Anatomy of a km-scale fault zone controlling the Oligo-Miocene bending of the Ligurian Alps (NW Italy): integration of field and 3D high-resolution digital outcrop model data

Abstract We report the first description of a ~ 15 km long NE-SW-striking transtensive fault network crosscutting the metamorphic units of the Ligurian Alps. The main fault zone, hereby named Horse Head Fault Zone , is up to 250 m thick, involves quarzite, metarhyolite, marble and alternation of dolostone and limestone and minor pelite. Relatively narrow (~ 1–3 m-thick) fault cores are characterized by gouge and cataclasites, surrounded by brecciated damage zones as thick as tens to hundreds of meters. Damage zones show widespread evidence for dilation in the form of dilation breccia, large calcite crystals and aggregates, and centimeter- to meter-thick veins. Moreover, the fault zone contains a multitude of polished slip surfaces with multiple sets of slickensides and slickenfibers. Oblique to strike-slip kinematics dominates over the large part of the fault mirrors and both overprint and are overprinted by down-dip slip surfaces. The fault network includes dominant NE-SW right-lateral faults with a minor normal component and NW–SE left-lateral steep faults with a negligible reverse component, consistent with a km-size dextral NE-SW-striking Riedel shear zone, in turn representing an antithetic R’ of the regional sinistral shear zone constituted by the Ligurian Alps after the nappe stacking. The Horse Head Fault Zone accommodated km-scale displacement before the Early Miocene, as it is sealed by the sedimentary deposits of the Finale Ligure Basin, thus predating the Corsica-Sardinia drifting. Results of this work constraint the bending of the Ligurian Alps as part of the Western Alpine arc as accomplished through two consecutive, late Oligocene and Early Miocene, stages driven by the combination of Adria rotation and the rollback of the Apennine subduction.