucity of
deep seismicity does not imply absence of subduction, but rather it can be interpreted as
due to the more ductile behaviour of the subducted continental lithosphere. Surprisingly,
we note that where the oceanic inherited basin is subducting underneath the Apennines,
in the hangingwall of the subduction hinge there are outcropping slices of continental
crystalline basement previously deformed by the Alpine orogen.
Key words: Ionian sea, Mediterranean, Mesozoic, oceanic crust, passive margin.

The Ionian Sea represents a key area for the understanding

INTRODUCTION
The Ionian sea is located in the central-eastern part of the
Mediterranean Basin, bordered by southern Italy to the west
and north, Greece to the east, and offshore Libya to the
south (. Fig. 1.). It is a deep sea (in many places below 3000 m).
Important geophysical studies on the Ionian sea have been
performed during the last three decades (Hinz 1973.; Panza &
< Mueller 1979.;. Farrugia & Panza 1981.; Makris 1981.; Calcagnile
et al. 1982.; Finetti 1982., 1985.; Makris et al. 1983., 1986.;
= Morelli 1985.; Leister et al. 1986.; Della Vedova & Pellis 1989.;.
Ferrucci et al. 1991.; Mongelli et al. 1991.; de Voogd et al. 1992.;
Cernobori et al. 1996.; Piromallo & Morelli 1997.). In contrast,
few papers have described and interpreted the geological and
geodynamic evolution of the Ionian sea, owing to the deep-water
conditions (Selli 1962.). The ODP sites located in this basin
were very few and too super®cial (Ryan et al. 1973.). Based
on gravity, seismic refraction and re¯ection data, the crust is
considered to be between 15 and 20 km thick (Locardi &
Nicolich 1988.; Nicolich 1989.; De Voogd et al. 1992.; Scarascia
et al. 1994.).
of the evolution of the Mediterranean geodynamics, both for
the Apennines and Hellenic subduction zones (Scandone 1980.;
Angelier et al. 1982.; Royden et al. 1987.), and for the Mesozoic
Tethyan palaeogeography (Bernoulli et al. 1979.; Bernoulli &
Lemoine 1980.; Dercourt et al. 1986.; Lemoine et al. 1986.). This
basin has been considered by Le Pichon (1982a). as a land-
locked basin or a trapped crust (Letouzey 1986.). In spite of this
crucial location and of the several studies, we still have several
doubts about the nature and evolution of the Ionian sea. There
are papers that have described its oceanic nature (Finetti 1982.;
De Voogd et al. 1992.; Finetti et al. 1996.; Stamp¯i et al. 1998.),
but there are also articles which alternatively propose that the
Ionian Basin is of denser continental crust (Farrugia & Panza
1981.; Calcagnile et al. 1982.) or a highly re¯ective interval within
the lower crust (Cernobori et al. 1996.).
The Ionian sea and its relationships with the surrounding
areas is crucial in understanding the processes that controlled
the Apennines subduction zones which consumed different litho-
spheres of the foreland. It is evident that the largest south-
eastward advancement of the Apennines accretionary wedge

# 2000 RAS 1

GJI 72078-27 3/10/00 14:24:26 Rev 6.05e/W (Mar 29 1999)

The Charlesworth Group, Hudders®eld 01484 517077
 2 R. Catalano, C. Doglioni and S. Merlini
Figure 1. Locations of the seismic sections used in the paper.
occurs in the Ionian sea, offshore Calabria, and the largest
expansion of the Tyrrhenian sea is located right behind to
the west of the Calabrian arc (Malinverno & Ryan 1986.;
Doglioni 1991.). In contrast, in the adjacent parts to the north
of the Ionian sea in the southern Apennines, and to the south-
west, in Sicily, the Apennines are less advanced towards the
foreland and the Tyrrhenian backarc extension is less pro-
nounced. Additionally, the front of the Hellenic arc (that is, the
Mediterranean ridge) is more advanced towards the southwest,
corresponding to the deep Ionian Basin.
> Several authors widely.. described the passive continental
margin of the Malta escarpment (Cita et al. 1981.; Scandone
et al. 1981.; Casero et al. 1984.; Charier et al. 1987.; Cinque
et al. 1993.; Hippolyte et al. 1994.). However, it was not com-
? prehensively described..as the conjugate margin of the Apulian
swell on the other side of the Ionian Sea. In this research we
want to test whether the Malta escarpment offshore east Sicily
and the Salento±Apulian offshore southwest Puglia (Rossi &
Borsetti 1974.; Sorel 1976.; Auroux et al. 1985.; Charier et al.
1988.; Ciaran® et al. 1988.; Ricchetti et al. 1988.; Favali et al. 1990.;
Gambini & Tozzi 1996.) are two conjugate passive continental
margins of Triassic±Jurassic age, separated by a basin, i.e. the
Ionian Ocean.
The Malta escarpment (Fig. 1.) is a physiographic feature
which has been tectonically controlled since Triassic times. Rocks
dredged on the Malta escarpment span from the Mesozoic
to the Tertiary (Cita et al. 1981.; Scandone et al. 1981.). The
pre-Cretaceous lower fault systems (Casero et al. 1984.) can be
correlated with the evolution of a Mesozoic continental margin
(Charier et al. 1987.). Post-Tortonian and Late Pliocene±
Pleistocene extensional tectonic reactivation yields high angle
@ and listric characters..in the eastward-tilted blocks (Torelli et al.
GJI 72078-27 3/10/00 14:24:51 Rev 6.05e/W (Mar 29 1999)
The Charlesworth Group, Hudders®eld 01484 517077
1998.). Depositional geometries of pre-Messinian rocks prograde
towards the Ionian Sea to the east.
Our main goal is to show a few new details and a new
interpretation to be added to the debate on the origin of the
Ionian Sea, based on new seismic lines acquired by CROP
(CROsta Profonda, the Italian deep crustal project founded by
CNR, ENI-Agip and Enel), tied with.. geophysical industrial A
data and inland ®eld observations.
GEODYNAMIC SETTING
The Ionian abyssal plain (Bigi et al. 1989.) is surrounded by
a variety of geodynamic settings (Boccaletti et al. 1984.). The
Ionian lithosphere is subducting underneath Calabria to the
northwest (Caputo et al. 1970., 1972.; Gasparini et al. 1982.;
Cristofolini et al. 1985.; Selvaggi & Chiarabba 1995.; .Mele et al. B
1997.). The associated accretionary wedge widely..advanced in
the Ionian Sea (Tramutoli et al. 1984.; Pescatore & Senatore
C
1986.; Senatore et al. 1988.; Doglioni et al. 1999.), particularly
involving.. the sedimentary cover on top of it (Finetti 1982.). EX
Very shallow deÂcollements deform the Messinian evaporitic
sequences, leaving the underlying crust mainly undisturbed. To
the east, the Ionian lithosphere is subducting underneath Greece
(Le Pichon & Angelier 1979.; Le Pichon 1982b.; Christova &
Nikolova 1993.). The southern and southwestern margins of the
Ionian Sea are the areas which have not yet been involved
in Tertiary and Quaternary shortening of the Apennines and
Hellenic subduction zones (Fig. 1.). There, the original shape of
the Ionian margins may be more easily studied and they show
morphology, water depth and geophysical signatures of passive
margin style. The Bouguer gravity map (. Fig. 2.) shows values
mainly between 130 and 250 mGal in the Ionian abyssal plain;
# 2000 RAS, GJI 143, 1±24

