Geology and structure of the Serre Massif upper crust: a look in to the late-Variscan strike–slip kinematics of the Southern European Variscan chain

A newgeological-structuralmapofthesouthernSerreMassif(SM),inthesouth-centralpartof the Calabrian-Peloritani-Orogen(CPO),isprovided.CPOisaribbon-likemicroplatespuzzle, originally belongingtothesouthernEuropeanVariscanBeltand,laterinvolvedintothe Alpine geodynamicsofthecentralMediterraneanArea.TheSMrepresentsoneofthekey European Variscanbasementrelicts,becauseofitsexhumationmechanismsaswellasfor the absenceofanyAlpinemetamorphicoverprint.Thismaphastheaimtobetterdelineate the sequenceoftheVariscanblasto-deformationalrelationshipsconsistinginaprograde multistage history,followedbyanextensional/transpressionalmultistageretrograde evolution, whichtriggeredtheintrusionoftheformerplutonicproducts.Themylonitic fabric resulted finally replacedbytheeffects ofthelate-topost-kinematicplutonic intrusions coevalwithaformerlate-Variscanexhumationstage,followed,duringMesozoic, by carbonateplatformsedimentation,beforetobecompletedexhumedduringthe Oligocene-Miocene Alpinestages.