FIELD CONSTRAINTS TO THE MID-TERTIARY KINEMATICS OF THE LIGURIAN ALPS

Abstract

In the Ligurian Alps, Early Miocene folds and thrust faults involve both the metamorphic basement and its Tertiary sedimentary cover. Fold asymmetry and the Early Miocene deformations appear to be linked to the migration of the Ligurian Alps towards E-NE with the subsequent backthrusting onto the Apennine units; this stage was powered by the anticlockwise rotation of the Corsica-Sardinia block. Tough the Ligurian Alps suggest a present-day N-S to SE-NW direction of shortening, which is not consistent with the kinematics of the Early Miocene deformations. We believe that these data are only apparently conflictual, in that they could consistently reflect a progressive rotation of the direction of shortening, during a continuous geodynamic evolution from Miocene to present, connected with the still active Europe-Africa convergence.