Figure 2. Free-air gravimetric map of the Ionian Sea, courtesy of ENI-Agip..
the values decrease moving underneath Calabria to between 20
and 30 mGal due to the subduction of the Ionian lithosphere.
EO Della Vedova & Pellis (1989).. described low heat ¯ow values
(30±40 mW mx2) in the Ionian Basin (. Fig. 3.) and proposed an
early Mesozoic age for the oceanic crust.
Ciminale & Wasowski (1989).described the Hyblean plateau
(or Ragusa plateau) magnetic anomaly, and compared it with
the East Coast magnetic anomaly of the eastern US Atlantic
passive continental margin, where this anomaly is interpreted
as related to magmatic intrusions. Along the Malta escarpment
in other CROP seismic re¯ection pro®les (C9421, M23) a huge
EP intrusion may..be inferred (Catalano et al. 1998.).
In the section between Sicily and Puglia, the Ionian Sea
should be a complete oceanic section containing an aborted
oceanic ridge of Mesozoic age. Its relief is lost by thermal
cooling and hidden by thick pelagic deposits, ranging in age
from Jurassic to Tertiary, and by the overlapping Apenninic
thrust sheets. If this is the case, the Ionian sea would be one of
the oldest oceanic crusts in the world.
THE CROP SEISMIC DATA
New seismic pro®les have been acquired in the Ionian sea and
other Italian seas and inland by the CROP project. In this
paper we present segments of lines M3 and C9434 and the line
C9422. These seismic pro®les are particularly important for
understanding the early history of the Ionian Sea (Fig. 1.). The
acquisition parameters and the entire set of seismic lines will
soon be published as an atlas by the partners of the CROP
project.
The ®rst segment is along the Malta escarpment (. Fig. 4.), at
the transition between the Sicilian mainland and the deep Ionian
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The Mesozoic Ionian Basin 3
KQ
Basin. This topographic margin represents one of the most
important features of Mediterranean geology and physio-
graphy (Scandone et al. 1981.; Scarascia et al. 1994.). The high
topographic gradient corresponds to a major change in crustal
thickness and composition (Finetti 1982.). For a geological inter-
pretation of this margin see Scandone et al. (1981).and Casero
et al. (1984).. The other line we propose..is located on the other EQ
side of the Ionian.,. along the Apulian±Salento margin (. Fig. 5.),
where there is a sudden submarine topographic step, separating
ER
the stratigraphic successions of the Apulian swell from the deep
Ionian Basin; F . ig. 6. is located halfway between the former
sections.. F
. ig. 7. is a further complete section of the southern ES
part of the Ionian Sea.
A stratigraphic reconstruction of the three different sections
is presented in F . ig. 8., and F
. ig. 9. is a synopsis of the Ionian
Sea based on the seismic and stratigraphic data. Seismic facies
along M3 show high-frequency and good continuity patterns,
and locally transparent or chaotic characters. In the central
part of Fig. 4.(M3), the strong ¯at-lying re¯ectors are about
1 s two-way-time thick, which could correspond to the pre-
Miocene deep-water succession on a stretched continental crust
(Casero et al. 1984.).
Upwards, the acoustic body is re¯ection-free or it shows a
chaotic pattern, and it is topped by high-amplitude horizons
with frequent diffraction. Its thickness ranges between 0.4 s in
the abyssal plain and about 1 s two-way-time westwards, near
to the continental rise. The body has been interpreted as con-
sisting of Miocene clastics and Messinian evaporites (Cernobori
et al. 1996.). Thin Plio-Pleistocene cover is widespread all over
the section.
The deep crustal levels eastwards of the Malta escarpment
(Fig. 4.) show homogeneous acoustic characters.. and con- ET
stant thickness (about 1.5±2 s two-way time, i.e. 6±7 km). The
 4 R. Catalano, C. Doglioni and S. Merlini
Figure 3. Heat ¯ow values of the Ionian Sea (after Della Vedova & Pellis 1989.).
re¯ecting band is formed by layered high-amplitude re¯ectors
at the base of the crust (located at 8±9 s two-way time, i.e.
15±17 km, Fig. 7.). The layered crust has a traveltime thickness
of about 1 s. It is overlain by a seismically transparent band
topped by a high-amplitude and discontinuous re¯ector, charac-
terized by diffraction, located at about 7±6.5 s two-way time,
shallowing towards the abyssal plain. Similar images of the
crust and depth of the Moho are described by De Chassy et al.
EU (1990). in the North Atlantic margin (see their.. section AGC
85±1/2). However, Cernobori et al. (1996).disagreed with the
idea that the Ionian crust has an oceanic nature, interpreting
the layered re¯ections as the lower crust of an extremely thinned
continental crust, intruded by upper mantle rocks (Makris et al.
1986.). In Fig. 7. the layered crust shows offsets which we
interpret as possible faults with extensional components.
The seismic image of the conjugate margin is seen at the
Salento±Apulian escarpment (Fig. 5., line C9434) that separates
the Apulia swell, composed of carbonate platform seismic facies
from the Ionian abyssal plain. The escarpment view is disturbed
by diffuse diffractions. However, on the right-hand side, both
the top and the bottom of the Apulian Triassic±Jurassic±
Cretaceous carbonate platform are easily recognizable. This is
well known inland and from industrial seismic lines as a body
approximately 2 s two-way-time thick (about 6 km thickness).
EV The transition to deep-water crust.. is sharper than along the
Malta escarpment opposite to the southwest. The crust to
the southwest of the Apulian margin is poorly re¯ective, and the
sea¯oor is in many places more than 3000 m deep, even up to
more than 4000 m, depths which are typically oceanic.
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Fig. 6. is another segment of seismic line C9434, halfway
between the two former sections.. The sea¯oor shows an EW
anomalous depression which could be associated either with a
con®ned thermal subsidence or more probably with the lateral
ramps of thrust planes of the Apennines accretionary wedge.
Surprisingly, however, the underlying 4 s shows crust with
re¯ectors dipping from both sides of the section towards the
central depression, but they could be multiples. The Moho depth
is unclear; there are signi®cant re¯ectors at about 9 s depth.
The abrupt morphologies of the Malta and Apulia escarp-
ments indicate that there have been recent reactivations of
these margins. In particular, the Malta escarpment is active in
terms of seismicity and magmatism. These tectonics were inter-
preted by Doglioni et al. (1998).as being due to the right-lateral
transtension generated by the differential roll-back between the
Ionian sea and the eastern Sicily lithospheres.
STRATIGRAPHIC CONSTRAINTS
The area can schematically be divided into three main sectors:
the Hyblean Plateau to the southwest (Sicily), the Ionian Sea
s.s..,. and the Apulian swell to the northeast (Puglia) (Fig. 8.). We FX
omit, for the sake of simplicity, the allochthonous thrust sheets
in the Apennines accretionary wedge.
The Hyblean plateau (Bianchi et al. 1987.) has a Triassic±
Neogene sequence more than 5 km thick, lying above a 20±25 km
thick continental crust with African af®nity. The main base of
the sedimentary cover consists of a thick (more than 2.5 km)
Upper Triassic carbonate platform (tidal ¯at dolomites facies),
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The Mesozoic Ionian Basin

Figure 4. The Malta escarpment separates the Sicilian continental crust from the Ionian abyssal plain. It is considered to be a stretched passive continental margin.

5
 6 R. Catalano, C. Doglioni and S. Merlini

Figure 5. The Salento escarpment separates the Apulian swell from the Ionian abyssal plain. It is considered to be a stretched passive continental
margin. It is sharper than the Malta escarpment and it appears as its conjugate margin.

passing to Uppermost Triassic±Lower Liassic Streppenosa
FO basinal carbonates. The carbonate platform later drowned to a..
pelagic facies. The eastern margin of the Hyblean plateau is the
Malta escarpment (Fig. 1.), where the sea¯oor rapidly becomes
FP deeper towards the Ionian.. Clear cross-sections of the Malta
escarpment were provided by Casero et al. (1984)..
The Ionian Sea (Biju-Duval et al. 1982.) exhibits about
4.5±5 km of sedimentary cover of seismically interpreted
pelagic facies from Triassic (?) to present, apart the..Messinian FQ
evaporites, resting on top of a `basaltic' layer of oceanic nature.
Fig. 8. shows the interpreted stratigraphic column with the
relative seismic velocities.
In contrast, the Apulian swell (Auroux et al. 1985.) to
the northeast (Fig. 5.) lies on a crystalline continental crust.
The sedimentary cover starts with a siliciclastic sequence of
Late Permian±Early Triassic age, covered by an approximately

Figure 6. Halfway between the Malta and Salento conjugate passive continental margins, at about 165 km from each margin, there should be an
aborted oceanic ridge. The relief of the oceanic ridge should have been lost by thermal cooling and the later burial by sediments. However, in the
shallow crust (sedimentary cover), this area is affected by the front of the Apennines accretionary wedge, which may have generated rough
topography.

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 The Mesozoic Ionian Basin 7

Figure 7. Seismic section C9422. Note the lens-shaped clastic (?) body on the left part of the section. Location in Fig. 1..

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8 R. Catalano, C. Doglioni and S. Merlini

Figure 8. Stratigraphy of the three main structural areasÐthe Hyblean plateau, the Ionian deep basin and the Salento±Apulian swell.

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Figure 9. Reconstruction of the Ionian Ocean showing the asumed Mesozoic age of sea¯oor spreading. The rates of opening appear to be very low. In
this interpretation, the Apulian and Hyblean plateaux were originally connected. Continental rifting might have started in Late Permian.
5 km thick carbonate platform sequence with interbedded
evaporites and a lateral pelagic transition at the top in the Late
Cretaceous±Early Tertiary.
The Hyblean Plateau (Fig. 4.) and the Apulian swell (Fig. 5.)
show typical passive margin sedimentary successions, well
known inland in Sicily and the Apennines, whereas the Ionian
Basin indicates a persistent deep-water environment (Fig. 7.).
Section C9422 (Fig. 7.) exhibits a half-lens-shaped body in its
southwestern segment. This body is about 100 km wide and it
is marked by irregular internal re¯ections. We do not have any
constraints on its nature; possible interpretations are con¯ict-
ing, for example, either a basaltic ¯ow or a deep-water clastic
FR fan sourced from North Africa. The last interpretation recalls..
the Early Miocene Numidian sands of the southern Apennines
(Patacca et al. 1992.). The overlying sediments onlap the
northeastern margin of the lens.
We may be tempted to link or to compare the Ionian
Sea stratigraphy to the Lagonegro sequences of the southern
FS Apennines to the north; however, several differences probably..
occur between the two realms. First, the Lagonegro sequence
starts with relatively shallow-water facies (Monte Facito
FT of Middle Triassic age, also containing olistholiths.. of Late
Permian shallow-water facies). The shallow-water environment
is probably associated with a continental crust of 20±30 km
thickness. The overlying Calcari con Selce and the cherty
FU Liassic Scisti Silicei more easily resemble..a deep-water pelagic
setting. Similar deep-water facies occur in the Imerese and
Sicanian basins in Sicily. However, their shallow-water sub-
stratum constrains their position on an already Permian±
FV Triassic..stretched continental crust. Therefore, the deep-water
facies of the Ionian Sea cannot simply be considered as the
southern equivalent of the Lagonegro sequences of the southern
Apennines due to their different crustal substrate. Moreover,
these Lagonegro tectonic units have overriden the Apulian
platform (Mostardini & Merlini 1986.) and the restoration of
the thrust sheets indicates a very different palaeogeography of
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The Mesozoic Ionian Basin 9
the Apulian, Lagonegro and Ionian Sea sequences (Zappaterra
1994.) with respect to their present location in the Apennines
accretionary wedge (Casero et al. 1988.; Sella et al. 1988.;
Boccaletti et al. 1990.; Marsella et al. 1995.). A palaeogeographic
attempt..is proposed as shown in F . ig. 10., where the Lagonegro FW
sequences were located a few hundred kilometres westwards of
their present position, before their involvement in the Apennines
accretionary prism. However, the fast Liassic subsidence which
generated the upward deepening..of the Lagonegro and Sicilian GX
sequences could well be associated with the opening of the
Ionian Ocean.
WHAT IS THE AGE OF THE IONIAN SEA?
New lines of evidences are in favour of the old idea that the
Ionian Sea is ¯oored by oceanic crust. The Ionian Sea has a
thin 8±11 km oceanic crust and 7±8 km of sedimentary cover of
Mesozoic and Tertiary age (de Voogd et al. 1992.). In their
interpretation, the entire crust has a maximum thickness of
19 km. The interpreted oceanic crust of the Ionian Sea has been
indicated..as being Early Jurassic by Finetti (1982).. We interpret GO
the top of the oceanic crust in our sections at about 6.5±8.0 s
two-way time. Based on the low heat ¯ow values in the Ionian
abyssal plain at about 4000 m depth (34 mW mx2), Della
Vedova & Pellis (1989)..proposed an age of 180±200 Myr for the GP
oceanic embayment; the 90 km thick lithosphere (Calcagnile &
Panza 1981.) also supports an old age for this crust. In Sicily,
deep-water pelagic Permian fauna are known throughout the
Permian. Catalano et al. (1991).speculated that Sicily belonged
either to the Permian Tethyan Ocean or to a Permian rift with
thinned continental crust, a continuation of Palaeotethys further
to the east. Magmatism along the Malta escarpment and on the
Hyblean plateau started during Triassic times and lasted into
the Early Tertiary (?). Later Pliocene and Pleistocene magmatism
was emplaced along the same trend (e.g. Mount Etna).
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#
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Figure 10. Late Oligocene±Early Miocene palaeogeography of the central-eastern Mediterranean, with the preserved Mesozoic palaeogeography in the Apennines foreland to the east. The 330 km wide Ionian
Mesozoic Ocean had to be transferred to the west-northwest, since the restoration of the southern Apennines thrust sheets implies thinned but still continental crust to the north of the Ionian sea. The present
seismicity, deeper than 50 km (after Amato et al. 1993.) closely matches the oceanic palaeogeography. Note also the correspondence between the oceanic nature of the subducting plate and the outcrops of basement
rocks in the hangingwall.

