Geological map of the Tellaro River Valley (Hyblean Foreland, southeastern Sicily, Italy)

Abstract

The Geological map of the Tellaro River Valley, at the 1:25.000 scale, portrays the main stratigraphic and structural features that developed in a 300 km² wide area of the African foreland in southeastern Sicily (Hyblean Foreland). The NW-SE-oriented Tellaro River Valley marks the transition between the eastern (Siracusa Plateau) and western (Ragusa Plateau) domains of the foreland, where a post-Tortonian structural depression, here designated as Tellaro Basin, originated. The map pictures the geometry and kinematics of the border faults and the structure affecting the basin infilling. The mapped structural pattern denounces a poliphase tectonic evolution of the region, suggesting the occurrence of a major NW-SE-oriented crustal discontinuity that, being active during the different periods of the post-Tortonian evolution of the area, could play a primary role also in the present seismotectonic picture.

Keywords:

• Hyblean Foreland
• southeastern Sicily
• Tellaro River Valley
• Ragusa Plateau
• Siracusa Plateau
• Tellaro basin

Software

The geological map has been digitized using ESRI ArcGIS 10.2 software, on the base of a georeferenced original hand-coloured geological map. The geological sections, the stratigraphic columns, the structural sketch map, the stereoplots and the legend have been assembled using CorelDraw X4 software.