Age Constraints and Denudation Rate of a Multistage Fault Line Scarp: an Example from Southern Italy

The morphological evolution of a carbonate fault line scarp from southern Italy, generated by transpressional faulting and evolved by slope replacement, has been reconstructed. C dating of faulted slope deposits (ages included between 18 ka and ~8 ka BP) have been performed to constrain the Late Pleistocene — Holocene evolution of that scarp. Longto short-term denudation rates have been also evaluated for the understanding of the mountain front origin. The slope shows well-defined triangular facets combined with the presence of N-S-striking mountainward-dipping fault planes. The envelope of the slope foot appears slightly curved in a planimetric view and shows an E-W-trending offset in its southern part, making such a feature quite different from the recurrent rectilinear fault scarps, often related to normal faulting. Morphostructural analysis showed that: i) the oldest displacement was generated by a fault with a reverse component of movement; ii) the slope represents an inherited feature, only recently exhumed, and developed starting from a high-angle curved surface; iii) the upper Pleistocene — Holocene extensional faulting has only affected the slope foot and associated waste deposits, causing a series of collateral morphological effects, as fluvial cut of preexisting valleys and the genesis of conspicuous mass movements.