Therefore, due to the lack of direct information (magnetic
anomalies, well data, etc.) on the age of the Ionian sea, we
GQ agree with..the idea that continental rifting started in the Late
Permian and Triassic, later evolving to oceanic spreading.
However, we do not have reliable constraints on the end of this
rifting; based only on the heat ¯ow data and the assumed age
of the sediments overlying the crust, we interpret a possible
Late Cretaceous±Early Tertiary age for the abortion of oceanic
spreading. Based on these assumptions and the width of
the basin, we hypothesize low values of oceanic spreading
(1±2 cm yrx1?).
The two conjugate Mesozoic passive margins (i.e. Malta and
Salento) have been slightly deformed by later, mainly Neogene
and Quaternary tectonics. However, we interpret the present
topographic steps along the margins, between shallow water
and deep water, as being mainly inherited from the Ionian
Ocean rifting. The two margins have been used or reactivated
as transfer zones during the larger rollback of the Ionian
lithosphere subduction with respect to the adjacent continental
margins. Moreover, at shallower crustal depths, these margins
have also controlled the lateral advancement of the Apennines
accretionary prism, where right-lateral and left-lateral trans-
pression tectonics occurred, respectively, along the Malta and
Salento margins.
IS THERE A MESOZOIC OCEANIC RIDGE
IN THE IONIAN SEA?
Since the Ionian Basin is a Mesozoic Ocean with its preserved
passive continental margins, we expect to recognize an oceanic
ridge halfway between the two margins. The assumed ocean is
about 330 km wide and therefore we checked on seismic line
C9434 at about 165 km whether there is any evidence of an
oceanic ridge (Fig. 6.). At that point the section shows an
anomalous depression of the sea¯oor at about 4 s two-way
time and the dips of the re¯ectors converge below this small
3 km wide basin. However, we suspect that this anomaly could
be related to the presence of folds associated with the Apennines
accretionary prism, since the seismic pro®le is located far inside
the front of the accretionary wedge (Fig. 1.). Moreover, some of
the signals at depth could be multiples. We also expect thermal
subsidence along an aborted oceanic ridge, which would have
hidden the original morphological relief of the mid-ocean ridge.
GR The 3±6 km..thick sedimentary cover above the oceanic crust
generated further lithostatic subsidence, depressing and hiding
the assumed oceanic ridge.
CALABRIA BASEMENT AND THE
IONIAN OCEAN
It is noteworthy that the reconstruction of the northwestern
prolongation of the Ionian oceanic crust based on the seismic
re¯ection data of this study matches the occurrences of the
basement rocks of Calabria and northeast Sicily (Fig. 10.).
Apparently, where there is downgoing oceanic lithosphere in the
subduction, Alpine±Variscan metamorphic and intrusive rocks
crop out in the hangingwall. The basement rocks of Calabria
and Sicily (Platt & Compagnoni 1990.; Bonardi et al. 1994.)
occur to the south of the Sangineto Line in northern Calabria
and to the northeast of the Taormina Line in northeast Sicily
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The Mesozoic Ionian Basin 11
(Bigi et al. 1989.). This unexpected relationship could probably
be related to the different depths of the deÂcollement planes as
a function of whether there is oceanic or thinned continental
crust in the footwall of the subduction zone. In fact, the
crystalline basement continues both northwest of Calabria and
west-northwest of the Peloritani±Sicily outcrops, but it is buried
or below sea level, as indicated by dragging..in the Tyrrhenian sea GS
(Kastens et al. 1988.). The occurrence of basement continental
rocks in the hangingwall of the subduction of oceanic litho-
sphere is the best evidence for an almost complete sinking of the
slab, without signi®cant accretion of..the footwall to the hanging- GT
wall of the subduction of crustal material.. The sedimentary
cover overlying the Ionian oceanic crust is largely excluded from
GU
the subduction, being involved in the offshore accretionary
wedge.
TYRRHENIAN SEISMICITY AND THE
IONIAN OCEAN
There is another relevant relationship between the Ionian north-
western palaeogeographic prolongation and the seismicity. In
fact, the so-called seismically active Tyrrhenian slab (Amato
et al. 1993.; Selvaggi & Chiarabba 1995.) mainly follows the
natural continuation of the Ionian Ocean towards the northwest
(Fig. 10.). This observation supports the oceanic nature of the
downgoing lithosphere. However, we know that the shortening
and sedimentary facies in the Apennines accretionary wedge
in Sicily and the southern Apennines (respectively to the west
and north of the Ionian Basin and Calabria) imply subduction
of continental lithosphere stretched during the Permian and
Mesozoic. These lithospheric segments adjacent to the Ionian Sea
are seismically mute, or with much lower seismicity. However,
the kinematics predicts several hundred kilometres (400±500 km)
of shortening in the accretionary wedge of those areas. These
values imply at least an equivalent amount of subduction.
Therefore, the shortening which is visible in the accretionary
prism where the deep-slab seismicity is lacking or attenuated
suggests that subduction has occurred all along the Apenninic arc.
Marson et al. (1995).described negative gravimetric anomalies
below the southern Apennines, interpreting these data as an
indication of the absence of the slab. However, these mass
balances with respect to the Ionian area could be attributed
to the lighter continental origin of the slab underneath the
southern Apennines when compared to the heavier oceanic
nature of the material to the south.
The continental lithosphere has a lower temperature for the
brittle±ductile transition (300±400 uC) than the oceanic crust
(500±650 uC). The paucity of deep seismicity along the southern
Apennines and Sicily could be attributed to the more ductile
rheology of the quartz±feldspar-rich continental lithosphere
with respect to the olivine±pyroxene-rich Ionian Sea subduct-
ing underneath Calabria with a more brittle behaviour, and
generating a more elevated..seismicity. GV
The differences in the subducting lithosphere, that is,
continental below the central-northern Apennines and oceanic
below Calabria, are also supported by the magmatism, which
clearly shows different sources (Peccerillo 1985.; Serri et al.
1993.).
It is well established that the Tyrrhenian Basin is larger in
its southern part, where the deeper Ionian Basin occurs in the
foreland (Malinverno & Ryan 1986.; Doglioni 1991.; Faccenna
 12 R. Catalano, C. Doglioni and S. Merlini
GW et al. 1997.). This is another indirect piece of evidence that the
Ionian Sea has a different lithosphere in comparison to the
Sicily and southern Apennines lithospheres.
IONIAN SEA AND TETHYS
HX In this paper we mainly support..the oceanic nature of the Ionian
sea. However, there are still several points of uncertainty, for
example, the age of the opening of the basin, the anomalous
geophysical signatures that are used to support the continental
nature, etc. Nevertheless, there is general agreement that the
Ionian Basin mainly developed during the Mesozoic, that is, as
a branch of Tethys.
The reconstructions made of Tethys (Biju-Duval & Dercourt
1980.; Dercourt et al. 1986.; Ziegler 1988.and references therein)
and the related Atlantic opening show that the so-called Tethyan
realm was a strongly fragmented area, with isolated pieces of
continental lithosphere, sometimes separated by oceanic crust,
passively moving along a general E±W trend (following the
transform faults of the Atlantic opening) in the western Tethys,
and along a NE±SW trend in the eastern Tethys (along the
HO Vardar subduction zone or the Cinmerian suture). In mapping..
the normal faults that controlled the Atlantic and Tethys
opening, we note a strong coherence of data: N±S striking
HP faults (for example, the Malta escarpment), with a variable
range of 15u west or east for the Adriatic margin (Bernoulli et al.
HQ 1979.and Lemoine et al. 1986.. for the European margin; .Dal
HR Piaz et al. 1995.and Channell & Kozur 1997.. for the western
Tethys; Masson & Miles 1986.for the Atlantic; Ziegler 1987.for
the general area).
The Cinmerian and Vardar suture zones with a NE or NNE
HS sense of subduction (WNW or NW trending..thrust belts) have
been documented as active throughout the entire Mesozoic,
sometimes since the Palaeozoic (SengoÈr et al. 1984.; SengoÈr 1984.).
This coincides with Tethys (both palaeo- and neo-Tethys)
extensional tectonics.
The palaeogeographic reconstructions based on stratigraphic
correlations have different solutions for the Ionian Sea. There
are hypotheses connecting this basin to the palaeo-ocean sub-
HT ducted and obducted in Oman (Catalano et al. 1988.;. Bernoulli
et al. 1990.). There are interpretations of the Ionian as an
embayment, closed towards the northwest; various other theories
connect the Ionian Mesozoic Basin to the Ligure±Piemontese
Ocean, later involved in the Alpine orogen. Some authors debate
the presence of an ocean between Sicily and the southern
Apennines due to the occurrence, in both areas, of the Miocene
Numidian sands sourced from Africa (Patacca et al. 1992.).
The Mediterranean orogens involved oceanic branches of the
Tethys. Ophiolitic rocks of Triassic and Jurassic age and coeval
deep-water sediments are widely distributed throughout the
Mediterranean area, from Turkey into the Carpathians area,
and in Sicily and the southern Apennines. The trace of the
Permo-Triassic oceanic basins is to ®rst approximation marked
by the present shape of the Mediterranean orogens because
subduction and collision zones strictly followed the pre-existing
shape of the passive continental margins. Rare parts of the
Tethys, not yet involved in subduction processes, are good
targets for analyses of how the oceans involved and their
margins were created before being lost in subduction zones or
deeply transformed by metamorphism and shortening in the
orogens. The Mesozoic oceanic basins probably represented
extensions into the Mediterranean area of the Palaeotethyan
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Ocean located to the east. The rifting of Africa from North
America/Europe in Triassic times gave rise to terrigenous
basins and the subsequent development of evaporites and wide
areas of shallow-water carbonate deposition. Accelerated sub-
sidence in Liassic times caused foundering of carbonate plat-
forms throughout the western Mediterranean area. The onset
of oceanic rifting between Africa and North America/Europe is
dated as Toarcian±Callovian by the age of the oldest sediments
above the basaltic basement in the western Atlantic (Stamp¯i
et al. 1998.). The event is marked by accelerated subsidence
throughout the western Mediterranean.
The motion of Africa relative to Europe can be established
from the Atlantic spreading history (Dewey et al. 1989.; Olivet
1996.). For Jurassic and Early Cretaceous times, a sinistral
transtensional motion of Africa relative to Europe is expected.
This is consistent with the subsidence history and the style
of faulting in the western Mediterranean, where the Triassic/
Jurassic rifting between Africa and Europe occurred in an
east±west sinistral transtensional kinematic framework. North
Africa records the same pattern as detected in the whole of
southern Europe, with north±south (N20uW±N20uE) striking
normal faults and east±west (N70u±100u) strike-slip or transfer
faults. In Morocco, from Late Permian until Cretaceous times,
sinistral transtensional tectonics occurred along N70u±90uE
basins (Gibraltar, Pay des Horst, High Atlas), whilst graben
and half-graben (pull-aparts) developed en eÂchelon to these
features (i.e. the Middle Atlas) during the relative eastward
motion of Africa with respect to Europe. The dextral relative
motion of Europe relative to Africa during Late Cretaceous
and Tertiary times produced the inversion of the previous
structures. Former east±west-trending negative ¯ower structures
have been inverted as positive ¯ower structures (for example,
Hyblean offshore and Sicily Channel, Antonelli et al. 1991.;
Casero & Roure 1994.). The greatest inversion occurred where
the crust was more stretched by the earlier tectonics and induced.. HU
new detachment planes.
The Mediterranean region is characterized by a great lateral
variability in the thickness and composition of the litho-
sphere (Calcagnile et al. 1982.; Suhadolc & Panza 1988., 1989.).
This background is something which evolved during the
`Alpine' cycle, with a variety of tectonic regimes that affected
the region throughout post-Palaeozoic times, with the opening
and closing of several oceanic branches, grouped together as
Tethys. It is well known that the thickness and composition
of the lithosphere is a key point in controlling the rate and
possibility of subduction (Cloos 1993.). Consequently, the extreme
lateral variability of the lithosphere of the Mediterranean,
which has persisted since at least the Mesozoic up to the
present, strongly conditioned .relative microplate motions in HV
the whole area (Doglioni et al. 1994.). Note, for instance, how
the Ionian subduction rapidly changes and decreases north-
wards and westwards in conjunction.. with the different com- HW
position of the Apulian and Sicilian lithospheres. In the Adriatic
and Ionian zones, the lithosphere has an average thickness of
90 km, with positive and negative oscillations of about 20u
(Calcagnile & Panza 1981.; Calcagnile et al. 1982.). The lateral
variations are responsible for the irregular pattern of Tethys
itself, located in between two major continental blocks (Eurasia
and Africa).
The different thicknesses and compositions between t. he IX
Ionian, Adriatic and African lithospheres is evidently the con-
trol on the asymmetry between the northern and southern
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Tyrrhenian sea and southern Apennines and Sicily. The open-
ing of the southern Tyrrhenian sea and the shortening in
the southern Apennines are much larger than those of their
northern counterparts, in particular at the 41u latitude transition;
this structural variation occurs where the Ionian oceanic
lithosphere in the foreland to the south and the Adriatic thick
IO continental lithosphere to the north are.. subducting. In this
regard, the Tyrrhenian sea represents a powerful laboratory in
which to investigate different styles and amounts of back-arc
extension as a function of the composition and thickness of
the subducting lithosphere of the foreland, that is, the Ionian,
Adriatic and Sicily lithospheres.
The larger expansion of the Apennines arc in the Ionian Sea
IP (Fig. 1.) con®rms how..the inherited..Ionian Basin subducted and
IQ retreated faster and more easily than the neighbouring areas of
Sicily and the southern Apennines (Malinverno & Ryan 1986.;
Patacca & Scandone 1989.; Doglioni 1991.; Faccenna et al.
1997.).
CONCLUSIONS
The Ionian Sea appears to be an oceanic basin of Mesozoic
age (Fig. 9.). It mimics several morphological and geophysical
signatures which have been described in the central Atlantic
Ocean (DanÄobeitia et al. 1995.). However, there are still some
anomalies in its geophysical signatures (compare Calcagnile
et al. 1982.and De Voogd et al. 1992.). Whatever its origin, the
Ionian Sea is a rifted area whose stretched conjugate margins
are the Malta escarpment to the southwest and the Apulian
escarpment to the northeast (Fig. 9.). The oceanic nature of the
Ionian Sea would imply an aborted middle oceanic ridge
IR
located halfway..(Fig. 10.). However, the topographic elevation
of the ridge axis should have been lost by thermal cooling after
ocean abortion and the later burial of Tertiary sediments. The
Apennines accretionary wedge also overrode the ocean ridge
zone (Fig. 6.). Based on the undulating strike of the two con-
jugate passive continental margins, the direction of the Mesozoic
extension could have been oriented NE±SW (Fig. 10.).
The age of the basin is not yet well constrained. Based on the
deep sea¯oor (>4000 m in the abyssal plain), low heat ¯ow
IS (30±40 mW mx2, Della Vedova & Pellis 1989.)..and stratigraphy
of the rifted margins, the rifting could be Permian±Triassic at
the continental stage, evolving to oceanic spreading during the
Liassic±Early Cretaceous. During the Late Tertiary, the Ionian
Sea looks like an aborted trapped oceanic basin.
Based on inland constraints, that is, the Sicilian and southern
Apennines carbonate platform margins and adjacent basins,
the Ionian Ocean continued to the northwest (Fig. 10.). Since
the main deformation of the Ionian area started in the late
Neogene, the reconstruction at early Miocene±late Oligocene
IT times of Fig. 10. is considered as a preserved view.. of the
Mesozoic palaeogeography.
The seismicity of the Apennines slab underneath the southern
Tyrrhenian sea, which implies downgoing oceanic lithosphere,
also supports the palaeogeographic prolongation of the Ionian
Ocean towards the northwest (Fig. 10.). The absence or paucity
of seismicity to the north in the southern Apennines and in
Sicily and their Tyrrhenian margins does not imply the absence
of the Apennines slab continuity in those areas. These changes
in seismicity and in several other geological and geophysical
signatures may be explained by the inherited Mesozoic crustal
# 2000 RAS, GJI 143, 1±24
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The Mesozoic Ionian Basin 13
and lithospheric differences of the downgoing foreland, that is,
oceanic in the Ionian, and continental in the southern Apennines
and Sicily.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The paper bene®ted from critical reviews by M. A. Khan,
G. Panza and an anonymous referee. Many thanks to A. Bally,
M. Bello, D. Bernoulli, M. B. Cita, J. Channell, M. Gaetani,
E. Gueguen, F. Mongelli, P. Pieri and M. Tropeano for helpful
discussions. The Italian MURST (Co®n 97) and CNR supported
this study (grants 97.00246.CT05 and 98.00228.CT05).
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# 2000 RAS, GJI 143, 1±24
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Geophys. J. Int. (2001) 144, 49±64

