Giacomo Prosser

Composite sedimentary record of falling stages of Pleistocene glacio-eustatic cycles in a shelf setting (Crotone basin, south Italy)

Abstract A thick Pleistocene shelf and nearshore cyclical succession was deposited in the S. Mauro sub-basin of the Crotone basin (southern Italy). The regressive units of the cycles are mostly represented by coastal siliciclastic and bioclastic prograding wedges showing a clinoform geometry. These are separated by blanket-like deposits of high lateral persistence recording major transgressive episodes. The aim of this paper is (1) to describe facies patterns and depositional setting of two prograding wedges, particularly focussing on their polycyclic internal architecture, (2) to analyze these units within a sequence-stratigraphic framework, and (3) to speculate on the possible origin of the small-scale cyclicity. The two wedges analyzed in this paper consist of a number of shingles. Individual shingles consist of two physically connected units: (1) a relatively thin package of sigmoid clinoforms, grading into (2) a volumetrically dominant package of oblique-tangential clinoforms with toplap terminations. The shingles are bounded by seaward-dipping surfaces with sigmoid clinoform geometry, which are ravinement surfaces updip, passing into conformable flooding surfaces downdip. The wedges are thus organized into high-frequency, small-scale sequences, each comprising transgressive, highstand and falling-stage systems tracts. As a whole, individual prograding wedges are interpreted as forced-regressive units, as the shoreline was subject to an overall shift basinwards and downwards along a low-angle trajectory, in spite of the repeated minor relative sea-level rises. Tectonic subsidence, and particularly the syndepositional growth of gentle synclines, are thought to have been the key factors allowing the preservation of these forced-regressive units. Progradation of the wedges took place in a high-energy wave climate characterized by high frequency of storms and very efficient alongshore redistribution of sediments. Recurrent, storm-driven, offshore currents led to intense reworking of sediments on the topset platform and gravity spreading on the foreset slope of the prograding wedges. Well-oxygenated conditions over the shelf due to intensified storm activity during glacial periods may have enhanced the rate of production of skeletal, foramol-type carbonates. It can reasonably be assumed that progradation took place from a line source and that the sand bodies are to be regarded as coastal prograding bodies. In spite of active syndepositional tectonics, the cycles can be correlated to Pleistocene high-amplitude sea-level oscillations. The older of the two wedges can be correlated, through bio-magnetostratigraphy, to the major climatic transition which occurred from the marine oxygen-isotope stage 25 to 24–22 ( Rio et al., 1996 ). The younger probably developed during the sea-level fall that ended with substage 18.2, as suggested by sequence- and bio-stratigraphic data. The prograding wedges are thus interpreted to record long-lived sea-level falls of fourth-order cycles. Due to the particular depositional setting, we are inclined to exclude authigenic mechanisms in the origin of small-scale cyclicity. Although the concomitance and interaction of different controlling factors may be taken into account, it is tempting to ascribe this cyclicity to minor eustatic changes punctuating long-lived, erratic falling stages, possibly accompanied by climate-driven fluctuations of sediment supply. Shelf-perched and shelf-edge prograding units consisting of foramol-type carbonates are apparently a common falling-stage to lowstand depositional feature in the Mediterranean area during the Late Pliocene and Pleistocene.

Architectural styles of prograding wedges in a tectonically active setting, Crotone Basin, Southern Italy

The lower Pliocene shallow-marine to continental succession of the Crotone Basin, a small forearc basin on the Calabrian Arc, Southern Italy, is represented by a mixed terrigenous–carbonate succession, up to 850 m thick, known as the Zinga Molasse, deposited in an active tectonic setting dominated by extensional structures and halokinesis. The succession may be informally subdivided into three main sequences, Zinga 1, Zinga 2, Zinga 3, each bounded by major unconformities produced by the interaction of tectonics and eustasy. The Zinga 1 sequence records terrigenous input into the basin leading to the development of stacked progradational wedges of shoreface and deltaic deposits. Spectacular thickness changes and progressive unconformities result from the activation of NE-trending growth folds and listric faults, and indicate that deposition occurred during extensional deformation and salt tectonics. However, the regional extent of the surfaces, the lack of evidence for changes in the local tectonic regime between sequences and the presence of listric faulting within sequences all favour eustatic sea-level change as the main control on the sequence development, although local tectonics strongly controlled sedimentary architecture.

