Structural features of the Sicilian Orogen as a tool for a planning of petroleum exploration

In southern Apennines and Sicily the Foreland is composed of the currently undeformed continental areas of the Adria microplate, consisting of the Apulian Block, which is separated from the Pelagian Block, belonging to the Africa Plate, by the oceanic crust of the Ionian Basin. In south-eastern Sicily the Hyblean Plateau represents an uplifted element of the foreland, separated from the flexured areas on its north-western margin by normal faults, which delimit the Gela-Catania Foredeep, occupied by allochthonous units of the frontal wedge of the chain, the Gela Nappe. Northwestwards Hyblean carbonates extend beneath the unrooted tectonic units of the roof thrust system of the Apenninic-Maghrebian Chain. Deformed carbonate bodies, connected to the successions of the Hyblean Plateau, have been detected by seismic profiles below the allochthon of the orogenic belt. There the innermost margins of the Pelagian Block are affected by the deep seated Pelagian-Sicilian Thrust Belt. As well as in the southern Apennines, where oil fields have been discovered, such a carbonate thrust system can represent potential oil traps. A collisional stage has been recognized along the Tyrrhenian coast of Sicily. The Vulcano line separates the contemporaneous active subduction processes below the Calabrian Arc. The NW-SE oriented South Tyrrhenian System drives the transfer of the orogenic belt towards the Arc, characterized by the still subducting Ionian oceanic crust. Geological mapping, integrated with stratigraphic and structural analysis, widely carried out in Sicily show that this region is dominated by a strike-slip tectonics, connected with the Tyrrhenian orogenic phase (Late Miocene up to Recent). Right lateral faults, antithetical NE-SW system, associated with N-S normal faults and south-verging thrusts, occur. All these structures are compatible with an unique kinematic setting, but they are the surface expression of main crustal tear faults. Geological analysis, integrated with geophysical and subsurface data give informations about the deep structures, concerning fields discovery prospects.