Deformation along the leading edge of the Maiella thrust sheet in central Italy

The eastern forelimb of the Maiella anticline above the le Wing edge of the underlying thrust displays a complex system of fractures faults and a series of kink bands in the Cretaceous platform carbonates The kink bands have steep limbs display top-to-the-east shear parallel to the overall transport direction and are brecciated and faulted A system of pervasive normal faults trending sub-parallel to the strike of the mechanical layers accommodates local extension generated by flexural slip Two sets of strike-slip faults exist one is left-lateral at a high angle to the main Maiella thrust the other is right-lateral intersecting the first set at an acute angle The normal and strike-slip faults were formed by shearing across bed-parallel strike- and dip-parallel pressure solution seams and associated splays the thrust faults follow the tilted mechanical layers along the steeper limb of the kink bands The three pervasive mutually-orthogonal pressure solution seams are pre-tilting One set of low-angle normal faults the oldest set in the area is also pre-tilting All other fault/fold structures appear to show signs of overlapping periods of activity accounting for the complex tri-shear-like deformation that developed as the front evolved during the Oligocene-Pliocene Apennine orogeny (C) 2008 Published by Elsevier Ltd