Alda Nicora

Nature and evolution of Middle Triassic carbonate buildups in the Dolomites (Italy)

During the Middle Triassic, an evolution from carbonate bank to buildup, highly elevated in respect of the adjacent basins, is observed in the Alps. The Dolomites in the Southern Alps, Italy, are here considered as an example. During the Anisian, subtidal banks of the Upper Serla Fm., with rare peritidal cycles show only a limited biologic density and diversity. With the Late Anisian (Contrin Fm.) a gradual development of binding and framework-building communities can be observed. The sinking of wide areas of the Contrin carbonate bank into anoxic conditions (Plattenkalke Fm.) allowed the birth of isolated buildups. Their increased carbonate production, due to a greater diversity and density of organisms, was able to keep up with the rate of subsidence. The Latemar buildup — with additional data for the slope taken from Mt. Coldai (Civetta) and Sass da Putia — is used to illustrate the main character of a Lower Ladinian buildup. The restricted platform sediments display peritidal cycles: prevalent in the subtidal portion is Dasycladacean packstone/grainstone, associated with gastropods, ammonoids and blue-green algae; in the supratidal portion, desiccation and tepee structures are present. Scleractinian and sphinctozoan frameworks are rare on the upper part of the slope which is bound predominantly by encrusting organisms, mainly blue-green algae, porifers and Tubiphytes. The prevailing sediments on the upper part of the slope are bindstones, whilst packstones and rudstones are in the lower part of the slope. The latter carbonates were cemented early under submarine conditions, mostly by isopachous-palisade cement. Polyphasic internal sediments with phreatic-vadose influence are present, and can in the middle-lower part of the slope replace most of the original sediment.

Gondwanan deglaciation and opening of Neotethys: the Al Khlata and Saiwan Formations of Interior Oman

Abstract New stratigraphic, petrographic and paleontological data from the Lower Permian of southeastern Arabia help to elucidate the still debated timing of Neotethys rifting and the climatic evolution following the Gondwanan glaciation. The transition from the Al Khlata to the Saiwan Formation, here described in detail, is interpreted to record continental break-up and onset of Neotethyan spreading between northern Gondwana and the Cimmerian terranes at mid-Sakmarian times, as constrained by brachiopod assemblages. The eastern Oman arm of the Neotethyan rift-system instead failed, and sea-floor spreading of the Indo–Madagascar trough was delayed until final fragmentation of Gondwana in the Late Jurassic. Petrographic composition of Lower Permian sandstones documents a distinct change from transitional to dissected rift-shoulder provenance, and widespread exposure of granitoid basement rocks at a late syn-rift to early post-rift stage. Very abundant pore-filling celestite at the Al Khlata/Saiwan transition may have precipitated from circulating brines related to remobilization of Proterozoic salt due to rift tectonics. The sharp base of the Saiwan Formation records a major transgression related to the onset of Neotethyan spreading, final deglaciation and consequent global sea-level rise, as indicated by ravinement surfaces associated with lag deposits with tree trunks, reworked ferruginous pedogenic concretions and phosphate, and by paleoecological analyses. The basal bed of the Saiwan Formation is characterized by the pioneer Pachycyrtella paleocommunity, with Pachycyrtella omanensis>85%), suspension feeding, rapid rates of reproduction and growth (r-strategy), early maturity, high mortality rates in the juveniles. The more mature secondary ecological succession developed higher in the Saiwan Formation records maximum flooding and significant climatic amelioration. The Saiwan Formation, at the beginning of the Late Sakmarian, finally sutures the irregular rift-related topography in the rim basin of Interior Oman, and records a shift towards warmer temperate conditions after the end of the Gondwanan glaciation.

