The Bradanic Foredeep (Southern Italy) is a tectonic trough filled from late Pliocene with a huge regressive soil sedimentation. Starting from Pleistocene age, the entire region underwent a distensive tectonics towards West whose effects can be seen through the morphologies of both the Mesozoic carbonate basement and of the above more recent fillings. Particularly, NW - SE lineations border flat surfaces at the edge of big soil masses, tilted along direct faults. The loss of continuity of the prevailing clay masses produces other significant processes concerning underground fluids flow and several mud volcanoes. The process has been verified and confirmed also from some deep underground works (long tunnels in the region). Availability of geomatic tools, like high resolution DEMs of the ground surface and the top of the Mesozoic basement allows us to retrieve through simple rules the kinematics of the faulting of the quaternary filling, i.e. the horizontal and vertical displacement around the fault tracks and the rotation of the old flat terraced surfaces. Fault shear surfaces develop tracks parallel to the direction of the buried basement, and this is a relevant correlation to analyze to evaluate causes and type of the local tectonics. This study should be relevant for a new reading of the regional geodynamic, since previously those landforms were interpreted as an effect of local erosional processes, without links to the shape and the tectonic of the basement. The 3D-representation of the detached masses helps to identify the true causes of the direct faulting, which could be not always linked to tectonics, not currently active in these regions. The feasibility of using space-borne multi-temporal SAR interferometry to support this displacement analysis has been investigated. The interest of this methodology is in the extended time and space span of the existing data, covering over 15 years, and the capability of detect sub-millimetric displacements.
Kinematics of direct faulting in the Bradanic Foredeep (Southern Italy) retrieved trough geomatic tools and faulting activity investigated by space-borne multi-temporal SAR interferometry
Spilotro Giuseppe;Argentiero Ilenia;Bovenga Fabio;
2022
Abstract
The Bradanic Foredeep (Southern Italy) is a tectonic trough filled from late Pliocene with a huge regressive soil sedimentation. Starting from Pleistocene age, the entire region underwent a distensive tectonics towards West whose effects can be seen through the morphologies of both the Mesozoic carbonate basement and of the above more recent fillings. Particularly, NW - SE lineations border flat surfaces at the edge of big soil masses, tilted along direct faults. The loss of continuity of the prevailing clay masses produces other significant processes concerning underground fluids flow and several mud volcanoes. The process has been verified and confirmed also from some deep underground works (long tunnels in the region). Availability of geomatic tools, like high resolution DEMs of the ground surface and the top of the Mesozoic basement allows us to retrieve through simple rules the kinematics of the faulting of the quaternary filling, i.e. the horizontal and vertical displacement around the fault tracks and the rotation of the old flat terraced surfaces. Fault shear surfaces develop tracks parallel to the direction of the buried basement, and this is a relevant correlation to analyze to evaluate causes and type of the local tectonics. This study should be relevant for a new reading of the regional geodynamic, since previously those landforms were interpreted as an effect of local erosional processes, without links to the shape and the tectonic of the basement. The 3D-representation of the detached masses helps to identify the true causes of the direct faulting, which could be not always linked to tectonics, not currently active in these regions. The feasibility of using space-borne multi-temporal SAR interferometry to support this displacement analysis has been investigated. The interest of this methodology is in the extended time and space span of the existing data, covering over 15 years, and the capability of detect sub-millimetric displacements.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
