Abstract title

BALANCED CROSS-SECTIONS ACROSS A LOW ANGLE NORMAL FAULT IN THE NORTHERN

APENNINES OF ITALY
Authors
MIRABELLA FRANCESCO 1, BARCHI MASSIMILIANO 1, BROZZETTI FRANCESCO 2, LUPATTELLI
ANDREA 3
presenter's e-mail: mirabell@unipg.it
1 - Geol. Strutt. Geof. Dip. di Scienze della Terra, Univ. di Perugia (Italy)
2 - GeoSis-Lab, Dip. di Scienze della Terra, Univ. di Chieti (Italy)
3 - Geol. Strutt. Geof. Dip. di Scienze della Terra, Univ. di Perugia
Keywords
low angle normal faults
balanced cross-sections
seismic reflection profiles
Northern Apennines
Abstract
Over the last decades, the occurrence of extensional systems driven by low angle normal faults
(LANFs) has progressively been recognised. Early examples were documented in the United
States while many others have been successively discovered worldwide, for example in the
eastern Alps, in the Northern Apennines, in Greece, in Tibet, in Turkey. These structures are
characterised by low angles of dip if compared to the typical "Andersonian" normal faults, by
offsets as large as tens of kilometres, great along-strike length and often high exhumation of
the
footwall
block.
Despite the existing debate concerning their mechanics and activity as seismogenic structures,
many field-based studies, along with the interpretation of seismic reflection profiles and
seismological data show that the LANFs can be active and release earthquakes.
Even if many LANFs have been described and represented in geological cross-sections, very
few examples
of sequential
balancing of
a LANF
exist in the
literature.
Here we present the balancing of a set of cross-sections across the Altotiberina low-angle
normal fault in the Northern Apennines of Italy. The fault is a 55 km minimum long structure
which borders the western flank of the Tiber basin and which is currently active releasing
microseismicity.
The geological reconstruction of the subsurface setting was made by taking into account a larg
data-set of seismic reflection profiles (about 40 sections acquired by Agip in the '80 down to
twt depths of 4 s), six boreholes and the available geological maps (at 1:10.000, and 1:50.000
scales).
The Altotiberina normal fault has been studied in the last few years by using part of these data,
however, this wide data set has not yet been completely exploited and integrated and many
aspects
of
this
extensional
system
are
not
completely
understood.
The need to better understand the extensional system, to quantify the amount and the
distribution of the offset and to obtain a more detailed geometry and precise location of the
ATF is given by a project aimed at drilling the ATF at seismogenic depths which is to be
submitted next year (MOLE project) in the framework of the ICDP (International Continental
Scientific
Drilling
Program).
In order to reach the proposed goal, we used the whole existing subsurface data-set of seismic
profiles and performed field surveys aimed at improving the existing surface evidence of
extensional
deformation
across
the
ATF
footwall
area.
The surface data were integrated with the subsurface data and the resulting cross-sections
were sequentially restored using the Move(TM) package. The subsurface traces of the ATF
along the sections were interpolated with GoCad in order to produce an isochrone map of the
fault.
We present three balanced sections across the structure. The sections show the presence of
three main extensional structures, from West to East: the Corciano fault (CoF), the Altotiberina
Fault (ATF), the Gubbio fault (GuF). The combined effect of the CoF and of the ATF are

responsible for the exhumation of late Triassic rocks (Anidriti di Burano fm - Ev) at the ATF
footwall. The easternmost segment of the ATF faults borders the Tiber Valley, here infilled by
about
1
km
thick,
upper
Pliocene-Pleistocene
sediments.
The displacement along the major normal faults was sequentially restored starting from the
youngest back to the oldest. We mainly derived the timing of the deformation from the ages of
the
sediments
infilling
the
basins.
In the proposed reconstruction, the total amount of extension is between 10 km and 8 km,
whilst the cumulative displacement of the ATF alone in the order of 7.5 km. The sequential
restoration also shows: i) the kinematic interaction between the ATF and the Gubbio fault; ii)
the influence of the staircase geometry of the fault on the onset and evolution of the Tiber
basin at its hanging-wall; iii) the pre-extensional geometry of the compressional structures of
this part of the Umbrian Apennines.
Presentation mode
VOLUNTEERED ORAL

Choice of session
1st OPTION Geo03 - Structural Geology

2nd OPTION Geo10 - Solid earth geophysics