IMPLICATIONS OF FAULT REACTIVATION AND STRUCTURAL INHERITANCE IN THE CENOZOIC TECTONIC EVOLUTION OF ITALY

ABSTRACT: It has long been realised that the structure of orogenic belts is profoundly influenced by the original architecture and composition of the continental crust that is involved. With the acquisition of seismic data, especially from sedimentary basins in recent years, it is now also accepted that many compressional structures in sedimentary successions lie above earlier basement faults. In many cases the faults themselves have been reactivated under compression. Now in turn many orogenic belts are being re-investigated to examine the specific role of inherited faults and shear zones in the basement, together with the stratigraphic variations they may have engendered in the pre- and syn-orogenic sedimentary cover, in the compressional evolution. In this paper we illustrate these discussions using examples from the Maghrebian-Apennine orogenic system of Italy. The orogenic belt and it