Structural characterization and K–Ar illite dating of reactivated, complex and heterogeneous fault zones: lessons from the Zuccale Fault, Northern Apennines

Abstract

We studied the Zuccale Fault (ZF) on Elba, part of the Northern Apennines, to unravel the complex deformation history that is responsible for the remarkable architectural complexity of the fault. The ZF is characterized by a patchwork of at least six distinct, now tightly juxtaposed brittle structural facies (BSF), i.e. volumes of deformed rock characterized by a given fault rock type, texture, colour, composition, and age of formation. ZF fault rocks vary from massive cataclasite to foliated ultracataclasite, from clay-rich gouge to highly sheared talc phyllonite. Understanding the current spatial juxtaposition of these BSFs requires tight constraints on their age of formation during the ZF lifespan to integrate current fault geometries and characteristics over the time dimension of faulting. We present new K–Ar gouge dates obtained from three samples from two different BSFs. Two top-to-the-east foliated gouge and talc phyllonite samples document faulting in the Aquitanian (ca. 22 Ma), constraining east-vergent shearing along the ZF already in the earliest Miocene. A third sample constrains later faulting along the exclusively brittle, flat-lying principal slip surface t