Two orthogonal extensional systems produced the extensional collapse of the Tell and Atlas thrust belts in northern Tunisia during the Late Miocene to Pliocene in a context of NW-SE plate convergence between Africa and Eurasia. The older extensional system shows several low-angle normal faults (LANFs) and associated high-angle faults with ENE-directed transport that produced half-grabens and hanging-wall syncline basins during the late Tortonian to Messinian. The direction of extension swinged towards the SE during the Messinian, cutting into, and tilting the previous detachments. Extension was accompanied by the extrusion of 8-Ma rhyodacites and Messinian basalts, together with the development of mineralized fault breccias. Plio-Quaternary NW-SE directed shortening formed inversion arrowhead structures, reverse faults, refolded extensional rollover anticlines and folded the LANFs. ENE-directed extension is concomitant with the opening of the Tyrrhenian basin. We consequently think that both processes are related and that tearing of the Calabrian slab along the northern Tunisia coast drove the ENE-directed extension. Meanwhile, the SE-directed extension that followed was probably related to SE-directed peeling back of the Tunisian continental lithospheric mantle during NW subduction of the Maghrebian margin. This extension propagated eastwards from the late Tortonian until the Pliocene following the SE migrating subduction front and favored by lateral slab tearing along the Tunisian Atlas dextral Subduction Transfer Edge Propagator boundary. This new hypothesis for the tectonic evolution of northern Tunisia shows for the first time the importance of crustal extension in the denudation of the Tunisian Atlas and Tell foreland thrust belts and its relation to deep mantle tectonic mechanisms.

Slope failures occur in open-pit mining areas worldwide producing considerable damage and economic losses. Identifying the triggering factors and detecting unstable slopes and precursory displacements, which can be achieved by exploiting remote sensing data, is critical to reduce their impact. Here we present a methodology that

No abstract

No abstract

This is a PDF file of an article that has undergone enhancements after acceptance, such as the addition of a cover page and metadata, and formatting for readability, but it is not yet the definitive version of record. This version will undergo additional copyediting, typesetting and review before it is published in its final form, but we are providing this version to give early visibility of the article. Please note that, during the production process, errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.

No abstract

This is a a non-peer reviewed preprint of the article that has just been published in Landslides.

Shallow landslides can represent a destructive phenomena due to the absence of incipient movement evidence and to their high velocity, especially when turning into debris flows. The occurrence and the behavior of rainfall-triggered shallow landslides are often influenced by land use. In particular, the analysis of the changes in land use through time may represent a relevant indicator to evaluate different shallow landslide susceptibility scenarios. In this work, a semi-parametric nonlinear regression technique, namely the Generalized Additive Model (GAM), was applied for landslide susceptibility mapping. The model was applied to four different study sites which recently were affected by widespread rainfall-induced shallow landsliding: the Rio Frate and the Versa catchments (Oltrepo Pavese—southern Lombardy), the Vernazza catchment (Cinque Terre—Eastern Liguria) and the Pogliaschina catchment (Vara Valley—Eastern Liguria). Moreover, the elaboration of different land use scenarios were used to assess the influence of the land use change on the landslides occurrence