Geological and seismological evidence of strike-slip displacement along the E-W Adriatic-Central Apennine Belt

New geological, geophysical and seismological data produced in the last decade allow an improved definition of the kinematics of the Tyrrhenian Sea-central Apennines-Adriatic Sea system. The integration of these different types of dataset outlines a complex E-W deformational belt running from the Adriatic Sea, at Gargano latitudes, to the Latium-Abruzzi Platform domain (central Apennines). Its possible prosecution in the Tyrrhenian Sea is discussed. This belt has its own seismotectonic characteristics, and divides the Apennines into two zones with different seismotectonic behaviour. All these data were integrated into a multidisciplinary model that results in the introduction of a strike-slip displacement sometimes in Pliocene to Recent times along the central Apennines-Adriatic Sea E-W belt. This relative motion can take for the strike-slip block tectonics observed in the central Apennines as well as for the uplift of Gargano and Tremiti Islands areas, including their seismicity. The displacement is related to a differing behaviour of the chain-foreland systems across this bend and can be justified either by assuming a partially active sinking of the southern Adriatic lithosphere or a slower sinking processes in the northern Adriatic one.