The Cenozoic fold-and-thrust belt of Eastern Sardinia: Evidences from the integration of field data with numerically balanced geological cross section

Newly collected structural data in Eastern Sardinia (Italy) integrated with numerical techniques led to the reconstruction of a 2-D admissible and balanced model revealing the presence of a widespread Cenozoic fold-and-thrust belt. The model was achieved with the FORC software, obtaining a 3-D (2-D + time) numerical reconstruction of the continuous evolution of the structure through time. The Mesozoic carbonate units of Eastern Sardinia and their basement present a fold-and-thrust tectonic setting, with a westward direction of tectonic transport (referred to the present-day coordinates). The tectonic style of the upper levels is thin skinned, with flat sectors prevailing over ramps and younger-on-older thrusts. Three regional tectonic units are present, bounded by two regional thrusts. Strike-slip faults overprint the fold-and-thrust belt and developed during the Sardinia-Corsica Block rotation along the strike of the preexisting fault ramps, not affecting the numerical section balancing. This fold-and-thrust belt represents the southward prosecution of the Alpine Corsica collisional chain and the missing link between the Alpine Chain and the Calabria-Peloritani Block. Relative ages relate its evolution to the meso-Alpine event (Eocene-Oligocene times), prior to the opening of the Tyrrhenian Sea (Tortonian). Results fill a gap of information about the geodynamic evolution of the European margin in Central Mediterranean, between Corsica and the Calabria-Peloritani Block, and imply the presence of remnants of this double-verging belt, missing in the Southern Tyrrhenian basin, within the Southern Apennine chain. The used methodology proved effective for constraining balanced cross sections also for areas lacking exposures of the large-scale structures, as the case of Eastern Sardinia.