Relationships between the Tertiary structural evolution of the Sardinia‐Corsica‐Provençal Domain and the Northern Apennines

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Abstract
Based on a revision of stratigraphic and structural data relative to the Balearic basin, the Corsica‐Sardinia massif, the Northern Tyrrhenian Sea and the Northern Apennines the following new hypothesis is proposed for the area located between the Sardinian‐Corsican‐Provençal and Northern Apennines regions: (a) convergence with subduction of oceanic crust under the Iberian plate beginning in the Late Cretaceous; (b) continental collision in the Oligocene‐Aquitanian, with development of the Northern Apennines belt and transpressive deformation in a hinterland that consisted of the Corsica‐Sardinia massif (still attached to the Iberian plate); (c) in the Burdigalian the tectonic regime changed from compressive to extensional. During this period the Corsica‐Sardinia massif migrated contemporaneously with opening of the Balearic basin, the Sardinian rift, and the Northern Tyrrhenian sea; (d) from the Burdigalian to the present, there was contemporaneous compression at the front and extension at the back of the Northern Apennines chain; both these features progressively migrated toward the east. The coeval extension and compression is attributed to lithospheric delamination toward the external part of the belt.