The Rossano–San Nicola Fault Zone evolution impacts the burial and maturation histories of the Crotone Basin, Calabrian Arc, Italy

This work addresses the tectonic significance of a NW–SE-trending strike-slip fault zone in the Calabrian Arc of southern Italy, the Rossano–San Nicola Fault Zone (RSFZ). High-quality seismic reflection and 1D forward models of exploration boreholes and pseudo-wells show that the RSFZ experienced multiple Miocene phases of contractional/ transpressional tectonics. These were followed by crustal extension during the Pliocene, which occurred in association with the oceanization of the Tyrrhenian Sea, Apennine orogenesis, and collision between the Calabrian Arc and adjacent tectonic plates. Such a setting had a profound influence on the Crotone Basin and its economic potential: (1) tectonic reactivation allowed reservoir units of the Crotone Basin to be charged by gas derived from Triassic/Lower Jurassic source rocks; and (2) source rocks reached their maximum depth and remained in the gas generation window after the emplacement of a large mass-transport complex in the Pliocene. In the su...