GeoActa Special Publication 1
2008
Acquisto online |
GeoActa
an international Journal of Earth Sciences
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Jean Claude Bousquet*, Gianni Lanzafame
Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Piazza Roma 2, 95123 Catania, Italia. E-mail: lanzafame@ct.ingv.it
*external collaborator
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Compression and Quaternary tectonic inversion on the northern edge of the Hyblean Mountains, foreland of the Apennine-Maghrebian chain in Eastern Sicily (Italy): geodynamic implications for Mt. Etna
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(300 KB)
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Abstract
In south-eastern Sicily, the Hyblean Plateau is made up of Upper Cretaceous-Miocene carbonate and volcanic rocks, covered by Plio-Quaternary volcanics and by Lower Quaternary marine sediments. This mountain plateau constitutes the foreland of the Apennine-Maghrebian chain, from which it is separated by the Catania-Gela foredeep. It is accepted that, following the latest (Early Quaternary) emplacements of the nappes of the chain in its foredeep, the uplift of the region occurs through Quaternary normal faults. The study of the faults of the northern edge of the Hyblean plateau has allowed to discover direct evidence of compressive deformations, indicating a very recent (Quaternary) tectonic inversion. These observations are in agreement with geophysical data on the present-day stress field and show, together with these latter, that: 1) to the west of the Aeolian-Maltese fault system, at present, the N-S compression is deforming the chain, the foredeep and the foreland; 2) conversely, along this major tectonic system of the Calabrian-Sicilian arc and to the east, in Sicily and Calabria, the present extension is as normal. Mt. Etna has been built up in the sector affected by the compression from the Quaternary to the present-day, and only the eastern flank of the volcano, being crossed by the faults of the Aeolian-Maltese system, is in extension. Below the volcano, the magmatic phenomena and the weight of the edifice itself modify the characteristics of the stress field, with the maximum horizontal stress (&Mac195; Hmax) keeping the same N-S orientation.
Keywords: Sicily, Hyblean foreland, Quaternary extension and compression, Transform fault.
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