Extensional tectonics during the Tyrrhenian back-arc basin formation synthetized in a new morpho-tectonic map

A new tectonic map is presented focused upon the extensional style accompanying the formationof the Tyrrhenian back-arc basin. Our basin-wide analysis synthetizes the interpretation of vintagemultichannel and single channel seismic profiles integrated with modern seismic images and P-wave velocity models, and with a new morpho-tectonic map of the Tyrrhenian (Palmiotto & Loreto,2019). Four distinct evolutionary opening stages have been constrained: 1) the initialLanghian(?)/Serravallian opening phase actives offshore central/southern Sardinia and offshorewestern Calabria; 2) the Tortonian/Messinian phase dominated by extension offshore NorthSardinia-Corsica, and by oceanic accretion in the Cornaglia and Campania Terraces; 3) the Pliocenephase, dominated by mantle exhumation which was active mainly in the central Tyrrhenian andled to the full opening of Vavilov Basin; and 4) the Quaternary phase characterized by the openingof the Marsili back-arc basin. Listric and planar normal faults and their conjugates bound a seriesof horst and graben, half-graben and triangular basins. Distribution of extensional faults, activesince Middle Miocene, throughout the basin allowed us to define a faults arrangement in thenorthern / central Tyrrhenian mainly related to in a pure shear which evolved a simple shearopening of continental margins. At depth, faults accommodate over a Ductile-Brittle Transitionalzone cut by a low-angle detachment fault possibly responsible for mantle exhumation in theVavilov and Magnaghi abyssal plains. In the southern Tyrrhenian, normal, inverse and transcurrentfaults appear to be related to a large shear zone located along the continental margin of thenorthern Sicily. Extensional style variationthroughout the back-arc basin combined with wide-angle seismic velocity models, from Prada et al. (2014; 2015), allow to explore the relationshipbetween shallow deformation, represented by faults distribution throughout the basin, and crustal-scale processes, subduction of Ionian slab and exhumation.