Abstract

The Corsica Island is particularly famous around the world for its rotation related to the indentation of the Adriatic plate during the Alps orogenesis. In response to this collision, the geodynamical context evolved with the opening of the Ligurian Sea during Burdigalian-Langhian time. The presence of the Ligurian Sea and the drifting of the Corsica block are generally inferred with a NW-SE trending Oligo-Miocene extension. However such extension have been evidenced only in Provence and never in Corsica in terms of paleostress analysis. In this study we fill the gap by describing the paleostress history from Oligocene to Pliocene from fault slip striation. The markers of each compression are recognizable from the geological maps and they have been extensively studied in the literature. However, markers of the opening of the Ligurian Basin have never been described on land in the French Riviera. The structural study of the Cap-Ferrat Peninsula, at the South edge of the arc of Nice, shows normal and inverse faults clusters. Their chronological relationships and the main trend of their respective stress tensors agree with the different known tectonic events and allow the identification of the missing Oligo-Miocene extension on land.