Cooling and exhumation history of deep-seated and shallow level, late Hercynian granitoids from Calabria

The thermal and exhumation history of late Hercynian granitoids from Calabria (Sila and Serre massifs) has been studied using thermobarometry and radiometric age determinations. The uplift and erosion which followed contractional tectonics of Tertiary age exposed in Calabria a nearly complete section of the Hercynian crust. Field data, constrained by igneous thermobarometrical data, have enabled us to draw simplified crustal profiles. In both the Sila and Serre massifs, granitoids make up the intermediate portions of the crustal sections and are stacked as tabular intrusions for up to 13 km cumulative thickness. Shallow granitoids are characterized by a weak fabric, mostly developed in the magmatic stage, whereas deep-seated granitoids display a strong fabric developed in the magmatic state and, with decreasing temperatures, in the subsolidus state. The intrusive bodies were emplaced at 300–290 Ma, at a time when the Calabrian crust was undergoing extensional tectonics and crustal thinning. The subsequent post-Hercynian evolution is recorded by Rb-Sr dates of micas and fission track ages of zircon and apatite obtained from granitoids emplaced at different depths. A decrease in Rb-Sr and fission track ages is observed as depth of emplacement increases. Data on the post-Hercynian geological evolution of Calabria were used to model in three stages the cooling and exhumation history of deep-seated and shallow granitoids. The first stage, in Permian to Triassic times, was characterized by slow erosion. It was followed by a second stage of extensional tectonics in Jurassic times. The third stage was exhumation during the Apenninic Orogeny. The model has generated two P–T–t arrays, one for deep-seated and the other for shallow granitoids of the Serre massif. The T–t paths suggest that the dates of micas, zircon and apatite are cooling ages. They also show that deep-seated granitoids remained at temperatures above the brittle–plastic transition for a long time, whereas shallow granitoids cooled rapidly. Distinct P–T–t paths explain why deep-seated and shallow granitoids display different fabric and microstructural features. Copyright

A revision of the stratigraphy and geology of the south-western part of the Crotone Basin (South Italy)

