Carta Geologica dell'area pedemontana orientale della Majella (bacini dei Fiumi Aventino e Foro) scala 1:25.000

This map was realized as part of the ISPRA - Abruzzo Region agreement aimed at the prevention and mitigation of seismic hazard. The map depicts an area of the outermost sector of the central Apennines to the east of the Majella carbonate massif, in the catchment areas of the Aventino and Foro rivers, where prevalent terrigenous deposits and the allochthonous Molise succession, as well as Quaternary marine and continental deposits crop out. In this sector several tectono-stratigraphic units have been recognized, consisting of the platform succession of the Porrara Unit (Outer Abruzzi units) (), the platform carbonate-to basinal successions of the Majella and Casoli-Bomba Units (Apulia-Adriatic deformed units) (), and the allochthonous Molise units. They have complex structural relationships, that originated sequentially over a time interval from late Messinian to early Pleistocene. The tectono-stratigraphic units are separated by tectonic or gravitative contacts and largely obliterated by younger thrust-top deposits, and sediments of the Adriatic regressive cycle (Mutignano Formation, late Pliocene-early Pleistocene), as well as widespread continental deposits. After the emergence, between the middle Pleistocene and the Holocene, the area was mainly affected by erosion and by the sedimentation of prevailingly detrital and alluvial deposits, whereas the current morphogenesis is dominated by landslide phenomena. The most relevant aspects faced during the survey are connected to: i) the extreme space-time facies variability of the outcropping successions, ii) the complex interpretation of the tectonic/gravitative nature of the discontinuity between the allochthonous Molise units and the other units, iii) the reconstruction of the kinematic mechanisms of the main tectonic elements, and iv) the timing of the thrusting phases, constrained by the sedimentation of the unconformable successions of the thrust-top basins and the deposition of the regressive cycle. The marine formations were mapped according to the lithostratigraphic criteria of the CARG (Geological Cartography) Italian project carrying out original surveys at a 1:10,000 scale and biostratigraphic studies of foraminifera and nannofossils. The Quaternary continental deposits consist of fan, alluvial plain, and slope facies, and are subdivided into preliminary unconformity-bounded stratigraphic units, based on correlations with geomorphological criteria, characterization of relict and buried soils, and radiometric dating, paying particular attention to the nature of the basal and top bounding surfaces