Sedimentology, stratigraphy and tectonics of evolving wedge-top depozone: Ariano Basin, southern Apennines, Italy

• Tectono-stratigraphic evolution of a Pliocene wedge-top basin is provided.
• Facies analysis of alluvial, beach, deltaic and shelf environments is provided.
• Basin sedimentation was ruled by both thin- and thick-tectonics.

The late Zanclean wedge-top Ariano Basin, located in the external sector of the southern Apennines, was initially characterized by alluvial and fan-delta environments and successively, southward of the Benevento-Buonalbergo fault, by a gradual drowning with coastal and alluvial plains evolving to shelf and marine coastal settings, respectively. Basin evolution continued with a synsedimentary uplift of different sectors resulting in variations in the drainage pattern and basin shape, and ultimately leading to complete basin closure and transition to continental depositional environments.Early Pliocene paleogeography, prior to the Ariano Basin activity, is due to regional subsidence and subsequent differential uplifts that resulted from geodynamic processes related to both the downgoing Apulian slab and the allochthonous orogenic wedge. Slab break off and the migration of a tear in the southeastward Apulian slab occurred, producing a strong subsidence in the external sectors of the southern Apennines recorded by the development of the Ariano Basin. Subsequently out-of-sequence synsedimentary thrusting, related to thin-skinned tectonics, occurred in the allochthonous units and unconformably overlying wedge-top basin deposits, producing northeastward migration of the main depocenters in the Ariano Basin. Finally renewed thrusting, related to the inversion of pre-existing normal faults located in the buried Apulian Platform and enhanced by regional uplift, affected the whole tectonic and sedimentary pile, as recorded by deformation of the overlying Pliocene deposits.