Basin analysis in the Southern Tethyan margin: Facies sequences, stratal pattern and subsidence history highlight extension-to-inversion processes in the Cretaceous Panormide carbonate platform (NW Sicily)

In the Mediterranean, the South-Tethys paleomargin experienced polyphased tectonic episodes and
paleoenvironmental perturbations during Mesozoic time. The Cretaceous shallow-water carbonate successions
of the Panormide platform, outcropping in the northern edge of the Palermo Mountains (NW Sicily), were
studied by integrating facies and stratal patternwith backstripping analysis to recognize the tectonics vs. carbonate
sedimentation interaction.
The features of the Requienid limestone, including geometric configuration, facies sequence, lithological changes
and significance of the top-unconformity, highlight that at the end of the Lower Cretaceous the carbonate platform
was tectonically dismembered in various rotating fault-blocks. The variable trends of the subsidence curves testify
to different responses, both uplift and downthrow, of various platform-blocks impacted by extensional tectonics.
Physical stratigraphic and facies analysis of the Rudistid limestone highlight that during the Upper Cretaceous the
previously carbonate platform faulted-blocks were subjected to vertical movements in the direction opposite to
the displacement produced by the extensional tectonics, indicating a positive tectonic inversion.
Comparisons with other sectors of the Southern Tethyan and Adria paleomargins indicate that during the
Cretaceous these areas underwent the same extensional and compressional stages occurring in the Panormide carbonate platform, suggesting a regional scale significance, in time and kinematics, for these tectonic events.