Quantitative morphotectonic analysis as a tool for detecting deformation patterns in soft-rock terrains: a case study from the southern Marches, Italy / Analyse morphotectonique quantitative dans une province lithologique enregistrant mal les déformations : les Marches méridionales, Italie

摘要

Abstract The aim of this paper is to test a quantitative morphotectonic methodological sequence specifically designed to single out mesoscale tectonic deformations across regions underlain by soft rocks that do not easily record deformations. The southern Marches area of Central Italy, where Pliocene and Quaternary deposits of this kind crop out extensively, was chosen as a case study. Morphotectonic data obtained from field surveys, statistical azimuthal analysis of stream orientations and spatial distribution of amplitude of relief supply information on existing faults and their kinematics, as well as about regional uplift. Interpretation of results indicated that the southern Marches neotectonic setting is characterised by differential uplift decreasing from West to East and by WSW-ENE to E-W trending regional tectonic discontinuities, characterised by different kinematics, which give rise to block tectonics. The results obtained seem in agreement with the geodynamic framework of the Adriatic region suggested by some recent geophysical and tectonic studies. This confirms the usefulness of quantitative morphotectonic methods in the investigation of areas where outcropping rocks and deposits do not readily record conventional markers of tectonic deformation.