On the Mesozoic Ionian Basin

R. Catalano,1 C. Doglioni2 and S. Merlini3

1
Dipartimento di Geologia, UniversitaÁ di Palermo, Italy
2
Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, UniversitaÁ La Sapienza, Roma, Italy
3
Eni-Agip SpA, S. Donato Milanese, Italy

Accepted 2000 July 14. Received 2000 February 28; in original form 1999 July 14

SUMMARY
New seismic re¯ection pro®les of the Italian deep crust project CROP provide new
insights on the structure of the Ionian sea. In spite of the Apennines and Hellenides
Neogene subduction zones, two conjugate passive continental margins are preserved
at the margins of the Ionian sea, along the Malta escarpment to the southwest and
the Apulian escarpment to the northeast. The Ionian sea is likely to be a remnant of the
Mesozoic Tethys Ocean, con®ned by these two conjugate passive continental margins.
The transition from continental to oceanic crust appears sharper to the northeast than to
the southwest. The basin between southeast Sicily and southwest Puglia was about
330 km wide and suggests a low spreading rate. The inferred oceanic ridge should have
been ¯attened by thermal cooling and buried by later sediments.
Based on stratigraphic and structural constraints to the north in the Apennines
belt, the ocean continued to the northwest. This palaeogeography is supported by the
seismicity of the Apennines slab underneath the southern Tyrrhenian sea, which implies
downgoing oceanic lithosphere. The adjacent absence or paucity of deep seismicity does
not imply absence of subduction, but rather it can be interpreted as due to the more
ductile behaviour of the subducted continental lithosphere. Surprisingly, we note that
where the oceanic inherited basin is subducting underneath the Apennines, in the
hangingwall of the subduction hinge there are outcropping slices of continental crystalline
basement previously deformed by the Alpine orogen.
Key words: Ionian sea, Mediterranean, Mesozoic, oceanic crust, passive margin.

The Ionian Sea represents a key area for the understanding

INTRODUCTION
The Ionian sea is located in the central-eastern part of the
Mediterranean Basin, bordered by southern Italy to the west
and north, Greece to the east, and offshore Libya to the
south (Fig. 1). It is a deep sea (in many places below 3000 m).
Important geophysical studies on the Ionian sea have been
performed during the last three decades (Hinz 1973; Panza &
Mueller 1979; Farrugia & Panza 1981; Makris 1981; Calcagnile
et al. 1982; Finetti 1982, 1985; Makris et al. 1983, 1986;
Morelli 1985; Leister et al. 1986; Della Vedova & Pellis 1989;
Ferrucci et al. 1991; Mongelli et al. 1991; de Voogd et al. 1992;
Cernobori et al. 1996; Piromallo & Morelli 1997). In contrast,
few papers have described and interpreted the geological and
geodynamic evolution of the Ionian sea, owing to the deep-water
conditions (Selli 1962). The ODP sites located in this basin
were very few and too super®cial (Ryan et al. 1973). Based
on gravity, seismic refraction and re¯ection data, the crust is
considered to be between 15 and 20 km thick (Locardi &
Nicolich 1988; Nicolich 1989; De Voogd et al. 1992; Scarascia
et al. 1994).
of the evolution of the Mediterranean geodynamics, both for
the Apennines and Hellenic subduction zones (Scandone 1980;
Angelier et al. 1982; Royden et al. 1987), and for the Mesozoic
Tethyan palaeogeography (Bernoulli et al. 1979; Bernoulli &
Lemoine 1980; Dercourt et al. 1986; Lemoine et al. 1986). This
basin has been considered by Le Pichon (1982a) as a land-
locked basin or a trapped crust (Letouzey 1986). In spite of this
crucial location and of the several studies, we still have several
doubts about the nature and evolution of the Ionian sea. There
are papers that have described its oceanic nature (Finetti 1982;
De Voogd et al. 1992; Finetti et al. 1996; Stamp¯i et al. 1998),
but there are also articles which alternatively propose that the
Ionian Basin is of denser continental crust (Farrugia & Panza
1981; Calcagnile et al. 1982) or a highly re¯ective interval within
the lower crust (Cernobori et al. 1996).
The Ionian sea and its relationships with the surrounding
areas is crucial in understanding the processes that controlled
the Apennines subduction zones which consumed different litho-
spheres of the foreland. It is evident that the largest south-
eastward advancement of the Apennines accretionary wedge