Pennsylvanian-Early Triassic stratigraphy in the Alborz Mountains (Iran)

Abstract New fieldwork was carried out in the central and eastern Alborz, addressing the sedimentary succession from the Pennsylvanian to the Early Triassic. A regional synthesis is proposed, based on sedimentary analysis and a wide collection of new palaeontological data. The Moscovian Qezelqaleh Formation, deposited in a mixed coastal marine and alluvial setting, is present in a restricted area of the eastern Alborz, transgressing on the Lower Carboniferous Mobarak and Dozdehband formations. The late Gzhelian–early Sakmarian Dorud Group is instead distributed over most of the studied area, being absent only in a narrow belt to the SE. The Dorud Group is typically tripartite, with a terrigenous unit in the lower part (Toyeh Formation), a carbonate intermediate part (Emarat and Ghosnavi formations, the former particularly rich in fusulinids), and a terrigenous upper unit (Shah Zeid Formation), which however seems to be confined to the central Alborz. A major gap in sedimentation occurred before the deposition of the overlying Ruteh Limestone, a thick package of packstone–wackestone interpreted as a carbonate ramp of Middle Permian age (Wordian–Capitanian). The Ruteh Limestone is absent in the eastern part of the range, and everywhere ends with an emersion surface, that may be karstified or covered by a lateritic soil. The Late Permian transgression was directed southwards in the central Alborz, where marine facies (Nesen Formation) are more common. Time-equivalent alluvial fans with marsh intercalations and lateritic soils (Qeshlaq Formation) are present in the east. Towards the end of the Permian most of the Alborz emerged, the marine facies being restricted to a small area on the Caspian side of the central Alborz. There, the Permo-Triassic boundary interval is somewhat similar to the Abadeh–Shahreza belt in central Iran, and contains oolites, flat microbialites and domal stromatolites, forming the base of the Elikah Formation. The P–T boundary is established on the basis of conodonts, small foraminifera and stable isotope data. The development of the lower and middle part of the Elikah Formation, still Early Triassic in age, contains vermicular bioturbated mudstone/wackestone, and anachronostic-facies-like gastropod oolites and flat pebble conglomerates. Three major factors control the sedimentary evolution. The succession is in phase with global sea-level curve in the Moscovian and from the Middle Permian upwards. It is out of phase around the Carboniferous–Permian boundary, when the Dorud Group was deposited during a global lowstand of sealevel. When the global deglaciation started in the Sakmarian, sedimentation stopped in the Alborz and the area emerged. Therefore, there is a consistent geodynamic control. From the Middle Permian upwards, passive margin conditions control the sedimentary evolution of the basin, which had its depocentre(s) to the north. Climate also had a significant role, as the Alborz drifted quickly northwards with other central Iran blocks towards the Turan active margin. It passed from a southern latitude through the aridity belt in the Middle Permian, across the equatorial humid belt in the Late Permian and reached the northern arid tropical belt in the Triassic.

Permian climatic and paleogeographic changes in Northern Gondwana: the Khuff Formation of Interior Oman

Abstract Detailed stratigraphic, paleontologic, and petrographic data from the Middle Permian Khuff Formation exposed in the Haushi–Huqf area of Interior Oman provide new insight into the Permian climatic evolution of the northern Gondwana margin, and on the still debated timing of Neotethys opening between Gondwana and the Cimmerian blocks. The Khuff Formation is interpreted to record a major transgression of Neotethyan waters in Wordian times (Middle Permian), at a stage of full oceanization and tectonic quiescence, when thermal subsidence caused final drowning of rift shoulders and deposition of marine carbonates onto vast portions of stable Arabia. The petrographic composition of Middle Permian sandstones indicates a post-rift stage, and documents a long-term increase in mineralogic stability ascribed to a shift toward warm–humid climatic conditions, coupled with reduced relief and longer transit times of detritus from source to basin. Raising temperatures and northward latitudinal drift towards lower tropic latitudes throughout the Permian are fully documented by rich transitional marine faunas and available paleomagnetic evidence.

