Vertical movements in NE Sicily and its offshore. Outcome of tectonic uplift during the last 125 kyr

Abstract

Newdata in the coastal area between Acquedolci and Patti (northeastern Sicily, Italy) have been collected to calculate vertical tectonic rates in a key sector between the Kabilian-Calabrian and the Sicilian-Maghrebian chain. The comparison among marine geology data (multibeam and seismic reflection profiles) on the continental shelf-slope system and the radiocarbon ages on geomorphological markers collected during a coastal survey, provided new stratigraphic, geomorphological and biological data, contributing to the knowledge of the geological evolution of this sector for the last 125 ky. This coastal area is framed between two main structural features active during the Pleistocene in northern Sicily: the Kabilian-Calabrian Thrust Front (west of Acquedolci) and the Vulcano-Tindari Fault (east of Patti). The occurrence of these structural features, the former compressive, the latter transcurrent, confirms that the study area is tectonically active and “moves” vertically in differential mode. Fault systems separate blocks with different uplift rates both in onland and offshore areas. In the Gulf of Patti, the offshore area is subsiding, while contemporaneously uplift of the mainland can be observed. The study sector records the same uplift rates both during MIS 5.5 and the Holocene, in contrast to the other areas of Sicily.