# 2001 RAS 49
50 R. Catalano, C. Doglioni and S. Merlini
Figure 1. Locations of the seismic sections used in the paper.
occurs in the Ionian sea, offshore Calabria, and the largest
expansion of the Tyrrhenian sea is located right behind to
the west of the Calabrian arc (Malinverno & Ryan 1986;
Doglioni 1991). In contrast, in the adjacent parts to the north
of the Ionian sea in the southern Apennines, and to the south-
west, in Sicily, the Apennines are less advanced towards the
foreland and the Tyrrhenian backarc extension is less pro-
nounced. Additionally, the front of the Hellenic arc (that is, the
Mediterranean ridge) is more advanced towards the southwest,
corresponding to the deep Ionian Basin.
Several authors described the passive continental margin of
the Malta escarpment (Cita et al. 1981; Scandone et al. 1981;
Casero et al. 1984; Charier et al. 1987; Cinque et al. 1993;
Hippolyte et al. 1994). However, it was not comprehensively
described as the conjugate margin of the Apulian swell on
the other side of the Ionian Sea. In this research we want to test
whether the Malta escarpment offshore east Sicily and the
Salento±Apulian offshore southwest Puglia (Rossi & Borsetti
1974; Sorel 1976; Auroux et al. 1985; Charier et al. 1988;
Ciaran® et al. 1988; Ricchetti et al. 1988; Favali et al. 1990;
Gambini & Tozzi 1996) are two conjugate passive continental
margins of Triassic±Cretaceous(?) age, separated by a basin,
i.e. the Ionian Ocean.
The Malta escarpment (Fig. 1) is a physiographic feature
which has been tectonically controlled since Triassic times. Rocks
dredged on the Malta escarpment span from the Mesozoic
to the Tertiary (Cita et al. 1981; Scandone et al. 1981). The
pre-Cretaceous lower fault systems (Casero et al. 1984) can be
correlated with the evolution of a Mesozoic continental margin
(Charier et al. 1987). Post-Tortonian and Late Pliocene±
Pleistocene extensional tectonic reactivation yields high angle
and listric characteristics of the normal faults in the eastward-
tilted blocks (Torelli et al. 1998). Depositional geometries of
pre-Messinian rocks prograde towards the Ionian Sea to the east.
Our main goal is to show a few new details and a new
interpretation to be added to the debate on the origin of the
Ionian Sea, based on new seismic lines acquired by CROP
(CROsta Profonda, the Italian deep crustal project founded by
CNR, ENI-Agip and Enel), tied with geophysical industrial
data and inland ®eld observations.
GEODYNAMIC SETTING
The Ionian abyssal plain (Bigi et al. 1989) is surrounded
by a variety of geodynamic settings (Boccaletti et al. 1984).
The Ionian lithosphere is subducting underneath Calabria
to the northwest (Caputo et al. 1970, 1972; Gasparini et al.
1982; Cristofolini et al. 1985; Selvaggi & Chiarabba 1995;
Mele 1998). The associated accretionary wedge advanced
in the Ionian Sea (Tramutoli et al. 1984; Pescatore & Senatore
1986; Senatore et al. 1988; Doglioni et al. 1999), mainly
involving the sedimentary cover on top of it (Finetti 1982).
Very shallow deÂcollements deform the Messinian evaporitic
sequences, leaving the underlying crust mainly undisturbed. To
the east, the Ionian lithosphere is subducting underneath Greece
(Le Pichon & Angelier 1979; Le Pichon 1982b; Christova &
Nikolova 1993). The southern and southwestern margins of the
Ionian Sea are the areas which have not yet been involved
in Tertiary and Quaternary shortening of the Apennines and
Hellenic subduction zones (Fig. 1). There, the original shape of
the Ionian margins may be more easily studied and they show
morphology, water depth and geophysical signatures of passive
margin style. The Bouguer gravity map (Fig. 2) shows values
mainly between 130 and 250 mGal in the Ionian abyssal plain;
# 2001 RAS, GJI 144, 49±64

Figure 2. Gravimetric map of the Ionian Sea, courtesy of ENI-Agip.
the values decrease moving underneath Calabria to between 20
and 30 mGal due to the subduction of the Ionian lithosphere.
Della Vedova & Pellis (1989) described low heat ¯ow values
(30±40 mW mx2) in the Ionian Basin (Fig. 3) and proposed an
early Mesozoic age for the oceanic crust.
Ciminale & Wasowski (1989) described the Hyblean plateau
(or Ragusa plateau) magnetic anomaly, and compared it with
the East Coast magnetic anomaly of the eastern US Atlantic
passive continental margin, where this anomaly is interpreted
as related to magmatic intrusions. Along the Malta escarpment
in other CROP seismic re¯ection pro®les (C9421, M23) a huge
intrusion may be inferred (Catalano et al. 2000).
In the section between Sicily and Puglia, the Ionian Sea
should be a complete oceanic section containing an aborted
oceanic ridge of Mesozoic age. Its relief is lost by thermal
cooling and hidden by thick pelagic deposits, ranging in age
from Jurassic to Tertiary, and by the overlapping Apenninic
thrust sheets. If this is the case, the Ionian sea would be one of
the oldest oceanic crusts in the world.
THE CROP SEISMIC DATA
New seismic pro®les have been acquired in the Ionian sea and
other Italian seas and inland by the CROP project. In this
paper we present segments of lines M3 and C9434 and the line
C9422. These seismic pro®les are particularly important for
understanding the early history of the Ionian Sea (Fig. 1). The
acquisition parameters and the entire set of seismic lines will
soon be published as an atlas by the partners of the CROP
project.
The ®rst segment is along the Malta escarpment (Fig. 4), at
the transition between the Sicilian mainland and the deep Ionian
# 2001 RAS, GJI 144, 49±64
The Mesozoic Ionian Basin 51
Basin. This topographic margin represents one of the most
important features of Mediterranean geology and physio-
graphy (Scandone et al. 1981; Scarascia et al. 1994). The high
topographic gradient corresponds to a major change in crustal
thickness and composition (Finetti 1982). For a geological inter-
pretation of this margin see Scandone et al. (1981) and Casero
et al. (1984). The other line we show is located on the other side
of the Ionian Sea, along the Apulian±Salento margin (Fig. 5),
where there is a sudden submarine topographic step, separating
the stratigraphic successions of the Apulian swell from the deep
Ionian Basin; Fig. 6 is located halfway between the former
sections (Figs 4 and 5). Fig. 7 is a further complete section of
the southern part of the Ionian Sea.
A stratigraphic reconstruction of the three different sections
is presented in Fig. 8, and Fig. 9 is a synopsis of the Ionian
Sea based on the seismic and stratigraphic data. Seismic facies
along M3 show high-frequency and good continuity patterns,
and locally transparent or chaotic characters. In the central
part of Fig. 4 (M3), the strong ¯at-lying re¯ectors are about
1 s two-way-time thick, which could correspond to the pre-
Miocene deep-water succession on a stretched continental crust
(Casero et al. 1984).
Upwards, the acoustic body is re¯ection-free or it shows a
chaotic pattern, and it is topped by high-amplitude horizons
with frequent diffraction. Its thickness ranges between 0.4 s in
the abyssal plain and about 1 s two-way-time westwards, near
to the continental rise. The body has been interpreted as con-
sisting of Miocene clastics and Messinian evaporites (Cernobori
et al. 1996). Thin Plio-Pleistocene cover is widespread all over
the section.
The deep crustal levels eastwards of the Malta escarpment
(Fig. 4) show homogeneous acoustic characteristics and con-
stant thickness (about 1.5±2 s two-way time, i.e. 6±7 km). The
52 R. Catalano, C. Doglioni and S. Merlini
Figure 3. Heat ¯ow values of the Ionian Sea (after Della Vedova & Pellis 1989).
re¯ecting band is formed by layered high-amplitude re¯ectors
at the base of the crust (located at 8±9 s two-way time, i.e.
15±17 km, Fig. 7). The layered crust has a traveltime thickness
of about 1 s. It is overlain by a seismically transparent band
topped by a high-amplitude and discontinuous re¯ector, charac-
terized by diffraction, located at about 7±6.5 s two-way time,
shallowing towards the abyssal plain (Catalano et al. 2000).
Similar images of the crust and depth of the Moho are
described by De Chassy et al. (1990) in the North Atlantic
margin (see their section AGC 85±1/2). However, Cernobori
et al. (1996) disagreed with the idea that the Ionian crust has an
oceanic nature, interpreting the layered re¯ections as the lower
crust of an extremely thinned continental crust, intruded by
upper mantle rocks (Makris et al. 1986). In Fig. 7 the layered
crust shows offsets which we interpret as possible faults with
extensional components.
The seismic image of the conjugate margin is seen at the
Salento±Apulian escarpment (Fig. 5, line C9434) that separates
the Apulia swell, composed of carbonate platform seismic facies
from the Ionian abyssal plain. The escarpment view is disturbed
by diffuse diffractions. However, on the right-hand side, both
the top and the bottom of the Apulian Triassic±Jurassic±
Cretaceous carbonate platform are easily recognizable. This is
well known inland and from industrial seismic lines as a body
approximately 2 s two-way-time thick (about 6 km thickness).
The transition to deep-water crust is sharper than along the
Malta escarpment opposite to the southwest. The crust to
the southwest of the Apulian margin is poorly re¯ective, and the
sea¯oor is in many places more than 3000 m deep, even up to
more than 4000 m, depths which are typically oceanic.
Fig. 6 is another segment of seismic line C9434, halfway
between the two former sections (Figs 4 and 5). The sea¯oor
shows an anomalous depression which could be associated either
with a con®ned thermal subsidence or more probably with the
lateral ramps of thrust planes of the Apennines accretionary
wedge. Surprisingly, however, the underlying 4 s shows crust
with re¯ectors dipping from both sides of the section towards
the central depression, but they could be multiples. The Moho
depth is unclear; there are signi®cant re¯ectors at about 9 s
depth.
The abrupt morphologies of the Malta and Apulia escarp-
ments indicate that there have been recent reactivations of
these margins. In particular, the Malta escarpment is active in
terms of seismicity and magmatism. These tectonics were inter-
preted by Doglioni et al. (1998) as being due to the right-lateral
transtension generated by the differential roll-back between the
Ionian sea and the eastern Sicily lithospheres.
STRATIGRAPHIC CONSTRAINTS
The area can schematically be divided into three main sectors:
the Hyblean Plateau to the southwest (Sicily), the Ionian deep
basin, and the Apulian swell to the northeast (Puglia) (Fig. 8).
We omit, for the sake of simplicity, the allochthonous thrust
sheets in the Apennines accretionary wedge.
The Hyblean plateau (Bianchi et al. 1987) has a Triassic±
Neogene sequence more than 5 km thick, lying above a 20±25 km
thick continental crust with African af®nity. The main base of
the sedimentary cover consists of a thick (more than 2.5 km)
Upper Triassic carbonate platform (tidal ¯at dolomites facies),
# 2001 RAS, GJI 144, 49±64
 #
2001 RAS, GJI 144, 49±64
Figure 4. The Malta escarpment separates the Sicilian continental crust from the Ionian abyssal plain. It is considered to be a stretched passive continental margin.
The Mesozoic Ionian Basin
53
54 R. Catalano, C. Doglioni and S. Merlini