Magnetostratigraphy and biostratigraphy of the Carnian/Norian boundary interval from the Pizzo Mondello section (Sicani Mountains, Sicily)

The 146.5 m-thick Upper Triassic limestone section at Pizzo Mondello in the Sicani Mountains of western Sicily is characterized by high quality of exposure, accessibility, and stratigraphic continuity. Magnetostratigraphic results delineate 12 normal and reverse polarity magnetozones, labelled successively from the base upwards as PM1n, PM1r, PM6n, PM6r. The Carnian/Norian boundary, based on conodont biostratigraphy, falls somewhere in the PM3n to PM5n interval which corresponds to the E14n to E16n magnetozone interval in the Newark reference sequence of polarity reversals. Comparison of magnetobiostratigraphic data from the Newark basin, Pizzo Mondello and other Late Triassic marine sections available from the literature suggests the existence of a reduction in sedimentation rate in the Tethyan marine domain at around the Carnian/ Norian boundary. Although the Newark and the expanded Pizzo Mondello sections correlate well with each other, correlation with the condensed Kavur Tepe and Scheiblkogel sections is unsatisfactory. A re-interpretation of the Kavur Tepe results suggests that the section is younger than its previous correlation with the Newark section, and that it was deposited in the northern instead of the southern hemisphere. Most of the condensed Tethyan marine sections are seen to be highly discontinuous, as evidenced by concantenated conodont total range zones. q 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

The north Karakorum side of the Central Asia geopuzzle

An Italian geological team visited a remote and in part never studied area in the northern Hunza region (Pakistan), which represents the link between the Karakorum and Pamir Ranges. The north Karakorum sequence commences in the Permian with terrigenous sediments, followed by shallow- to deep-marine carbonates deposited on a newly formed passive margin. Deep-water sedimentation continued till the end of the Middle Triassic, when carbonate platform conditions resumed. An episode of deltaic red sandstones with orogenic provenance is interbedded in the Liassic, and it is transgressed by a Middle to ?Upper Jurassic shallow water marine unit. Eventually, all of the sequence was faulted and folded, with weak metamorphic imprint, before fluviatile red polygenic conglomerates sealed the succession,in a spectacular unconformity. The north Karakorum provides an example of a microplate that rifted away from Gondwana in the Permian, reached deep-marine conditions in the Early Triassic, and marginally recorded compressive movements in the Liassic. A subsequent orogenic episode points to a reorganization of the southern Asian margin possibly around middle Cretaceous time. Finally, the north Karakorum was affected by strong fold-thrust deformation and low- to very low-grade metamorphism in the Cainozoic, related to the India-Asia collision.

Middle Triassic magnetostratigraphy and biostratigraphy from the Dolomites and Greece

Abstract Magnetostratigrapic and biostratigraphic data across the Anisian/Ladinian (Middle Triassic) boundary were obtained from the Frotschbach/Seceda section from the Dolomites region of northern Italy, and the Vlichos section from the Greek island of Hydra, where the Aghia Triada published section was also resampled. The Frotschbach/Seceda section includes two radiometrically dated (U Pb) tuff levels and covers two of the three chief candidates for the position of the base of the Ladinian, namely at the base of the Secedensis Zone or the subsequent Curionii Zone. The Aghia Triada section yields biochronological evidence for the base of the Secedensis Zone, whose significance is, however, critically discussed in the light of the magnetostratigraphic correlation with Frotschbach/Seceda. The Vlichos section can be correlated with Aghia Triada and Frotschbach/Seceda by means of magnetic polarity stratigraphy and sparse fossil occurrences. The satisfactory correlation of the magnetozones allows us to construct a composite geomagnetic polarity sequence tied to Tethyan ammonoid and conodont biostratigraphy for about a 2.4 Myr interval across the Anisian/Ladinian boundary.

