Tettonica quaternaria nell'area bradanico-ionica

Abstract

The external front of the Southern Apennines is a compressive belt which was active in the last 0.5 Ma. The belt is a few km wide along the western margin of the Bradanic foredeep, whereas it widens towards the Ionian Sea where the eastward propagating accretionary wedge largely deforms the sea-floor. The front of the accretionary wedge displays a triangular zone, both onland and offshore. The youngest sediments outcropping onland are middle Pleistocene in age and are deformed or tilted. Coaxial active extensional faults occur in the Apenninic belt to the west of the compressive front. N100°-120° trending grabens and horsts were active during Quaternary times in the Apulian foreland to the east, both at the margins of the Murge ridge and along its southeast offshore prolongation into the Ionian Sea.