Figure 5. The Salento escarpment separates the Apulian swell from the Ionian abyssal plain. It is considered to be a stretched passive continental
margin. It is sharper than the Malta escarpment and it appears as its conjugate margin.

passing to Uppermost Triassic±Lower Liassic Streppenosa
basinal carbonates. The carbonate platform later drowned to
pelagic facies. The eastern margin of the Hyblean plateau is the
Malta escarpment (Fig. 1), where the sea¯oor rapidly becomes
deeper towards the Ionian Sea. Clear cross-sections of the
Malta escarpment were provided by Casero et al. (1984).
The Ionian Sea (Biju-Duval et al. 1982) exhibits about
4.5±5 km of sedimentary cover of seismically interpreted
pelagic facies from Triassic (?) to present, apart from the
Messinian evaporites, resting on top of a `basaltic' layer of
oceanic nature. Fig. 8 shows the interpreted stratigraphic
column with the relative seismic velocities.
In contrast, the Apulian swell (Auroux et al. 1985) to
the northeast (Fig. 5) lies on a crystalline continental crust.
The sedimentary cover starts with a siliciclastic sequence of
Late Permian±Early Triassic age, covered by an approximately

Figure 6. Halfway between the Malta and Salento conjugate passive continental margins, at about 165 km from each margin, there should be an
aborted oceanic ridge. The relief of the oceanic ridge should have been lost by thermal cooling and the later burial by sediments. However, in the
shallow crust (sedimentary cover), this area is affected by the front of the Apennines accretionary wedge, which may have generated rough
topography.

# 2001 RAS, GJI 144, 49±64

 #
2001 RAS, GJI 144, 49±64
Figure 7. Seismic section C9422. Note the lens-shaped body on the left part of the section. Location in Fig. 1.
The Mesozoic Ionian Basin
55
 56
R. Catalano, C. Doglioni and S. Merlini

#
Figure 8. Stratigraphy of the three main structural areasÐthe Hyblean plateau, the Ionian deep basin and the Salento±Apulian swell.

2001 RAS, GJI 144, 49±64


Figure 9. Reconstruction of the Ionian Ocean showing the assumed Mesozoic age of sea¯oor spreading. The rates of opening appear to be very low.
In this interpretation, the Apulian and Hyblean plateaux were originally connected. Continental rifting might have started in Late Permian±Triassic.
5 km thick carbonate platform sequence with interbedded
evaporites and a lateral pelagic transition at the top in the Late
Cretaceous±Early Tertiary.
The Hyblean Plateau (Fig. 4) and the Apulian swell (Fig. 5)
show typical passive margin sedimentary successions, well
known inland in Sicily and the Apennines, whereas the Ionian
Basin indicates a persistent deep-water environment (Fig. 7).
Section C9422 (Fig. 7) exhibits a half-lens-shaped body in its
southwestern segment. This body is about 100 km wide and it
is marked by irregular internal re¯ections. We do not have any
constraints on its nature; possible interpretations are con¯ict-
ing, for example, either a basaltic ¯ow or a deep-water clastic
fan sourced from North Africa. The last interpretation brings
to mind the Early Miocene Numidian sands of the southern
Apennines (Patacca et al. 1992). The overlying sediments onlap
the northeastern margin of the lens.
We may be tempted to link or to compare the Ionian
Sea stratigraphy to the Lagonegro sequences of the southern
Apennines to the north; however, several differences probably
occur between the two realms. First, the Lagonegro sequence
starts with relatively shallow-water facies (Monte Facito
of Middle Triassic age, also containing olistholiths of Late
Permian shallow-water facies). The shallow-water environment
is probably associated with a continental crust of 20±30 km
thickness. The overlying Calcari con Selce and the cherty
Liassic Scisti Silicei more probably resemble a deep-water
pelagic setting. Similar deep-water facies occur in the Imerese
and Sicanian basins in Sicily. However, their shallow-water
substratum constrains their position on a Permian±Triassic
stretched continental crust. Therefore, the deep-water facies
of the Ionian Sea cannot simply be considered as the southern
equivalent of the Lagonegro sequences of the southern
Apennines due to their different crustal substrate. Moreover,
these Lagonegro tectonic units have overriden the Apulian
platform (Mostardini & Merlini 1986) and the restoration of
the thrust sheets indicates a very different palaeogeography of
# 2001 RAS, GJI 144, 49±64
The Mesozoic Ionian Basin 57
the Apulian, Lagonegro and Ionian Sea sequences (Zappaterra
1994) with respect to their present location in the Apennines
accretionary wedge (Casero et al. 1988; Sella et al. 1988;
Boccaletti et al. 1990; Marsella et al. 1995). A palaeogeographic
reconstruction is proposed as shown in Fig. 10, where the
Lagonegro sequences were located a few hundred kilometres
westwards of their present position, before their involvement
in the Apennines accretionary prism. However, the fast Liassic
subsidence which generated the upward deepening of the
Lagonegro and Sicilian sequences could well be associated with
the opening of the Ionian Ocean.
WHAT IS THE AGE OF THE IONIAN SEA?
New lines of evidences are in favour of the old idea that the
Ionian Sea is ¯oored by oceanic crust. The Ionian Sea has a
thin 8±9 km oceanic crust and 6±8 km of sedimentary cover of
Mesozoic and Tertiary age (de Voogd et al. 1992). In their
interpretation, the entire crust has a maximum thickness of
17±19 km. The interpreted oceanic crust of the Ionian Sea has
been interpreted as being Early Jurassic by Finetti (1982). We
interpret the top of the oceanic crust in our sections at about
6.5±8.0 s two-way time. Based on the low heat ¯ow values in
the Ionian abyssal plain at about 4000 m depth (34 mW mx2),
Della Vedova & Pellis (1989) proposed an age of 180±200 Myr for
the oceanic embayment; the 90 km thick lithosphere (Calcagnile
& Panza 1981) also supports an old age for this crust. In Sicily,
deep-water pelagic Permian fauna are known throughout the
Permian. Catalano et al. (1991) speculated that Sicily belonged
either to the Permian Tethyan Ocean or to a Permian rift with
thinned continental crust, a continuation of Palaeotethys further
to the east. Magmatism along the Malta escarpment and on the
Hyblean plateau started during Triassic times and lasted into
the Tertiary. Later Pliocene and Pleistocene magmatism was
emplaced along the same trend (e.g. Mount Etna).
 #
Figure 10. Late Oligocene±Early Miocene palaeogeography of the central-eastern Mediterranean, with the preserved Mesozoic palaeogeography in the Apennines foreland to the east. The 330 km wide
Ionian Mesozoic Ocean had to be transferred to the west-northwest, since the restoration of the southern Apennines thrust sheets implies thinned but still continental crust to the north of the Ionian sea.
The present seismicity, deeper than 50 km (after Amato et al. 1993) closely matches the oceanic palaeogeography. Note also the correspondence between the oceanic nature of the subducting plate and the
outcrops of basement rocks in the hangingwall.

