Through paleomagnetic investigation techniques, INGV researchers have reconstructed the original position of the Calabrian microplate, once joined to Provence and Catalonia
By analyzing rock samples from the Sila mountain massif in Calabria, paleomagnetic investigations have allowed us to confirm that the Calabrian "microplate" was united to the current regions of Provence (France) and Catalonia (Spain) up to 30 million years ago.
This is the result of the study “First Pre-Miocene Paleomagnetic Data From the Calabrian Block Document to 160° Post-Late Jurassic CCW Rotation as a Consequence of Left-Lateral Shear Along Alpine Tethys” conducted by a team of researchers from the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) and recently published in the journal 'Tectonics' of the AGU.
The so-called 'Calabrian block' constitutes a microplate, i.e. a crustal block that includes all of Calabria south of the Pollino National Park, whose geological history appears to be independent from that of the Apennine chain to which it belongs today.
The rocks that make up the Calabro block, in fact, are very different from those of the adjacent Apennine and Maghrebi chains (located in Sicily). While the latter were deposited on the edge of the African continent and then deformed to form the backbone of today's Italian mountain ranges, the origin of the rocks of the Calabro block has long remained debated.
"Our study has allowed us to analyze with paleomagnetic techniques a thin layer of sedimentary rocks dating back to 208-125 million years ago, i.e. at the time when the supercontinent Pangea began to break up", explains Fabio Speranza, Director of the Roma2 Section of INGV and co-author of the article. “These rocks, taken from the Sila mountain massif, have a significant content of magnetic minerals which allowed us to obtain the first Mesozoic paleomagnetic data of Calabria”.
The results obtained highlighted several rotation events of the Calabrian microplate compatible with the geological history of the southern margin of the European continent, i.e. with Provence and Catalonia (Fig. 1).
“The Calabro block shows that it has undergone an extremely large counterclockwise rotation, equal to about 160°”, continues Gaia Siravo, research fellow at INGV and co-author of the study. “Previous studies had shown that the Sardo-Corsa microplate underwent about 90° counterclockwise rotation in a period between 30 and 15 million years ago, following the opening of the Ligurian-Provençal sea (located between the current Provençal coast and the Sardinian-Corsican block). It is therefore very probable that 90° of Calabria's counterclockwise rotation occurred precisely together with the Sardinian-Corso blockade and in the same period of time. Subsequently, starting from 10 million years ago, Calabria also detached from Sardinia-Corsica and was grafted into the Apennine-Maghrebide mountainous building, giving rise to the opening of the Tyrrhenian Sea behind it".
"These new paleomagnetic data prove that up to 30 million years ago Calabria and Sardinia-Corsica were located next to the Provençal-Catalan coast and, therefore, the origin of the Calabro block can be traced back to the southern portion of the European continent", concludes Speranza. "It is, therefore, a further confirmation that dispels the uncertainties found up to now in the attribution of the igneous rocks of the Sila, Serre and Aspromonte mountains in Calabria different, as we have seen, from the sedimentary ones of the Apennines and of the Maghrebids, of African pertinence".
The recently published study has made it possible to reconstruct another important piece in the 'puzzle' of microplates that formed during the collision between Africa and Europe starting 80 million years ago. The margins of these colliding continents were very irregular and this led, in the Mediterranean area, to the formation of a very complex system of microplates and mountain ranges, which in Italy still generates seismicity today and which we have not yet fully understood.
The future goal, which still requires years of study, is to 'complete the picture' to understand the origin and evolution of those crustal blocks whose genesis and evolution are still enigmatic: among these, the Peloritani Mountains in Sicily northeast, the Kabylie blocks in Algeria and the Alboran domain between Spain and Morocco.
Link to the article
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CALABRIA | Its original position alongside Spain and France reconstructed
Through paleomagnetic investigations, INGV researchers have reconstructed the original position of the Calabrian microplate, once joined to Provence and Catalonia
By analyzing rock samples from the Sila mountain range in Calabria, paleomagnetic investigations have allowed to confirm that the Calabrian “microplate” up to 30 million years ago was joined with the current regions of Provence (France) and Catalonia (Spain).
This is the result of the study “First Pre-Miocene Paleomagnetic Data From the Calabrian Block Document at 160° Post-Late Jurassic CCW Rotation as a Consequence of Left-Lateral Shear Along Alpine Tethys”, conducted by a team of researchers from the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) and recently published in the AGU 'Tectonics' journal.
The so-called 'Calabrian block' constitutes a microplate, or a crustal block that includes the whole region south of the Pollino National Park, whose geological history is independent from that of the Apennine chain to which it belongs today.
The rocks that constitute the Calabrian block, in fact, are very different from those of the adjacent Apennine and Maghrebide chains (located in Sicily). While the latter settled on the margin of the African continent and were then deformed to form the 'backbone' of today's Italian mountain ranges, the origin of the rocks from the Calabrian block has been debated for a long time.
