Page 3 - Current_tectonic2015

Geo-Risks in the Mediterranean and their Mitigation

CURRENT TECTONIC ACTIVITY IN THE
NWSECTOR OF THE SICILY CHANNEL BASED

ON SEISMIC PROFILE ANALYSIS

Meccariello, M.1, Ferranti, L.1, Pepe, F.2
1Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, dell’Ambiente e delle Risorse (DiSTAR), Università

di Napoli "Federico II", melania.meccariello@unina.it; luigi.ferranti@unina.it
2Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra e del Mare, Università di Palermo,

fabrizio.pepe@unipa.it

Introduction
The joint interpretation of multichannel (from VIDEPI database) and

unpublished high-resolution Sparker seismic reflection profiles, recorded offshore
Punta Granitola in August 2013, integrated with well log data, has been used to
reconstruct the upper crustal architecture of active structures in the NW sector of
the Sicily Channel (central Mediterranean).

This sector forms a broad epicontinental platform, which extends from the
Egadi Islands to the Sciacca offshore, and is bounded to the south by the
continental rift-related depression of Pantelleria along the Channel axis. The area
belongs to the northern African continental margin, and experienced the Neogene-
Quaternary Africa-Europe collision that generated the Sicilian – Maghrebian chain
(Dewey et al., 1989; Ben-Avraham et al., 1990).

Seismo-stratigraphy
Isopach maps of five seismic units whose age is bracketed between

Cretaceous and Quaternary, outline the space-time migration of contractional
fronts, which become progressively younger towards the SE. Where as
emplacement of the western front of the chain occurred during the Middle-Upper
Miocene, the eastern front formed during the Pliocene-Pleistocene. Within this
tectonic framework, two basins characterised by different trend, age and tectonic
evolution were recognized. The older Adventure foredeepto the NW shows its
depocentre in correspondence of the Adventure Plateau. It is limited in the NW by
the Maghrebian Thrust Front, and in the SE by the Adventure Thrust Front
(Argnani et al., 1986). The younger Plio-Pleistocene foredeep is recognised ahead
of the Adventure Thrust Front. The latter forms the offshore prolongation of the
Campobello di Mazara-Castelvetrano alignment (Barreca et al., 2014).

Discussion
In the NW sector of the Sicily Channel, data and interpretation we present

show that shortening was active till recently. Compressional tectonics is
responsible for positive inversion of pre-existing structures, separating the
Trapanese and Saccense domains. At places, small-scale reverse faults offset
lower-middle Pleistocene calcarenites as well as the seafloor. Activity of the
offshore structures corresponding to that recognised on land (Barreca et al., 2014),

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