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New stratigraphic constraints have been detailed for the Amatrice Basin, an intermountain morpho-structural depression of the central Apennines (Italy) hosting up to 60-m-thick Quaternary continental deposits. Through the results coming from a 1:5,000 scale field survey and from facies analyses, we documented the geometry, thickness, and extent of the post-orogenic continental deposits filling this basin. The Quaternary deposits form a complex architecture of purely aggradational and aggradational/degradational terraces with a dominant component of conglomerates and gravels, at the bottom, and subordinate sands, at the top. The Quaternary deposits overlie an up to 1-km-thick succession of flysch sediments that accumulated in the western Laga Basin during the Miocene syn-orogenic phases in central Apennines. The collected data are used to constrain the style and mechanisms of both syn-orogenic (i.e., subsidence and terrigenous sedimentation in foredeep environment) and post-orogenic (i.e., uplift, erosion, and continental sedimentation) phases documented for the central Apennines. In particular, the post-orogenic history of the Amatrice Basin, if compared with those of surrounding intermountain basins of the central Apennines, includes limited basin subsidence, reduced thickness of the post-orogenic covers and progressive deepening of the drainage network during the Quaternary. The results shed light on the source-to-sink history of the Amatrice Basin, which results from a long-lived interaction between regional-scale factors (climate changes, chain uplift, and extensional tectonic regime) that influenced the activity of the hydrodynamic pattern and the amount of intrabasinal sedimentation during the Quaternary.

A 1:5,000 scale geological map and 31 geological cross-sections are presented for the surroundings of Amatrice village (central Apennines, Italy), epicentral area of the first damaging earthquake of the 2016–2017 seismic sequence. This detailed geological dataset focuses on: (i) the extent, the thickness, and the internal stratigraphic architecture of the Quaternary continental deposits; (ii) the bedding and the thickness of the Miocene substratum; and (iii) the spatial distribution of the main fault systems. The provided dataset would update the available regional geological maps in deciphering the syn-to-post-orogenic history of the Amatrice Basin. Eventually, the accuracy of the geological mapping would represent a basic tool for interpreting and integrating the multidisciplinary dataset deriving from post-seismic activities.