The Geology of the Pelagian Block: The Margins and Basins off Southern Tunisia and Tripolitania

Burollet, P. F.; Mugniot, J. M.; Sweeney, Peter F.

doi:10.1007/978-1-4684-3039-4_6

Cited by 86 publications

(42 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…Within the geodynamic framework of the Central Mediterranean, the north-central sector of the Sicily Channel belongs to the northern margin of the African continental plate (the so-called Pelagian Block of Burollet et al 1978), which represents the foreland area of the Neogene Sicilian-Maghrebian orogen. The Pelagian Block is characterized by a 25-to 35-km-thick continental crust (Scarascia et al 2000), except in correspondence of the Sicily Channel rift zone, where crustal thinning is evidenced by a less than 20-km-deep Moho (Finetti 1984).…”

Section: Geological Setting and Previous Knowledgesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evidence of positive tectonic inversion in the north-central sector of the Sicily Channel (Central Mediterranean)

et al. 2016

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In order to unravel the tectonic evolution of the north-central sector of the Sicily Channel (Central Mediterranean), a seismo-stratigraphic analysis of single-and multichannel seismic reflection profiles has been carried out. This allowed to identify, between 20 and 50 km offshore the central-southern coast of Sicily, a *80-km-long deformation belt, characterized by a set of WNW-ESE to NW-SE fault segments showing a polyphasic activity. Within this belt, we observed: i) Miocene normal faults reactivated during Zanclean-Piacenzian time by dextral strike-slip motion, as a consequence of the AfricaEurope convergence; ii) releasing and restraining bend geometries forming well-developed pull-apart basins and compressive structures. In the central and western sectors of the belt, we identified local transpressional reactivations of Piacenzian time, attested by well-defined compressive features like push-up structures and fault-bend anticlines. The reconstruction of timing and style of tectonic deformation suggest a strike-slip reactivation of inherited normal faults and the local subsequent positive tectonic inversion, often documented along oblique thrust ramps. This pattern represents a key for an improved knowledge of the structural style of foreland fold-and-thrust belts propagating in a preexisting extensional domain. With regard to active tectonics and seismic hazards, recent GPS data and local seismicity events suggest that this deformation process could be still active and accomplished through deep-buried structures; moreover, several normal faults showing moderate displacements have been identified on top of the Madrepore Bank and Malta High, offsetting the Late Quaternary deposits. Finally, inside the northern part of the

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Section: Geological Setting and Previous Knowledgesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evidence of positive tectonic inversion in the north-central sector of the Sicily Channel (Central Mediterranean)

et al. 2016

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“…The basin or trough deposits are typically thick deposits of even-bedded gray biomicrite limestone, with nodules and bands of replacement chert and interbedded marls and calcareous turbiOur summary of the sedimentation history of this southern continental margin and fragments of the northern margin is compiled from the following selection of regional reviews-general: Sander (1970), Arkell (1956), Bernoulli andJenkyns (1974), Hsü (1976); Tunisia: Bismuth et al (1967), Busson (1967), Bonnefous (1967), Burollet (1967), Burollet et al (1978), Salaj (1978); Sicily: Jenkyns (1970Jenkyns ( , 1971Jenkyns ( , personal communication, 1979, Patacca et al (1979); Apennines and Tuscany: Bernoulli et al (1979), Kálin et al (1979), Channell et al (1979);Briançonnais, Piemont, Vocontien Basin, andLiguria: Trumpy (1975), M. Moullade (personal communication, 1982), Cotillon (1971;personal communication, 1980), Bourbon (1978Bourbon ( , 1980, Bourbon et al (1975), Bourbon et al (1976);Southern Alps: Gaetani (1975), Ogg (1981a), Winterer and Bosellini (1981), Kàlin and Trumpy (1977). Austria: Hallam (1967), Garrison and Fischer (1969), Garrison (1967), Diersche (1980).…”

Section: Sedimentation Historymentioning

confidence: 99%

Jurassic Sedimentation History of Site 534 (Western North Atlantic) and of the Atlantic-Tethys Seaway

