Tectono-stratigraphic evolution of southern margin of the Crotone basin (Calabria, South Italy)

The Crotone Basins (CB) (Zecchin et al., 2013 and references therein) is located in the eastern sectors of the Sila Massif. The CB depicts the Neogene-Quaternary foreland basin of central Mediterranean region. The study area is influenced by different set of NW-SE major transcurrent faults and their antithetic lineaments which show alternating episodes of transtensional and transpressional faulting. Southwestern sector of the basin was characterized by three main fault patterns: 1) Active since Serravallian, NW-SE oriented faults bordering the CB to the west and with a left-lateral strike slip kinematics at the first stage. This transtensional phase has produced the basin opening, filled by coarsegrained, sand, clay and evaporitic deposits. 2) To the central part of the study area, Miocene deposits was displaced by NNW-SSE and NE-SW oriented faults, this pattern displays a dextral transpressional kinematic which seems to replace extensional kinematic giving rise to local inversion of former basins. 3) The CB experienced a new extensional phase along N-S or NNW-SSE oriented normal faults, starting from the Middle Pleistocene period.