ELEMENTI NEOTETTONICI DELLA CONCA DI SULMONA

Abstract

The Sulmona basin, elongated NNW-SSE, is the eastern­most of the great intramontane tectonic depressions in Cen­tra! Apennines. It is surrounded by shelf, transitional and bacinal limestone bodies thrusted mainly toward NE during the early Pliocene. Since then, this basin developed as a half­graben bounded on the NE edge by a normal fault system dipping SW (Marrone Fault System). During the early-middle Pleistocene the Sulmona basin hosted a fluvio- lacustrine depositi on. In the northern sector (Vittorito-Popoli-Raiano) thin volcanic ash layers are interbedded in the lacustrine muds, preliminary dated about 440000-670000 y. B.P., whose ori­gin is still uncertain. At least two sedimentary cycles can be discerned, probably separated by a period of increased tec­tonic activity. [...]