The Apennine orogen is characterised by paired belts of contraction and extension which migrated eastward during the Neogene-Quaternary times. Since the Miocene, the eastward propagation of the fold-and-thrust structures was accompanied and followed by the development of post-orogenic normal faults related to the collapse of the chain.
In southen Apennines, post-Messinian evolution is marked by a drastic slowdown of slab migration due to collision with the Apulian swell. From this time onward, direct convergence has been accommodated mainly by sinistral transpression. In the inner portion of the orogen, the eastward migration of the post-orogenic extensional front, accommodated by Pliocene low-angle normal faults and by early Pleistocene normal to left-oblique transtensional faults, determined the progressive fragmentation of the fold-and-thrust architecture. SW-NE- directed shortening in the frontal part of the southern Apennines ceased during the middle Pleistocene. Afterwards, the deformation regime was dominated by NE-SW directed extension mainly accommodated by NW-SE trending high-angle normal faults. Pliocene to Quaternary extension was accompanied by intense uplift