“Our study allowed us to analyze with paleomagnetic techniques a thin layer of sedimentary rocks dating back to 208-125 million years ago, that is at the time when the supercontinent Pangea began to break-up”, explains Fabio Speranza, Director of the Roma2 Section of the INGV and co-author of the article. “These rocks, sampled in the Sila Massif, have a significant content of magnetic minerals which allowed us to obtain the first Mesozoic paleomagnetic data of Calabria”.
The results obtained highlighted rotation events of the Calabrian microplate compatible with the geological history of the southern margin of the European continent, ie with Provence and Catalonia (Fig. 1).
“The data shows that the Calabrian block has undergone an extremely large counter-clockwise rotation, equal to about 160°”, continues Gaia Siravo, research fellow of the INGV and co-author of the study. “Previous studies had shown that the Corsica-Sardinia microplate underwent about 90° of counterclockwise rotation in a period between 30 and 15 million years ago, during the opening of the Ligurio-Provençal sea (located between the current Provençal coast and the Corsica-Sardinia blocks). It is therefore very likely that 90° of counter-clockwise rotation of Calabria occurred precisely together with the Corsica-Sardinia block and in the same period of time. Subsequently, from 10 million years ago, Calabria also broke away from Corsica-Sardinia and collided with the Apennine-Maghrebide mountain ranges, giving rise to the opening of the Tyrrhenian Sea behind it”.
“These new paleomagnetic data proves that up to 30 million years ago Calabria and Corsica-Sardinia were located next to the Provençal-Catalan coast and, therefore, the origin of the Calabrian block is to be traced back to the southern portion of the European continent ”, Speranza concludes. “This is, therefore, a further confirmation that dispels the uncertainties found so far in the attribution of the igneous rocks of the Sila, Serre and Aspromonte mountains in Calabria, different - as we have seen - from the sedimentary ones of the Apennines and of the Maghrebides, of African attribution”.
The recently published study made it possible to reconstruct another important piece in the 'puzzle' of microplates that formed during the collision between Africa and Europe starting 80 million years ago. The edges of these colliding continents were very irregular and this led, in the Mediterranean area, to the formation of a very complex system of microplates and mountain ranges, which in Italy still generates seismicity and which we have not yet fully understood.
The future goal, which still requires years of study, is to 'complete the picture' to understand the origin and evolution of those crustal blocks whose genesis and evolution are still enigmatic: among these, the Peloritani Mountains in northeastern Sicily, the Kabylie blocks in Algeria and the domain of Alboran between Spain and Morocco.
Link to the article
By analyzing rock samples from the Sila mountain massif in Calabria, paleomagnetic investigations have allowed us to confirm that the Calabrian "microplate" was united to the current regions of Provence (France) and Catalonia (Spain) up to 30 million years ago.
This is the result of the study “First Pre-Miocene Paleomagnetic Data From the Calabrian Block Document to 160° Post-Late Jurassic CCW Rotation as a Consequence of Left-Lateral Shear Along Alpine Tethys” conducted by a team of researchers from the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) and recently published in the journal 'Tectonics' of the AGU.
The so-called 'Calabrian block' constitutes a microplate, i.e. a crustal block that includes all of Calabria south of the Pollino National Park, whose geological history appears to be independent from that of the Apennine chain to which it belongs today.
The rocks that make up the Calabro block, in fact, are very different from those of the adjacent Apennine and Maghrebi chains (located in Sicily). While the latter were deposited on the edge of the African continent and then deformed to form the backbone of today's Italian mountain ranges, the origin of the rocks of the Calabro block has long remained debated.
"Our study has allowed us to analyze with paleomagnetic techniques a thin layer of sedimentary rocks dating back to 208-125 million years ago, i.e. at the time when the supercontinent Pangea began to break up", explains Fabio Speranza, Director of the Roma2 Section of INGV and co-author of the article. “These rocks, taken from the Sila mountain massif, have a significant content of magnetic minerals which allowed us to obtain the first Mesozoic paleomagnetic data of Calabria”.
The results obtained highlighted several rotation events of the Calabrian microplate compatible with the geological history of the southern margin of the European continent, i.e. with Provence and Catalonia (Fig. 1).
“The Calabro block shows that it has undergone an extremely large counterclockwise rotation, equal to about 160°”, continues Gaia Siravo, research fellow at INGV and co-author of the study. “Previous studies had shown that the Sardo-Corsa microplate underwent about 90° counterclockwise rotation in a period between 30 and 15 million years ago, following the opening of the Ligurian-Provençal sea (located between the current Provençal coast and the Sardinian-Corsican block). It is therefore very probable that 90° of Calabria's counterclockwise rotation occurred precisely together with the Sardinian-Corso blockade and in the same period of time. Subsequently, starting from 10 million years ago, Calabria also detached from Sardinia-Corsica and was grafted into the Apennine-Maghrebide mountainous building, giving rise to the opening of the Tyrrhenian Sea behind it".
"These new paleomagnetic data prove that up to 30 million years ago Calabria and Sardinia-Corsica were located next to the Provençal-Catalan coast and, therefore, the origin of the Calabro block can be traced back to the southern portion of the European continent", concludes Speranza. "It is, therefore, a further confirmation that dispels the uncertainties found up to now in the attribution of the igneous rocks of the Sila, Serre and Aspromonte mountains in Calabria different, as we have seen, from the sedimentary ones of the Apennines and of the Maghrebids, of African pertinence".
