PI of a peer-reviewed PRIN 2022 grant (funded by the Italian Ministry for University and Research (MUR)). Grant amount: Euro 190,000. N° 2022X88W2Y. Duration: 2 years (2023-2025). 

CO-PI: Pietro Sternai, Collaborator: Simone Pilia.  Postdoc: Alessandro Petroccia. 

Scientific summary

Plate tectonics has been a fundamental tenet of Earth Science for more than fifty years. The engine room of modern tectonic-plate

motion is known to be largely driven by the sinking of denser oceanic lithosphere in subduction zones, but how can more buoyant

continental lithosphere descend beneath a denser oceanic plate, and then be rapidly exhumed at the surface? This process is yet to

be solved and fully understood.

Located in the United Arab Emirates (UAE)-Oman mountain range, the Semail ophiolite was obducted onto the Arabian continental

margin during the Late Cretaceous. Mapping and studying the well-exposed thrust sheets of oceanic crust and upper mantle of the

Semail ophiolite played a significant role in the geological studies that led to the plate tectonic theory, and deciphering the

composition of oceanic lithosphere. The UAE-Oman mountain range is also a prime, yet challenging location to investigate the

processes of continental subduction and exhumation, since the orogen is well exposed and has not been significantly overprinted by

subsequent tectonic events.

RISING aims to make a step-change in our understanding of how continental subduction and exhumation develops and evolves by

using a multidisciplinary, multi-resolution approach. The proposed study will exploit the full richness of passive-seismic data recently

acquired in the area spanning the entire UAE-Oman orogenic belt and its foreland basins, along with cutting-edge imaging

techniques, to generate detailed 3-D tomographic models of the lithosphere and underlying upper mantle. RISING will then combine

the new seismic observations with new key constraints derived from field, structural, petrological and geochronological analyses

along three cross sections. This major effort will be the base for several research avenues, which will allow to:

i. Apply advanced transdimensional, Bayesian, hierarchical geophysical inversion methods to passive-seismic data to produce

unprecedented quantitative constraints of the lithosphere and underlying upper mantle beneath the study area, which will ultimately

point to a set of observables responsible for continental subduction.

ii. Define the kinematics, deformation mechanisms and metamorphic conditions of major shear zones, along with the distinctive

sequence and duration of tectonic events that led to continental subduction and subsequent exhumation.

iii. Develop a model for subduction and exhumation of the continental crust-mantle system beneath an oceanic plate.

The tectonic reconstruction of the UAE-Oman mountain range holds the key to the understanding of subduction-exhumation

processes. RISING will be the first to illuminate the deep structure of the UAE-Oman mountain range and tie the results with crucial

new constraints from structural, petrological and geochronological analyses, providing solid constraints on this complex, yet

fundamental tectonic process.

Scientific publications

1.    Petroccia, A., Giuntoli, F.*, Pilia, S., Viola, G., Sternai, P., & Callegari, I. (2025). Sustained strain localisation and coeval brittle-ductile deformation in an exhuming low-grade shear zone: Insights from the Saih Hatat Window (NE Oman). Journal of Structural Geology, 191. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsg.2024.105328

Conference abstracts

1.        Giuntoli F., Petroccia A., Airaghi L., Précigout J., Raimbourg H. (2025) Phyllosilicates do their job: insights into their role in exhuming subducted continental units. EGU 2025, Wien, Austria

2.        Petroccia A., Giuntoli F., Pilia S., Sternai P., Callegari I. (2025) Evidence for strain localisation and episodic tremors and slow slip events in exhuming continental shear zones (Saih Hatata Window, Oman). EGU 2025, Wien, Austria

3.        Petroccia A., Giuntoli F., Viola G., Callegari I. (2024). Weakening and Pore Pressure Fluctuations During Progressive Shearing From Subducted Continental Units of the Saih Hatat Dome, OmanAGU 2024, Washington D.C.

4.    Petroccia, A., Giuntoli, F., Callegari, I., Viola, G. (2024). Heterogeneous rock response to deformation in subduction-related continental shear zones: a possible record of episodic tremors and slow slip events from the Saih Hatat window, Oman SGI-SIMP 2024, Bari.

5.        Petroccia, A., Giuntoli, F., Callegari, I., Viola, G. (2024). Hybrid veins and heterogeneous deformation in the Saih Hatat window, Oman belt: a possible record of fossil episodic tremors and slow slip events. Poster presentation. EMC 2024, Dublin, Ireland.