Figure 9 – a) Simplified geological profile across the Calabria-Lucania borderland area of the southern Apennines-Pollino Massif. b) Schematic palaeogeographic setting of the Apulian continental margin in Cretaceous time, (from Cello & Mazzoli,1999).
During Stage I an accretionary wedge developed in response to the north-dipping oceanic subduction of Neotethyan lithosphere underneath the northern continental margin. Stage II started with the obduction of the accretionary complex and continued with the earliest phases of accretion of the Apulian continental margin. During this stage the accretionary wedge overthrust the southern margin of Neotethys and deformation affected the westernmost domains of the continental margin. During Stage III deformation in the southern Apennines appears to be related to the opening of the Tyrrhenian basin and coeval accretion of the easternmost domains mostly by underplating, and to the deformation associated with strike-slip tectonics (Monaco, 1993). The latest event recognized in the area started in Early Pleistocene time, when distributed deformation of the foreland area occurred mostly by strike-slip faulting and associated positive and negative structures. As a result, the majority of the positive structures of the chain developed from the superposition of localized deformation associated with left- lateral strike-slip systems on preexisting structures which originated during the growth of the Apennine wedge. The activation of this late tectonic regime is also responsible for the severe dissection of the mountain belt into sectors displaying different subsurface crustal structures (Monaco, 1993). The major left lateral strike- slip faults may put into contact different portions of the Apennine wedge, with the spectacular development of structural high and pulled depressions.
Finally, the geological, stratigraphic, structural history of the entire Pollino Massif is the results of long term evolution of different and adjacent geological realm. In this context the chain, in all its stage of building, testifies the variety of rocks, geological structures, and morphotectonic lineaments that make it spectacular and varied.
