International audienceSubduction of a narrow slab of oceanic lithosphere beneath a tightly curved orogenic arc requires the presence of at least one lithospheric scale tear fault. While the Calabrian subduction beneath southern Italy is considered to be the type example of this geodynamic setting, the geometry, kinematics and surface expression of the associated lateral, slab tear fault offshore eastern Sicily remain controversial. Results from a new marine geophysical survey conducted in the Ionian Sea, using high-resolution bathymetry and seismic profiling reveal active faulting at the seafloor within a 140 km long, two-branched fault system near Alfeo Seamount. The previously unidentified 60 km long NW trending North Alfeo Fault system shows primarily strike-slip kinematics as indicated by the morphology and steep-dipping transpressional and transtensional faults. Available earthquake focal mechanisms indicate dextral strike-slip motion along this fault segment. The 80 km long SSE trending South Alfeo fault system is expressed by one or two steeply dipping normal faults, bounding the western side of a 500+ m thick, 5 km wide, elongate, syntectonic Plio-Quaternary sedimentary basin. Both branches of the fault system are mechanically capable of generating magnitude 6–7 earthquakes like those that struck eastern Sicily in 1169, 1542, and 1693

[1] It is widely accepted that the Central and Eastern Mediterranean are remnants of the Neo-Tethys. However, the orientation and timing of spreading of this domain remain controversial. Here, we present time migrated and pre-stack depth migrated NW-SE oriented Archimede (1997) lines together with the PrisMed01 (1993) profile to constrain the evolution of the Ionian basin. Our interpretation allows us to identify a large-scale set of SW-NE striking reverse faults beneath the Ionian Abyssal Plain. These primarily NW vergent faults have a characteristic spacing of 10 to 20 km and a dip ranging from 60 to 65°. Following very recent paleogeographic reconstructions, we propose that the set of N°55 features initially formed as normal faults during NW-SE trending seafloor spreading of the Ionian basin after its late Triassic-early Jurassic rifting. Based on geometric comparisons with the intraplate deformation observed beneath the Central Indian Ocean, we show that the inherited oceanic normal faults were reactivated under compression as reverse faults. Well-developed Tortonian syntectonic basins developed NW of the major faults and the base of the Messinian evaporites (Mobile Unit) is slightly folded by the activity of the faults. We show that 3-4 km of total shortening occurs over a 80 km wide area beneath the Ionian Abyssal Plain, resulting in a bulk shortening of 3.5-5%. We propose a link between the Tortonian-early Messinian inversion of the fault pattern and a plate tectonic reorganization prior to the main phase of back-arc opening of the Tyrrhenian domain.