Structural styles and regional tectonic setting of the "Gela Nappe" and frontal part of the Maghrebian thrust belt in Sicily

• Published in: Tectonics (Washington, D.C.) D.C.), 1999-08, Vol.18 (4), p.655-668
• Main Authors: Lickorish, W. Henry, Grasso, Mario, Butler, Robert W. H., Argnani, Andrea, Maniscalco, Rosanna
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0278-7407; 1944-9194
• DOI: 10.1029/1999TC900013

The Gela Nappe of south central Sicily provides an example of a curved segment of an orogenic front that can be examined both onshore and offshore for deformational style and amount of shortening. Synorogenic sediments allow the deformation to be dated. Two distinct structural styles are observed in the Gela Nappe: The central salient part of the nappe (Caltanissetta basin) consists of a single thrust sheet containing a train of continuously tightening folds and the reentrant margins of the nappe (Sciacca and Monte Judica) consist of a stack of several thrust sheets. These different structural styles correspond to the pretectonic Mesozoic stratigraphy of the foreland plate. Carbonate platforms exist on the Adventure bank and Hyblean Plateau ahead of Sciacca and Monte Judica, respectively, while the Caltanissetta basin region appears to have accumulated basinal clay facies. Where the resistant carbonate stratigraphy provides a buttress to the propagation of the thrust front, deformation is taken up by imbrication on‐steep ramps through the carbonates generating a relatively thick orogenic wedge. In the basinal setting, where no strong rheology exists, the low angle of friction on the clay detachment levels requires the growing thrust wedge to be much thinner with a very low foreland dip. Hence the thrust front propagates much farther forward into the basin than it does in the adjacent platformal areas, producing a nonlinear thrust front. In the basinal region, accretion of foreland material to the nappe by imbrication was only prominent during the Messinian when subaerial exposure prevented low‐friction transport of the nappe across the highest levels of the stratigraphy. A steady thickening of the nappe by internal folding suggests an increase in friction along the basal detachment, possibly due to progressive compaction of the clays.