The Maiella escarpment (Apulia platform, Italy): geology and modelling of an Upper Cretaceous scalloped erosional platform margin

This report focuses on one of the most debated features of the Maiella geology, i.e. the «paleoescarpment», a ca. 1000 m high erosional surface, abruptly separating Cretaceous slope from platform facies. The attempt has been to address some crucial questions such as the reconstruction of a morphologic model applicable to the entire exhumed portion of the Maiella escarpment, and to investigate the relationships between the paleoescarpment morphology and mechanisms responsible for the platform margin erosion. Two-dimensional data, three-dimensional reconstruction and quantitative simulation, enable a reconciliation between the tectonic and sedimentary interpretation of the erosional mechanisms of the Maiella margin. Tectonic mechanisms, associated with the activity of a fault system and earthquake swarms, trigger sedimentary processes, such as imposing landslides, producing the erosion of the Maiella platform margin and its scalloped morphology.