Palaeocopida (Ostracoda) across the Permian–Triassic events: new data from southwestern Taurus (Turkey)

The Palaeocopida have been considered as an entirely Palaeozoic group and their disappearance as a marker for the Palaeozoic–Mesozoic boundary. Despite this, 11 Palaeocopida species have been recorded in the Early Triassic. New data obtained in southwestern Taurus at the Permian– Triassic section of Çürük daǧ, permit an assessment of this problem. This paper synthesizes the data on lowermost Triassic ostracodes and revises the youngest Palaecopida occurrences. A new Early Triassic Palaeocopida species is described (Reviya curukensis n. sp.).

The Triassic stratigraphic succession of Nakhlak (Central Iran), a record from an active margin

Abstract An important, 2.4 km-thick Triassic succession is exposed at Nakhlak (central Iran). This succession was deformed during the Cimmerian orogeny and truncated by an angular unconformity with undeformed Upper Cretaceous sediments. This integrated stratigraphic study of the Triassic included bed-by-bed sampling for ammonoids, conodonts and bivalves, as well as limestone and sandstone petrographic analyses. The Nakhlak Group succession consists of three formations: Alam (Olenekian–Anisian), Bāqoroq (?Upper Anisian–Ladinian) and Ashin (Upper Ladinian). The Alam Formation records several shifts from carbonate to siliciclastic deposition, the Bāqoroq Formation consists of continental conglomerates and the Ashin Formation documents the transition to deep-sea turbiditic sedimentation. Petrographic composition has been studied for sandstones and conglomerates. Provenance analysis for Alam and most of the Ashin samples suggests a volcanic arc setting, whereas the samples from the Bāqoroq Formation are related to exhumation of a metamorphic basement. The provenance data, together with the great thickness, the sudden change of facies, the abundance of volcaniclastic supply, the relatively common occurrence of tuffitic layers and the orogenic calc-alkaline affinity of the volcanism, point to sedimentation along an active margin in a forearc setting. A comparison between the Triassic of Nakhlak and the Triassic succession exposed in the erosional window of Aghdarband (Koppeh Dag, NE Iran) indicates that both were deposited along active margins. However, they do not show the same type of evolution. Nakhlak and Aghdarband have quite different ammonoid faunal affinities during the Early Triassic, but similar faunal composition from the Bithynian to Late Ladinian. These results argue against the location of Nakhlak close to Aghdarband.

Reconnaissance geology in Upper Chitral, Baroghil and Karambar districts (northern Karakorum, Pakistan)

During the summer of 1992 a geological expedition crossed the northern Karakorum range in northern Pakistan, from the Chitral to Karambar valleys, from the villages of Mastuj to Imit. Some of the areas visited were geologically unknown. A number of structural units were crossed, belonging to the Karakorum block or to other crustal blocks north of it. They are: (a) the axial batholith, in which three plutonic bodies have been identified, and (b) the northern sedimentary belt (NSB), in which three major tectonostratigraphic units form thrust stacks dipping to the north. Their internal stratigraphy and structural style are partly different. The most complete contains a crystalline basement, transgressed by a marine succession during the Early Ordovician. The youngest strata are represented by the Reshun conglomerate, of inferred Cretaceous age. The northernmost unit of the NSB is tightly folded, whereas the central one forms a monocline. Vertical faults, mainly strike-slip, dissect the thrusted slabs. Metamorphic deformation is absent or reaches only the anchizone in the studied sector of the Karakorum NSB. To the north of the Karakorum proper there are several other tectonic units, separated by vertical faults. They are, from south to north: (a) the Taš Kupruk zone, with metavolcanics of basaltic to latibasaltic composition; (b) the Atark unit, mostly consisting of massive carbonate rocks of Mesozoic age; and (c) the Wakhan slates which consist of a thick widespread succession of dark slates, metasiltites and sandstones. The fine-grained elastic rocks are supposed to be Palaeozoic to Early Triassic in age. The Wakhan slates are intruded by plutons belonging to the East Hindu Kush batholith, from which a single K/Ar age on muscovite gave a Jurassic age.