Ogg¹,

Roberston²,

Jansa³

1983

Initial Reports of the Deep Sea Drilling Project

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Site 534 reflects a complex interplay of global, basinal, and local influences on sedimentation during the Callovian and Late Jurassic. Rifting and rapid subsidence of the continental margins of the North Atlantic-Tethys seaway occurred during the late Early Jurassic (Sinemurian-Pliensbachian), but rapid spreading between the North American margin (Blake Spur Ridge and magnetic lineation) and the northwest African margin did not commence until the Bathonian or earliest Callovian.Site 534, drilled on marine magnetic anomaly "M-28" of Bryan et al. (1980), was initially about 150 km from either continental margin. The ?middle Callovian basal sediments are dusky red silty marl. Callovian transgression led to active carbonate platforms on the margin, recorded at Site 534 as a rise in the CCD (carbonate compensation depth), then arrival of lime-rich turbidites from the Blake Plateau platform across the Blake Spur Ridge. The host pelagic sediment is greenish black, organic-rich, radiolarian-rich, silty claystone. Hydrothermal activity on the nearby spreading ridge enriched this lower unit in metals. In the Oxfordian, the input of terrestrial silt rapidly diminished; radiolarians or other bioclasts were not preserved. The dark variegated claystone has fine-grained marl and reddish claystone turbidite beds. The late Callovian-Oxfordian Western Tethys has radiolarian chert deposition, marine hiatuses, or organic-rich sediments.The Kimmeridgian and Tithonian had a stable or receding sea level. Near the end of the Jurassic many of the carbonate platforms of the margins were buried beneath prograding fan or alluvial deposits. Carbonate deposition shifted to the deep sea. Site 534 records the deepening of the CCD and ACD (aragonite compensation depth) during the Kimmeridgian and early Tithonian, then a rise of the ACD in the middle Tithonian. Similar trends occurred throughout the Western Tethys-Atlantic. High nannofossil productivity of the seaway led to deposition of very widespread white micritic limestone in the late Tithonian-Berriasian. The underlying sediment had a slower deposition rate of carbonate, therefore its higher clay and associated Fe content produced a red marl. A short sea-level incursion occurred on the Atlantic margins during the Kimmeridgian and is reflected in the Site 534 greenish gray marl unit by numerous turbidite beds of shallow-water carbonates.

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“…Offshore geophysical and geological information (Calanchi et al, 1989;CNR, 1991;Grasso et al, 1993;Rotolo et al, 2006;Civile et al, 2008) show that the magmatic district of the Sicily Channel, which is part of the Pelagian Block (Burollet et al, 1978), includes several submerged volcanic edifices. Their distribution, that has been usually considered to have a NW-SE alignment, actually depict, as a whole, a roughly N-S oriented belt crosscutting the entire channel from the surroundings of the island of Lampedusa, to the South, to the Graham Bank, to the North (Figure 1).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Late Quaternary deformation on the island on Pantelleria: New constraints for the recent tectonic evolution of the Sicily Channel Rift (southern Italy)

Catalano

Guidi

Lanzafame

et al. 2009

Journal of Geodynamics

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Structural observations carried out on the volcanic island of Pantelleria show that the tectonic setting is dominated by NNE-trending normal faults and by NW-striking right-lateral strike-slip faults with normal component of motion controlled by a  N 100°E oriented extension.This mode of deformation also controls the development of the eruptive fissures, dykes and eruptive centres along NNE-SSW belts that may thus represent the surface response to crustal cracking with associated magma intrusions. Magmatic intrusions are also responsible for the impressive vertical deformations that affect during the Late Quaternary the south-eastern segment of the island and producing a large dome within the Pantelleria caldera complex. The results of the structural analysis carried out on the island of Pantelleria also improves the general knowledge on the Late Quaternary tectonics of the entire Sicily Channel. ESE-WNW directed extension, responsible for both the tectonic and volcano-tectonic features of the Pantelleria Island, also characterizes, at a greater scale, the entire channel as shown by available geodetic and seismological data. This mode of extension reactivates the older NW-SE trending fault segments bounding the tectonic troughs of the Channel as right-lateral strike slip faults and produces new NNE trending pure extensional features (normal faulting and cracking) that preferentially develop at the tip of the major strike-slip fault zones. We thus relate the Late Quaternary volcanism of the Pelagian Block magmatism to dilatational strain on * ManuscriptPage 2 of 27 A c c e p t e d M a n u s c r i p t the NNE-striking extensional features that develop on the pre-existing stretched area and propagate throughout the entire continental crust linking the already up-welled mantle with the surface.

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The Geology of the Pelagian Block: The Margins and Basins off Southern Tunisia and Tripolitania

Cited by 86 publications

References 6 publications

Evidence of positive tectonic inversion in the north-central sector of the Sicily Channel (Central Mediterranean)

Evidence of positive tectonic inversion in the north-central sector of the Sicily Channel (Central Mediterranean)

Jurassic Sedimentation History of Site 534 (Western North Atlantic) and of the Atlantic-Tethys Seaway

Late Quaternary deformation on the island on Pantelleria: New constraints for the recent tectonic evolution of the Sicily Channel Rift (southern Italy)

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