The recently published study has made it possible to reconstruct another important piece in the 'puzzle' of microplates that formed during the collision between Africa and Europe starting 80 million years ago. The margins of these colliding continents were very irregular and this led, in the Mediterranean area, to the formation of a very complex system of microplates and mountain ranges, which in Italy still generates seismicity today and which we have not yet fully understood.
The future goal, which still requires years of study, is to 'complete the picture' to understand the origin and evolution of those crustal blocks whose genesis and evolution are still enigmatic: among these, the Peloritani Mountains in Sicily northeast, the Kabylie blocks in Algeria and the Alboran domain between Spain and Morocco.
Link to the article
---
CALABRIA | Its original position alongside Spain and France reconstructed
Through paleomagnetic investigations, INGV researchers have reconstructed the original position of the Calabrian microplate, once joined to Provence and Catalonia
By analyzing rock samples from the Sila mountain range in Calabria, paleomagnetic investigations have allowed to confirm that the Calabrian “microplate” up to 30 million years ago was joined with the current regions of Provence (France) and Catalonia (Spain).
This is the result of the study “First Pre-Miocene Paleomagnetic Data From the Calabrian Block Document at 160° Post-Late Jurassic CCW Rotation as a Consequence of Left-Lateral Shear Along Alpine Tethys”, conducted by a team of researchers from the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) and recently published in the AGU 'Tectonics' journal.
The so-called 'Calabrian block' constitutes a microplate, or a crustal block that includes the whole region south of the Pollino National Park, whose geological history is independent from that of the Apennine chain to which it belongs today.
The rocks that constitute the Calabrian block, in fact, are very different from those of the adjacent Apennine and Maghrebide chains (located in Sicily). While the latter settled on the margin of the African continent and were then deformed to form the 'backbone' of today's Italian mountain ranges, the origin of the rocks from the Calabrian block has been debated for a long time.
“Our study allowed us to analyze with paleomagnetic techniques a thin layer of sedimentary rocks dating back to 208-125 million years ago, that is at the time when the supercontinent Pangea began to break-up”, explains Fabio Speranza, Director of the Roma2 Section of the INGV and co-author of the article. “These rocks, sampled in the Sila Massif, have a significant content of magnetic minerals which allowed us to obtain the first Mesozoic paleomagnetic data of Calabria”.
The results obtained highlighted rotation events of the Calabrian microplate compatible with the geological history of the southern margin of the European continent, ie with Provence and Catalonia (Fig. 1).
“The data shows that the Calabrian block has undergone an extremely large counter-clockwise rotation, equal to about 160°”, continues Gaia Siravo, research fellow of the INGV and co-author of the study. “Previous studies had shown that the Corsica-Sardinia microplate underwent about 90° of counterclockwise rotation in a period between 30 and 15 million years ago, during the opening of the Ligurio-Provençal sea (located between the current Provençal coast and the Corsica-Sardinia blocks). It is therefore very likely that 90° of counter-clockwise rotation of Calabria occurred precisely together with the Corsica-Sardinia block and in the same period of time. Subsequently, from 10 million years ago, Calabria also broke away from Corsica-Sardinia and collided with the Apennine-Maghrebide mountain ranges, giving rise to the opening of the Tyrrhenian Sea behind it”.
“These new paleomagnetic data proves that up to 30 million years ago Calabria and Corsica-Sardinia were located next to the Provençal-Catalan coast and, therefore, the origin of the Calabrian block is to be traced back to the southern portion of the European continent ”, Speranza concludes. “This is, therefore, a further confirmation that dispels the uncertainties found so far in the attribution of the igneous rocks of the Sila, Serre and Aspromonte mountains in Calabria, different - as we have seen - from the sedimentary ones of the Apennines and of the Maghrebides, of African attribution”.
The recently published study made it possible to reconstruct another important piece in the 'puzzle' of microplates that formed during the collision between Africa and Europe starting 80 million years ago. The edges of these colliding continents were very irregular and this led, in the Mediterranean area, to the formation of a very complex system of microplates and mountain ranges, which in Italy still generates seismicity and which we have not yet fully understood.
The future goal, which still requires years of study, is to 'complete the picture' to understand the origin and evolution of those crustal blocks whose genesis and evolution are still enigmatic: among these, the Peloritani Mountains in northeastern Sicily, the Kabylie blocks in Algeria and the domain of Alboran between Spain and Morocco.
Link to the article
Figure: Palaeogeographic reconstruction of the position of the Calabro block about 130 million years ago. SA: Sardinia; CO: Corsica; AL: Alboran; KA: Kabyli blocks; Pe: Peloritani - Figures: Paleogeographic reconstruction of the Calabrian block about 130 million years ago. SA: Sardinia; CO: Corsica; AL: Alboran; KA: Kabylian blocks; Pe: Peloritan
