Abstract: North-Central Sicily represents an Apenninic-Maghrebian Chain sector, deriving from the Miocene- Pliocene deformation of different palaeogeographic domains-derived successions (carbonate platforms and pelagic basins), piled-up in ramp-flat and duplex style, and belonging during the Mesozoic-Tertiary to the Northern African Continental Margin. These domains are represented by outcropping basinal sedimentary successions (Imerese-Sicanian Basin), geometrically interposed between carbonate platform rock bodies: the Panormide (innermost) and the Hyblean-Pelagian Domains (more external).
In this paper, using stratigraphic and structural data, we propose a new palaeogeographic model, in which the main differences from previous interpretations consist in the position of the Imerese Basin, here identified as the juncture between the Panormide Domain and the Sicanian Basin Auct., and the position of the Trapanese pelagic carbonate platform, considered as the juncture between the Hyblean-Pelagian Domain and the Sicanian Basin Auct.
Tectono-sedimentary steps characterising the evolution of the Sicilian Miocene-Pliocene Foredeep illustrate the deformational history of the area. Two geological cross-sections depict the structural architecture of the tectonic edifice, characterised by different thrust sheets piled-up during the Miocene-Pleistocene time. The more external tectonic units are formed by elements deriving from the Plio-Pleistocene deformation of the northern margin of the Hyblean-Pelagian Domain. The "intermediate" tectonic units derive from the Miocene-Pliocene deformation of the Imerese- Sicanian Domain and the inner tectonic units are constituted by Panormide and Sicilide Domains-derived successions, deformed during the Miocene. A mostly neotectonics-related transcurrent faults reoriented the previous thrust sheets through NW-SE and W-E trending faults, producing large-scale positive flower structures which involved the geometrically deepest Hyblean-Pelagian substrate.