Morelli, C.

The recent advances in experimental petrography together with the information derived from the super-deep drilling projects have provided additional constraints for the interpretation of refraction and reflection seismic data. These constraints can also be used in the interpretation of magnetic and gravity data to resolve nonuniqueness. In this study, we re-interpret the magnetic and gravity data of the Italian peninsula and neighbouring areas. In view of the constraints mentioned above, it is now possible to find an agreement between the seismic and gravity models of the Central Alps. By taking into account the overall crustal thickness, we have recognized the existence of three types of Moho: 1) European which extends to the north and west of the peninsula and in the Corsican-Sardinian block. Its margin was the foreland in the Alpine Orogeny and it was the ramp on which European and Adriatic mantle and crustal slices were overthrusted. This additional load caused bending and deepening and the Moho which now lies beneath the Adriatic plate reaching a maximum depth of approximately 75 km. 2) Adriatic (or African) which lies beneath the Po plain, the Apennines and the Adriatic Sea. The average depth of the Moho is about 30-35 km below the Po plain and the Adriatic Sea and it increases toward the Alps and the Tyrrhenian Sea (acting as foreland along this margin). The maximum depth (50 km) is reached in Calabria. 3) Pery-Tyrrhenian. This is an oceanic or thinned continental crust type of Moho. It borders the oceanic Moho of the Tyrrhenian Sea and it acquires a transitional character in the Ligurian and Provençal basins (<15 km thickness) while further thickening occurs toward the East where the Adriatic plate is overthrusted. In addition, the interpretation of the heat flow data appears to confirm the origin of this Moho and its geodynamic allocation.

Results from extended DSS profiles (1956-1986) in Italy and surrounding land and sea areas offer good constraints for other geophysical and geological data. Integrated interpretations outline the main tectonic features. Collisional tectonics is predominant in the Alps, for which the Adriatic plate acted as hinterland against the European plate foreland. Main results: W-wards, NW- and N-wards oriented overthrusting on the European crust, bending of the lower European crust, European Moho to 70 km depth with the Adriatic mantle indented above, crustal doubling (Adriatic over the European one). In the Apennines, on the contrary, the Adriatic plate acted as a foreland, against the overthrusts generated by the Tuscanian and Tyrrhenian mantellic bodies, heated, elevated and migrated NE-wards and SE-wards, respectively. Also the Adriatic plate bends under this load-centripetally towards the Tyrrhenian sea, so that the Adriatic Moho from 35 km depth is presumed to descend through a flexure till 40-50 km below the Tuscanian and Tyrrhenian land areas. The external peri-Apenninic area is still in compression and includes thick sedimentary basins, from the Po-plain to Sicily. The internal area is in extension, overlapped by thin, stretched crusts of Ligurian and Tyrrhenian origin, whose remnants occupy most of both seas areas, with two areas of oceanic crust in the SE-Tyrrhenian. Rifting and opening is in action also in the Ligurian Sea and Sicily Strait.