The North Tyrrhenian–Northern Apennines post‐collisional system: constraints for a geodynamic model

ABSTRACT The North Tyrrhenian–Northern Apennines post‐collisional system (NTAS) has been analysed on the basis of marine reflection profiles and bibliographic sources with the aim of providing an up‐to‐date geotectonic and evolutive framework consistent with structural data. The continental rifting began to affect the most internal (western) side of the system in the middle (?)‐upper Miocene, while the most external (eastern) zones were touched by rifting only in Pleistocene times. The birth and development of extensive, asymmetric basins took place with a progressive speeding up of rifting towards the external sectors. A diachronous, regionally extended and eastward rejuvenating unconformity, recognizable within the Neogene–Quaternary basins, marks the passage from the syn‐rift to the post‐rift tectonic regime. While the first is everywhere dominated by extension, the second one produces vertical movements. Reflection terminations related to this unconformity are interpreted in terms of vertical tectonic component. Three zones that experienced different post‐rift vertical movements are thus recognized in the NTAS: subsidence in the North Tyrrhenian deep water region; tectonic stability or alternation of moderate subsidence and uplift in the continental shelf and western Tuscany, strong uplift in eastern Tuscany. The updated structural data demonstrate that the NTAS upper crust is crosscut by both Tyrrhenian‐dipping and Apennine‐dipping low‐angle detachment planes, above which the upper crustal blocks rotated and experienced extensional transport along two opposite directions: to the west and to the east, respectively. The coexistence of opposite‐dipping crustal surfaces bears two fundamental implications for the NTAS geodynamics. First it stresses the importance of the anti‐Apennine transfer faults, since they separate crustal blocks of opposite extension polarity. Secondly, it testifies that the extension tectonics not only re‐utilized former crustal thrust planes, but also gave origin to new significant E‐ and NE‐dipping detachment planes. Plan and crossview geometries of faults, together with considerations on the role of the metamorphic core complexes, point to an interpretation of the NTAS structure that is more consistent with the ‘anastomosing shear’ model rather than the 'simple shear' or the ‘delamination’ ones.