2001 RAS, GJI 144, 49±64


Therefore, due to the lack of direct information (magnetic
anomalies, well data, etc.) on the age of the Ionian sea, we
support the idea that continental rifting started in the Late
Permian and Triassic, later evolving to oceanic spreading.
However, we do not have reliable constraints on the end of this
rifting; based only on the heat ¯ow data and the assumed age
of the sediments overlying the crust, we interpret a possible
Late Cretaceous±Early Tertiary age for the abortion of oceanic
spreading. Based on these assumptions and the width of
the basin, we hypothesize low values of oceanic spreading
(<1 cm yrx1?).
The two conjugate Mesozoic passive margins (i.e. Malta and
Salento) have been slightly deformed by later, mainly Neogene
and Quaternary tectonics. However, we interpret the present
topographic steps along the margins, between shallow water
and deep water, as being mainly inherited from the Ionian
Ocean rifting. The two margins have been used or reactivated
as transfer zones during the larger rollback of the Ionian
lithosphere subduction with respect to the adjacent continental
margins. Moreover, at shallower crustal depths, these margins
have also controlled the lateral advancement of the Apennines
accretionary prism, where right-lateral and left-lateral trans-
pression tectonics occurred, respectively, along the Malta and
Salento margins.
IS THERE A MESOZOIC OCEANIC RIDGE
IN THE IONIAN SEA?
Since the Ionian Basin is a Mesozoic Ocean with its preserved
passive continental margins, we expect to recognize an oceanic
ridge halfway between the two margins. The assumed ocean is
about 330 km wide and therefore we checked on seismic line
C9434 at about 165 km whether there is any evidence of an
oceanic ridge (Fig. 6). At that point the section shows an
anomalous depression of the sea¯oor at about 4 s two-way
time and the dips of the re¯ectors converge below this small
3 km wide basin. However, we suspect that this anomaly could
be related to the presence of folds associated with the Apennines
accretionary prism, since the seismic pro®le is located far inside
the front of the accretionary wedge (Fig. 1). Moreover, some of
the signals at depth could be multiples. We also expect thermal
subsidence along an aborted oceanic ridge, which would have
hidden the original morphological relief of the mid-ocean ridge.
The 3±6 km thick sedimentary cover above the oceanic crust
generated further lithostatic subsidence, depressing and hiding
the assumed oceanic ridge.
CALABRIA BASEMENT AND THE
IONIAN OCEAN
It is noteworthy that the reconstruction of the northwestern
prolongation of the Ionian oceanic crust based on the seismic
re¯ection data of this study matches the occurrences of the
basement rocks of Calabria and northeast Sicily (Fig. 10).
Apparently, where there is downgoing oceanic lithosphere in the
subduction, Alpine±Variscan metamorphic and intrusive rocks
crop out in the hangingwall. The basement rocks of Calabria
and Sicily (Platt & Compagnoni 1990; Bonardi et al. 1994)
occur to the south of the Sangineto Line in northern Calabria
# 2001 RAS, GJI 144, 49±64
The Mesozoic Ionian Basin 59
and to the northeast of the Taormina Line in northeast Sicily
(Bigi et al. 1989). This unexpected relationship could probably
be related to the different depths of the deÂcollement planes as
a function of whether there is oceanic or thinned continental
crust in the footwall of the subduction zone. In fact, the
crystalline basement continues both northwest of Calabria and
west-northwest of the Peloritani±Sicily outcrops, but it is buried
or below sea level, as indicated by dredging in the Tyrrhenian sea
(Kastens et al. 1988). The occurrence of basement continental
rocks in the hangingwall of the subduction of oceanic litho-
sphere is the best evidence for an almost complete sinking of
the slab, without signi®cant accretion from the footwall to
the hanging wall of the subduction of crustal material. The
sedimentary cover overlying the Ionian oceanic crust is largely
excluded from the subduction, being involved in the offshore
accretionary wedge.
TYRRHENIAN SEISMICITY AND THE
IONIAN OCEAN
There is another relevant relationship between the Ionian north-
western palaeogeographic prolongation and the seismicity. In
fact, the so-called seismically active Tyrrhenian slab (Amato
et al. 1993; Selvaggi & Chiarabba 1995) mainly follows the
natural continuation of the Ionian Ocean towards the northwest
(Fig. 10). This observation supports the oceanic nature of the
downgoing lithosphere. However, we know that the shortening
and sedimentary facies in the Apennines accretionary wedge
in Sicily and the southern Apennines (respectively to the west
and north of the Ionian Basin and Calabria) imply subduction
of continental lithosphere stretched during the Permian and
Mesozoic. These lithospheric segments adjacent to the Ionian Sea
are seismically mute, or with much lower seismicity. However,
the kinematics predicts several hundred kilometres (400±500 km)
of shortening in the accretionary wedge of those areas. These
values imply at least an equivalent amount of subduction.
Therefore, the shortening which is visible in the accretionary
prism where the deep-slab seismicity is lacking or attenuated
suggests that subduction has occurred all along the Apenninic arc.
Marson et al. (1995) described negative gravimetric anomalies
below the southern Apennines, interpreting these data as an
indication of the absence of the slab. However, these mass
balances with respect to the Ionian area could be attributed
to the lighter continental origin of the slab underneath the
southern Apennines when compared to the heavier oceanic
nature of the material to the south.
The continental lithosphere has a lower temperature for the
brittle±ductile transition (300±400 uC) than the oceanic crust
(500±650 uC). The paucity of deep seismicity along the southern
Apennines and Sicily could be attributed to the more ductile
rheology of the quartz±feldspar-rich continental lithosphere
with respect to the olivine±pyroxene-rich Ionian Sea subduct-
ing underneath Calabria with a more brittle behaviour, and
generating higher seismicity.
The differences in the subducting lithosphere, that is,
continental below the central-northern Apennines and oceanic
below Calabria, are also supported by the magmatism, which
clearly shows different sources (Peccerillo 1985; Serri et al.
1993).
It is well established that the Tyrrhenian Basin is larger in
its southern part, where the deeper Ionian Basin occurs in the
60 R. Catalano, C. Doglioni and S. Merlini
foreland (Malinverno & Ryan 1986; Doglioni 1991; Faccenna
et al. 1997). This is another indirect piece of evidence that the
Ionian Sea has a different lithosphere in comparison to the
Sicily and southern Apennines lithospheres.
IONIAN SEA AND TETHYS
In this paper we mainly support the idea of the oceanic nature
of the Ionian sea. However, there are still several points of
uncertainty, for example, the age of the opening of the basin,
the anomalous geophysical signatures that are used to support
the continental nature, etc. Nevertheless, there is general
agreement that the Ionian Basin mainly developed during the
Mesozoic, that is, as a branch of Tethys.
The reconstructions made of Tethys (Biju-Duval & Dercourt
1980; Dercourt et al. 1986; Ziegler 1988 and references therein)
and the related Atlantic opening show that the so-called Tethyan
realm was a strongly fragmented area, with isolated pieces of
continental lithosphere, sometimes separated by oceanic crust,
passively moving along a general E±W trend (following the
transform faults of the Atlantic opening) in the western Tethys,
and along a NE±SW trend in the eastern Tethys (along the
Vardar subduction zone or the Cimmerian suture). When
mapping the normal faults that controlled the Atlantic and
Tethys opening, we note a strong coherence of data: N±S striking
faults (for example, the Malta escarpment), with a variable
range of 15u west or east for the Adriatic margin (Bernoulli et al.
1979 and Lemoine et al. 1986 for the European margin; Dal
Piaz et al. 1995 and Channell & Kozur 1997 for the western
Tethys; Masson & Miles 1986 for the Atlantic; Ziegler 1987 for
the general area).
The Cimmerian and Vardar suture zones with a NE or NNE
sense of subduction (WNW or NW trending thrust belts) have
been documented as active throughout the entire Mesozoic,
sometimes since the Palaeozoic (SengoÈr et al. 1984; SengoÈr 1984).
This coincides with Tethys (both palaeo- and neo-Tethys)
extensional tectonics.
The palaeogeographic reconstructions based on stratigraphic
correlations have different solutions for the Ionian Sea. There
are hypotheses connecting this basin to the palaeo-ocean sub-
ducted and obducted in Oman (Catalano et al. 1988; Bernoulli
et al. 1990). There are interpretations of the Ionian as an
embayment, closed towards the northwest; various other theories
connect the Ionian Mesozoic Basin to the Ligure±Piemontese
Ocean, later involved in the Alpine orogen. Some authors debate
the presence of an ocean between Sicily and the southern
Apennines due to the occurrence, in both areas, of the Miocene
Numidian sands sourced from Africa (Patacca et al. 1992).
The Mediterranean orogens involved oceanic branches of the
Tethys. Ophiolitic rocks of Triassic and Jurassic age and/or
coeval deep-water sediments are widely distributed throughout
the Mediterranean area, from Turkey into the Carpathians
area, and in Sicily and the southern Apennines. The trace of
the Mesozoic oceanic basins is to ®rst approximation marked
by the present shape of the Mediterranean orogens because
subduction and collision zones strictly followed the pre-existing
shape of the passive continental margins. Rare parts of the
Tethys, not yet involved in subduction processes, are good
targets for analyses of how the oceans involved and their
margins were created before being lost in subduction zones or
deeply transformed by metamorphism and shortening in the
orogens. The Mesozoic oceanic basins probably represented
extensions into the Mediterranean area of the Palaeotethyan
Ocean located to the east. The rifting of Africa from North
America/Europe in Triassic times gave rise to terrigenous
basins and the subsequent development of evaporites and wide
areas of shallow-water carbonate deposition. Accelerated sub-
sidence in Liassic times caused foundering of carbonate plat-
forms throughout the western Mediterranean area. The onset
of oceanic rifting between Africa and North America/Europe is
dated as Toarcian±Callovian by the age of the oldest sediments
above the basaltic basement in the western Atlantic (Stamp¯i
et al. 1998). The event is marked by accelerated subsidence
throughout the western Mediterranean.
The motion of Africa relative to Europe can be established
from the Atlantic spreading history (Dewey et al. 1989; Olivet
1996). For Jurassic and Early Cretaceous times, a sinistral
transtensional motion of Africa relative to Europe is expected.
This is consistent with the subsidence history and the style
of faulting in the western Mediterranean, where the Triassic/
Jurassic rifting between Africa and Europe occurred in an
east±west sinistral transtensional kinematic framework. North
Africa records the same pattern as detected in the whole of
southern Europe, with north±south (N20uW±N20uE) striking
normal faults and east±west (N70u±100u) strike-slip or transfer
faults. In Morocco, from Late Permian until Cretaceous times,
sinistral transtensional tectonics occurred along N70u±90uE
basins (Gibraltar, Pay des Horst, High Atlas), whilst graben
and half-graben (pull-aparts) developed en eÂchelon to these
features (i.e. the Middle Atlas) during the relative eastward
motion of Africa with respect to Europe. The dextral relative
motion of Europe relative to Africa during Late Cretaceous
and Tertiary times produced the inversion of the previous
structures. Former east±west-trending negative ¯ower structures
have been inverted as positive ¯ower structures (for example,
Hyblean offshore and Sicily Channel, Antonelli et al. 1991;
Casero & Roure 1994). The greatest inversion occurred where
the crust was more stretched by the earlier tectonics.
The Mediterranean region is characterized by a great lateral
variability in the thickness and composition of the litho-
sphere (Calcagnile et al. 1982; Suhadolc & Panza 1988, 1989).
This background is something which evolved during the
`Alpine' cycle, with a variety of tectonic regimes that affected
the region throughout post-Palaeozoic times, with the opening
and closing of several oceanic branches, grouped together as
Tethys. It is well known that the thickness and composition
of the lithosphere is a key point in controlling the rate and
possibility of subduction (Cloos 1993). Consequently, the extreme
lateral variability of the lithosphere of the Mediterranean,
which has persisted since at least the Mesozoic up to the
present, strongly controlled the relative microplate motions in
the whole area (Doglioni et al. 1994). Note, for instance, how the
Ionian subduction rapidly changes and decreases northwards
and westwards, corresponding to the different compositions
of the Apulian and Sicilian lithospheres. In the Adriatic and
Ionian zones, the lithosphere has an average thickness of
90 km, with positive and negative oscillations of about 20 km
(Calcagnile & Panza 1981; Calcagnile et al. 1982). The lateral
variations are responsible for the irregular pattern of Tethys
itself, located in between two major continental blocks (Eurasia
and Africa).
The different thicknesses and compositions of the Ionian,
Adriatic and African lithospheres determined the asymmetry
between the northern and southern Tyrrhenian sea and southern
# 2001 RAS, GJI 144, 49±64

