Stratigraphy and tectonic setting of the Sannio Unit in the northern sector of Matese Mountains | Stratigrafia ed assetto geometrico dell'Unità del Sannio nel settore settentrionale dei monti del Matese

New stratigraphic and biostratigraphic data arising from the realization of the Sheet No. 405 "Campobasso" of the new Geological map of Italy (1:50.000 scale - CARG Project) allowed, for the first time in this area, to stratigraphically and cartographically define all the intervals composing the basinal Sannio Unit Auct. Structural analysis and the chronostratigraphic redefinition of siliciclastic deposits covering the Sannio Unit and the carbonate platform successions of the Matese-Frosolone Units, indicate two main evolutionary stages in the Miocene-Pliocene structuring of this portion of the Southern Apennines. In the first stage, starting before Serravallian times, E-verging contraction affected exclusively the basinal units together with their siliciclastic cover. During the second stage, beginning after early Messinian times, NE-verging compression involved both the basinal Sannio Unit and the Matese-Frosolone Units.