deformation mechanisms | Ricerc@Sapienza

Development of an intrawedge tectonic mélange by out-of-sequence thrusting, buttressing, and intraformational rheological contrast, Mt. Massico Ridge, Apennines, Italy

The Mt. Massico ridge (central southern Apennines, Italy) is characterized by a similar to 150-m-thick tectonic melange located at the base of a Tortonian-lower Messinian heterogeneous clastic succession consisting of layered sandstones, limestones, marls, and claystones with intercalated mass wasting deposits and isolated olistoliths, which deposited above Meso-Cenozoic limestones.

Architecture and evolution of an extensionally-inverted thrust (Mt. Tancia Thrust, Central Apennines). Geological, structural, geochemical, and K–Ar geochronological constraints

Fault inversion may lead to significant obliteration of earlier tectonic structures, thus preventing the straightforward interpretation of the complete kinematics and deformation history of faults. We adopt a multidisciplinary approach to: (1) reconstruct the tectonic evolution through space and in time of the extensionally-inverted Mt.

Microstructural evidence for seismic and aseismic slip along clay-bearing, carbonate faults

In this multimethodological study, microstructural observations of fault rocks are combined with
micromechanical property analyses (contact resonance atomic force microscopy (CR-AFM)) and with rotary
friction experiments (Slow- to High-Velocity rotary-shear friction Apparatus apparatus) to find evidence of
seismic to aseismic slip and understand the nanoscale rheology of clay-bearing, carbonate-hosted faults.
Fluidized structures, truncated clasts, pores and vesicles, and phyllosilicate nanosized spherules and tubes