Apennines and Sicily. The opening of the southern Tyrrhenian
sea and the shortening in the southern Apennines are much
larger than those of their northern counterparts, in particular
at the 41u latitude transition; this structural variation occurs
where the Ionian oceanic lithosphere in the foreland to the south
and the Adriatic thick continental lithosphere to the north are
subducting. In this regard, the Tyrrhenian sea represents a
powerful laboratory in which to investigate different styles and
amounts of back-arc extension as a function of the composition
and thickness of the subducting lithosphere of the foreland,
that is, the Ionian, Adriatic and Sicily lithospheres.
The larger expansion of the Neogene and Quaternary
Apennines arc in the Ionian Sea (Fig. 1) con®rms how the
Mesozoic Ionian Basin subducted and retreated faster and more
easily than the neighbouring areas of Sicily and the southern
Apennines (Malinverno & Ryan 1986; Patacca & Scandone
1989; Doglioni 1991; Faccenna et al. 1997).
CONCLUSIONS
The Ionian Sea appears to be an oceanic basin of Mesozoic
age (Fig. 9). It mimics several morphological and geophysical
signatures which have been described in the central Atlantic
Ocean (DanÄobeitia et al. 1995). However, there are still some
anomalies in its geophysical signatures (compare Calcagnile
et al. 1982 and De Voogd et al. 1992). Whatever its origin, the
Ionian Sea is a rifted area whose stretched conjugate margins
are the Malta escarpment to the southwest and the Apulian
escarpment to the northeast (Fig. 9). The oceanic nature of the
Ionian Sea would imply an aborted middle oceanic ridge
located halfway between the two conjugate passive margins
(Fig. 10). However, the topographic elevation of the ridge axis
should have been lost by thermal cooling after ocean abortion
and the later burial of Tertiary sediments. The Apennines
accretionary wedge also overrode the ocean ridge zone (Fig. 6).
Based on the undulating strike of the two conjugate passive
continental margins, the direction of the Mesozoic extension
could have been oriented NE±SW (Fig. 10).
The age of the basin is not yet well constrained. Based on the
deep sea¯oor (>4000 m in the abyssal plain), low heat ¯ow
(30±40 mW mx2, Della Vedova & Pellis 1989) and stratigraphy
of the rifted margins, the rifting could be Permian±Triassic at
the continental stage, evolving to oceanic spreading during the
Late Jurassic±Early Cretaceous. During the Late Tertiary, the
Ionian Sea looks like an aborted trapped oceanic basin.
Based on inland constraints, that is, the Sicilian and southern
Apennines carbonate platform margins and adjacent basins,
the Ionian Ocean continued to the northwest (Fig. 10). Since
the main deformation of the Ionian area started in the late
Neogene, the reconstruction at early Miocene±late Oligocene
times of Fig. 10 is considered as a view of the Mesozoic
palaeogeography.
The seismicity of the Apennines slab underneath the southern
Tyrrhenian sea, which implies downgoing oceanic lithosphere,
also supports the palaeogeographic prolongation of the Ionian
Ocean towards the northwest (Fig. 10). The absence or paucity
of seismicity to the north in the southern Apennines and in
Sicily and their Tyrrhenian margins does not imply the absence
of the Apennines slab continuity in those areas. These changes
in seismicity and in several other geological and geophysical
signatures may be explained by the inherited Mesozoic crustal
# 2001 RAS, GJI 144, 49±64
The Mesozoic Ionian Basin 61
and lithospheric differences of the downgoing foreland, that is,
oceanic in the Ionian, and continental in the southern Apennines
and Sicily.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The paper bene®ted from critical reviews by M. A. Khan,
G. Panza and an anonymous referee. Many thanks to A. Bally,
M. Bello, D. Bernoulli, M. B. Cita, J. Channell, M. Gaetani,
E. Gueguen, F. Mongelli, P. Pieri and M. Tropeano for helpful
discussions. The Italian MURST (Co®n 99) and CNR supported
this study (grant 98.00228.CT05).
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AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90011©2002 AAPG Hedberg Conference, May 14-18, 2002, Palermo - Mondello, Sicily, Italy

AAPG HEDBERG CONFERENCE

“Deformation, Fluid Flow and Reservoir Appraisal in Foreland Fold and Thrust Belts”
May 14-18, 2002, Palermo – Mondello (Sicily, Italy)

THE IONIAN CRUST AND THE CALABRIAN ACCRETIONARY WEDGE

Catalano R.*, Doglioni C.**, Merlini S.° & Sulli A.*
* Dipartimento di Geologia e Geodesia, Università di Palermo, via Archirafi 26, Palermo
** Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università “La Sapienza” di Roma, P.le A. Moro 5, Roma
° ENI-AGIP, San Donato Milanese (MI)
E-mail: rcatal@unipa.it (corresponding author)

Introduction
The interpretation of deep seismic lines has revealed the structure of the Pelagian passive continental
margin and the related Ionian ocean (Catalano et al., 2000), highlighting the evolution of the Mesozoic
continental rifting and oceanic spreading (Catalano et al., 2001). Crustal pattern and geometries of the
continental margin-to-ocean transect is an important constraint to study subduction processes of the
Ionian lithosphere beneath the outer Calabrian Arc (Fig. 1).
The unmigrated crustal lines were calibrated by using geological and geophysical data. Interpretative
techniques attempted to distinguish several seismic facies to estimate the lithology and geometry of the
reflecting units and to discriminate between sedimentary and crystalline units. Previously published
magnetic, heat flow, gravity and bathymetry, as well as seismic reflection and refraction data (ESP, DSS,
EGT and WARR) were used to constrain, at a regional scale, the crustal structures interpreted from the
seismic reflection lines.

General setting
The passive continental margin and the related Ionian ocean
The passive continental margin extends from the Iblean-Malta shelf, through the Malta Escarpment, to
the Western Ionian Sea. Rifting events started in pre-Late Triassic time, but major extensional features
appear to dissect the top of the Triassic carbonate platform and the late Jurassic-early Cretaceous pelagic
deposits.
The continental margin crust becomes progressively thinner eastwards. In addition to early Mesozoic
block-faulting of both the basement and sedimentary cover, the interpreted large igneous intrusions
(Catalano et al., 2000) support the “transitional” nature of the crust flooring the Malta slope and the
western Ionian sector. Several Triassic to Neogene mafic volcanic levels, sandwiched in the 6 to 9 km
thick sedimentary strata (Antonelli et al., 1991), and a magnetically postulated major mafic body, located
in the upper crust east of the Malta Escarpment, support the hypothesis of a magmatic underplating of the
thinned continental crust (volcanic continental margin) previously postulated by Della Vedova & Pellis
(1992), Bonatti & Seyler (1987).
The lateral continuity of the sedimentary facies across the Malta Escarpment and the depositional
relationships between the carbonate platform and basinal deposits enable the locating of the original edge
of the Mesozoic continental margin in the western Ionian well beyond the Escarpment (Scandone et al.,
1981; Catalano et al., 2000). The Malta Escarpment owes its morphogenesis to the reactivation caused by
more recent vertical and/or transtensional tectonics (Casero et al. 1984; Doglioni et al., 2001).
The Iblean-Malta continental margin has recently been described by Cantarella et alii (1997), Catalano
et alii (2001) as the conjugated margin of the Apulian swell in the other side of the Ionian, which is
considered as a remnant of the Mesozoic Tethys ocean.
The Ionian abyssal plain and its eastern side are floored by a crust already interpreted as oceanic
(Finetti, 1982; De Voogdt et al., 1992; Catalano et al., 2000, 2001) or thinned continental (Cernobori et
al., 1996). The seismic characteristics of the Ionian crust strongly differ from the adjacent western and
eastern sectors.
AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90011©2002 AAPG Hedberg Conference, May 14-18, 2002, Palermo - Mondello, Sicily, Italy

Catalano, Doglioni, Merlini & Sulli

When correlated to the sedimentary body lying on the thinned continental crust, the “oceanic”
sediments appear to be more recent than the lower Mesozoic carbonate platform: one could argue that the
age of initial oceanic spreading cannot be further than Late Jurassic.
Despite the fact that tectonic subsidence analysis, deep sea floor (>4000 m in the abyssal plain), low
heat flow values (Della Vedova & Pellis, 1992) support a late Jurassic-early Cretaceous age, the absence
of borehole stratigraphy impedes the possibility of defining the true age of the ocean formation.

The study area

The Ionian subduction zone and the Calabrian accretionary wedge
A CROP seismic line crossing the Ionian abyssal plain towards the southern Calabria offshore images
a well developed SE vergent accretionary wedge and the NW dipping oceanic basement (Fig. 2).
The most impressive signature of the Ionian abyssal plain is a couplet in the form of a highly reflective
layered body and a transparent and unstratified band with overlapping hyperbolae (Catalano et al., 2000);
the oceanic Moho deepens northward from 9 to more than 10 s/TWT in few kilometers (Fig. 2). The
resulting sharp lateral discontinuity is here interpreted as the result of a near WNW-ESE transform (?)
paleofault offsetting the Ionian crust. The crystalline crust is still coupled with the oldest sedimentary
layers. The younger sedimentary layers are deformed and chaotically arranged along a decollement plane
overlying the oldest sediments. They lack a coherent tectonic bodies organization.
In the intermediate sector the crust progressively deepens with a complex trajectory appearing offset
by a WNW-ESE lateral (?) discontinuities (Fig. 2). Moho develops at about 11 s/TWT. The sedimentary
cover is still deformed in its upper part appearing as coherent thrust ramps corresponding to the tip of the
socalled External Calabrian Arc (Morlotti et al., 1982; Cernobori et al., 1996).
Towards the North the deformation reaches the lower and older sediments that form a 4 s/TWT thick
tectonic wedge detached from its crust. Moreover the crystalline crust, well seismically imaged at 9 to 12
s/TWT depth interval is a gently arched body offset by reverse faults with variable fold wavelength.
Approaching SE Calabria offshore the oceanic crust becomes steeper as the faintly recognized Moho
discontinuity occurs at more than 14 s/TWT. The upper crust (Layer 2 ?) is strongly deformed in several
tectonic slices (Fig. 2). Above it a 2 s/TWT thick imbricated wedge composed of rocks correlatable to the
older portion of the sedimentary cover is piled up. It underlies a 3 s/TWT thick seismically transparent to
chaotic body physically correlatable with the continental crystalline portion of the adjacent outcropping
Calabrian units.

Discussion
The seismics images that both sedimentary and crystalline Ionian crustal bodies are progressively
detached from their substrate more deeply and markedly towards NW. As a consequence sedimentary and
oceanic crust units appear embricated to form the SE verging accretionary wedge.
The subduction hinge zone is seismically imaged in the area where the Calabrian crystalline units
overthrust the deformed oldest sediments deposited on the Ionian crust.
Thickness of the Ionian crust with respect to the adjacent continental areas, petrological-physical
characteristics and relic structures could have influenced the geometry of subduction and generated
processes in the shallow levels.
Occurrence of oceanic crust certainly favours subduction in this area, generating the Aeolian volcanic
arc and the deep seismicity in the southeastern Tyrrhenian, as well as the ascent of the Etna magmas
(Doglioni et al., 2001).
The geometry of the downgoing slab recalls articulated topography due to ancient morphostructures as
the supposed medioceanic paleoridge (Cantarella et al., 1997; Catalano et al., 2001) and the transform
faults formed before the subduction time. These morphostructures can make difficult the subduction
and/or complicate its geometry (Font et al., 2001).
The seismic reflection study of the southern Tyrrhenian along the Cefalù basin-Solunto Mount sector
(Agate et al., 2001) images a northward inflection of the Sicilian (African) continental crust below the

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Catalano, Doglioni, Merlini & Sulli

submerged interpreted Kabilian-Calabrian continental crust (Figs. 1, 3), confirming a north-directed

continental subduction as suggested by Doglioni et al. (1998).
The comparison with the crustal setting of the Calabria-Ionian sector highlights the importance of the
crustal and lithospheric heritage of the downgoing foreland. The convergence of two continental crusts
causes more difficulty in the subduction of the Sicilian crust respect to the Ionian sector where major
convergence rate facilitates both a southward advancing of the deformation front (arcuate shape of the
Apenninic front) and a vertical separation between the Ionian and Sicilian crusts.
The surface expression of this behaviour is the shorter propagation of the Sicilian frontal accretion and
the building of a chain with major topographic relief respect to the accretionary wedge of the Calabria-
Ionian sector.

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