Plio-Quaternary tectonic evolution offshore the Capo Vaticano Promontory

Abstract

We reconstruct the Plio-Quaternary tectono-stratigraphic evolution in the offshore Capo Vaticano (W Calabria, Italy) by integrating data obtained from single- and multi-channel reflection seismic profiles and a reprocessed version of the CROP M2A/III line. NW-trending, high-angle normal faults, dipping ~70° to the south-west formed along the continental slope connecting the south-west continental shelf of the Capo Vaticano Promontory to the Gioia Tauro Basin (Pepe et al., 2014). Faults generally have small displacements up to 40 m and are sealed by Pleistocene deposits. West of the Capo Vaticano promontory and in the Gioia Basin, a SE-dipping, normal fault system, more than 32 km long, is recognized. Faults affect lower (?) Pleistocene and are sealed by probably post-0.7 Ma deposits. These faults are here tentatively interpreted as the antithetic faults of major, Late Pliocene to Quaternary, NW-dipping, normal faults, which form the currently active tectonic belt along the Calabrian Arc (e.g. Monaco and Tortorici, 2000; Faccenna et al., 2011). In the Santa Eufemia Gulf, reverse faults affecting Plio-Quaternary and older sedimentary successions are observed. Faults also offset the seafloor thus indicating their recent activity. A normal fault system has been also inferred on the basis of the present day depth variations of the edges of submerged depositional terraces and associated abrasion platforms, along which a vertical displacement of ~21 m during the Late Pleistocene-Holocene has been inferred. The information derived in offshore the Capo Vaticano Promontory represents an important step towards an accurate 3-D kinematic description of the tectono-stratigraphic evolution of the western (Tyrrhenian) side of the Calabrian Arc orogenic wedge during the Plio-Quaternary.