Geological map of the northeastern sector of the high Agri Valley, Southern Apennines (Basilicata, Italy)

The high Agri Valley represents a regionally important Pleistocene tectonic basin superimposed on the fold-and-thrust belt of the Southern Apennine, which has developed since the Late Oligocene – Early Miocene. Impressive morpho-structural features related to post-orogenic faulting can be identified along the northeastern margin of the basin, in the Marsicovetere area, where the main tectonic units involved in the southern chain are exposed. In this work, we present a geological map at 1:25,000 scale and cross sections of the Marsicovetere area. The geological map documents the effects of the different tectonic stages in the polyphase evolution of the Southern Apennines, which are shown in several outcrops of the high Agri Valley. More specifically, the study area shows that the early contractional structures have been dissected by several sets of faults with strike-slip and extensional kinematics. Based on geological mapping and structural analysis we distinguished three different homogeneous fault populations that controlled the evolution of the high Agri Valley from the Pliocene and Pleistocene. Faults cut map scale folds and related thrusts of Miocene and Pliocene age affecting a highly heterogeneous sedimentary cover deposited since the Triassic within fault-bounded pelagic basins and adjacent carbonate platform environments. Despite the relatively simple kinematic history, the deformation features related to late to post-orogenic evolution of the high Agri Valley are quite complex. The documentation of such complexity is important, in that it may improve our understanding of orogenic dynamics.