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Title 1
Positive inversion tectonics in foreland fold-and-thrust belts: a reappraisal of the 2
Umbria-Marche Northern Apennines (Central Italy) by integrating geological and 3
geophysical data 4
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Authors 6
Vittorio Scisciani
a
, Simone Agostini
a
, Fernando Calamita
a
, Paolo Pace
a
, Andrea Cilli
b
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Italiano Giori
b
, Werter Paltrinieri
a
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Abstract 10
Unravelling the tectonic style in the outer zones of fold-and-thrust belts is generally 11
problematic because the basement-cover relationships are often hidden in the subsurface. This 12
is also the case of the Northern Apennines of Italy and this study aims to reconstruct the deep 13
anatomy this foreland thrust belt by integrating surface structural-geological data and 14
subsurface seismic reflection profile and well data, corroborated by a gravity-magnetic 15
modelling. 16
The morphology of the Northern Apennines is characterized by a remarkable mountain ridge, 17
the Umbria-Marche Apennine ridge (UMAR) that corresponds to a prominent area of 18
structural and topographic elevation, in which the uplifted Meso-Cenozoic carbonate 19
succession is involved in the Neogene compressive structures and crops out within the wide 20
exposures of Neogene foredeep deposits. Several efforts have been devoted to unravel the 21
hidden structural setting of the UMAR since the basement-cover relationships are poorly 22
constrained and both thin- and thick-skinned tectonic styles have been proposed. The 23
interpretation of subsurface data allowed recognising a thick pre-Jurassic sedimentary 24
sequence filling a symmetric fault-bounded late Paleozoic(?)-Triassic extensional basin, lying 25
directly below the UMAR. This deep-rooted basin has been inverted during the Neogene 26
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compression and thrust-fold development of the highly elevated UMAR. The reconstructed 27
crustal tectonic setting is consistent with both the modest amounts of shortening and the 28
remarkable structural elevation of the UMAR. 29
The outcomes of this study reveal that prominent mountain ridges occurring in foreland thrust 30
belts may be related to the deep-rooted basement-involved positive inversion of pre-existing 31
extensional basins. This is most is most likely to be expected in thrust belt that experienced a 32
structural inheritance of extensional faults and related basins. This study also reveal that 33
geological and geophysical data can be successfully integrated for unravelling the deep 34
structural setting of foreland thrust belts in which the basement-cover relations are unclear. 35
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Keywords 38
Foreland fold-and-thrust belt, Inversion tectonics, Late Paleozoic-Triassic basins, Seismic 39
reflection profiles, Gravity-magnetic modelling, Northern Apennines 40
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