Evidences of synsedimentary tectonic activity in the Meso-Cenozoic apulian platform carbonates, southern Italy

Meso-Cenozoic platform carbonates, that stratigraphically overlie Triassic evaporates and late Paleozoic siliciclastic units, largely outcrop in the Murge Plateau and Gargano promontory, which represent two different foreland domains of the Apenninic orogenic belt in southern Italy.In the Murge Plateau stratigraphic succession performs inner platform carbonates, whereas in the Gargano Promontory a lateral transition from platform to slope and basin facies outcrops. Both in Gargano and Murge areas there were documented NW-SE striking normal faults and WNW-ESE, NNW-SSE strike-slip faults, right-lateral and left-lateral respectively, crosscutting Late Cretaceous shallow water and basin carbonates. These faults show some evidences of synsedimentary character, such as neptunian dykes, consisting of large clasts of breccia, clay material and calcite, and the variation of bed thickness in the hanging wall and footwall. Moreover, karst features often are present within the fault damage zones affecting shallow water carbonates in the Murge Plateau. The observed fault patterns and their overall kinematics allowed us to reconstruct, in both areas, the geometry of the stress field responsible for synsedimentary faults development.