Mapping and luminescence aging of raised marine terraces and aeolian ridges along an ∼90 km coastal stretch in southwestern Sicily provide the first quantitative assessment of vertical tectonic deformation in this region, which spans the frontal part of an active thrust belt. We recognized a staircase of eleven terraces and nine related aeolian ridges. The elevation profile of terraces parallel to the coast shows a >90 km long bell-shaped pattern, onto which shorter-wavelength (∼10 km long) undulations are superimposed. Luminescence ages from terraced beach deposits and aeolian sediments constrain the position of paleoshorelines formed during MIS 5e, 7a and 7c, with a maximum uplift rate of ∼0.75 mm/a, and indicate a late Middle-Late Pleistocene (80–400 ka) age for the sequence of terraces. The elevation of Lower Pleistocene morpho-depositional markers points that uplift may have occurred at similar rates at the beginning of the Early Pleistocene, but almost zeroed between ∼1.5 and 0.4 Ma before the recent renewal. The uneven elevation of Middle-Upper Pleistocene paleoshorelines observed moving along the coast documents that uplift embeds both a regional and a local component. The regional, symmetric bell-shaped uplift is related to involvement in the thrust belt of thicker crustal portions of the northern African continental margin. The short-wavelength undulations represent the local component and correspond to actively growing bedrock folds. The present study contributes to unravel the different spatial and temporal scales of deformation processes at a collisional margin.

Late Quaternary coastal uplift of southwestern Sicily, central Mediterranean sea / Ferranti, L.; Burrato, P.; Sechi, D.; Andreucci, S.; Pepe, F.; Pascucci, V.. - In: QUATERNARY SCIENCE REVIEWS. - ISSN 0277-3791. - 255:(2021), p. 106812. [10.1016/j.quascirev.2021.106812]

Late Quaternary coastal uplift of southwestern Sicily, central Mediterranean sea

Sechi D.
Formal Analysis
;
Andreucci S.
Formal Analysis
;
Pascucci V.
Conceptualization
2021-01-01

Abstract

Mapping and luminescence aging of raised marine terraces and aeolian ridges along an ∼90 km coastal stretch in southwestern Sicily provide the first quantitative assessment of vertical tectonic deformation in this region, which spans the frontal part of an active thrust belt. We recognized a staircase of eleven terraces and nine related aeolian ridges. The elevation profile of terraces parallel to the coast shows a >90 km long bell-shaped pattern, onto which shorter-wavelength (∼10 km long) undulations are superimposed. Luminescence ages from terraced beach deposits and aeolian sediments constrain the position of paleoshorelines formed during MIS 5e, 7a and 7c, with a maximum uplift rate of ∼0.75 mm/a, and indicate a late Middle-Late Pleistocene (80–400 ka) age for the sequence of terraces. The elevation of Lower Pleistocene morpho-depositional markers points that uplift may have occurred at similar rates at the beginning of the Early Pleistocene, but almost zeroed between ∼1.5 and 0.4 Ma before the recent renewal. The uneven elevation of Middle-Upper Pleistocene paleoshorelines observed moving along the coast documents that uplift embeds both a regional and a local component. The regional, symmetric bell-shaped uplift is related to involvement in the thrust belt of thicker crustal portions of the northern African continental margin. The short-wavelength undulations represent the local component and correspond to actively growing bedrock folds. The present study contributes to unravel the different spatial and temporal scales of deformation processes at a collisional margin.
2021
Late Quaternary coastal uplift of southwestern Sicily, central Mediterranean sea / Ferranti, L.; Burrato, P.; Sechi, D.; Andreucci, S.; Pepe, F.; Pascucci, V.. - In: QUATERNARY SCIENCE REVIEWS. - ISSN 0277-3791. - 255:(2021), p. 106812. [10.1016/j.quascirev.2021.106812]
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11388/243318
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