The Crotone Basin, located on a stack of nappes piled up during the late Paleogene-Neogene, formed in the late Neogene to Quaternary as a forearc basin of the Ionian arc-trench system. The process of slab rollback caused rapid trench migration, resulting in an extensionaltranstensional regime persisting most of the time in the forearc area.The late Neogene tectonic evolution was strongly influenced by a NW-directed fault system, interpreted as basement wrench faults leading to partitioning of the basin into separate sub-basins subject to differential subsidence and mutual displacements. Major sequences identified in the area are regarded as tectono-stratigraphic sequences (TSS). The first of them was laid down in the late Serravallian (?) - Tortonian - early Messinian, during the basin opening stage and is bounded at the top by an erosional unconformity, which may be correlated with the well-known intra-Messinian event of the Mediterranean Salinity Crisis. The second TSS, of middle to late Messinian age, is characterized by strongly syntectonic deposits mostly derived from cannibalization of the lower Messiniansuccession, first infilling extensional troughs, then involved in an episode of sinistral transpression along the NW-trending fault system, which generated local overthrusts, sealed by a late Messinian erosional unconformity. The Messinian tectonics probably reflects the interplay between the processes linked to the kinematics of the Calabria block and those triggered by the Salinity Crisis. The erosional unconformity is overlain by widespread coarse fluvial conglomerates, which are the first onlapping term of the third TSS, represented by uppermost Messinian to lower Zanclean deposits, laid down in an extensional-transtensional regime. This TSS was closed by an important late Zanclean episode of dextral transpression along the NW-trending fault system, leading to inversion of the formerbasins, and limited SW-verging thrusts on fault-restraining bends.The unconformity sealing the structures has a clear expression in the northern, marginal part of the Crotone Basin and correlates downbasin with a conformable surface. The fourth TSS is characterized by a long-lasting phase dominated by extension-transtension, leading to high subsidence rate during the latest Zanclean to Early Pleistocene, and accommodating a thick succession of slope mudstones including clusters of diatomaceous bands mostly in the D. tamalis and D. brouweri Zones. In the northern part of the Crotone Basin two phases of drowning separated by an uplift pulse at ca. 2.55 Ma can be recognized, the second of which was a dramatic collapse, between 2.3 and 2.1 Ma. The fifth TSS is bounded at the base by an unconformity at the transition between «large» and «small» GephyrocapsaZones, i.e. at around 1.1-1.2 Ma, correlating basinwards with a conformable surface. The unconformity is erosional and locally angular in the marginal part of the basin, where it seals structures generated by a contractional event documented also elsewhere in the Calabria block. This event, which is accompanied by a strikeslip component, is inferred to be coeval to the Lower Pleistocene important transpressional episode along the Pollino shear system,which led to release of the Calabria block from the southern Apennines.The fifth TSS is characterized by resumed dextral transtension in the Middle Pleistocene along right-stepping NW-trending faults. This episode generated minor pull-apart sub-basins, showing spectacular growth structures in their infilling successions, which developed with shoaling trend up to inferred Marine Isotope Stages 9-8. The onset of shoaling trend was diachronous, being remarkably younger in the southern sub-basin. In the late Middle Pleistocene to Recent times extensional tectonics was dominating, accompanied by local gravity gliding towards the Ionian Sea, arguably triggered by increase in topographic gradient following hinterland uplift, and implying the activation of a linked, thin-skinned extensional and contractional NE- to NNE-directed fault system, with detachment surface possibly soling into Messinian evaporitic-mudstone deposits. It is concluded that the geologic evolution of the investigated forearc area was characterized by an alternation of long-lived stages of extension-transtension expressed by prolonged subsidence preceded by uplift pulses, and short-lived episodes of contraction-transpression.Major drowning episodes in the forearc area are thought to be coeval to the main phases of spreading in the Tyrrhenian basin.

Time Constraints on the Building of the Serre Batholith: Consequences for the Thermal Evolution of the Hercynian Continental Crust Exposed in Calabria (Southern Italy)

New laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry U-Pb dating on zircon and monazite was performed to estimate the time required for the building of the Serre batholith in Calabria. Age spectra from the bottom and top of the pluton are characterized by two main peaks at 306 and 295 Ma, resulting from a mutual interference between serial intrusive events. On this basis, the emplacement of the top granodiorite layer postdates by about 10 m.yr. emplacement of the lower tonalite layer. These results have been incorporated into a two-dimensional numerical thermal model, assuming overaccretion of a batholith in an extensional tectonic regime. With this approach it was possible to reproduce pressure-temperature paths for various levels of the continental crust and define timing for low-pressure regional and contact metamorphism. In a unique tectonomagmatic scenario the model reproduces regional low-pressure metamorphic effects in the lower to intermediate continental crust and, with a time lag of about 6 m.yr., contact metamorphism in the upper crust. Finally, we propose a conceptual model for the emplacement of the Serre batholith in an extensional tectonic setting. Space for magma can be created by lower crust thinning and rock uplift at the bottom and top of the batholith, respectively.

Late Pliocene volcaniclastic products from Southern Apennines: distal witness of early explosive volcanism in the central Tyrrhenian Sea

Two volcaniclastic successions intercalated in Pliocene basinal clays from the Southern Apennines have been analysed to determine their provenance and their relationship with the geodynamic evolution of the Western Mediterranean. The studied deposits are exclusively made up of ashy pyroclasts, dominated by fresh acidic to intermediate glass, mostly in the form of shards, pumice fragments and groundmass fragments with vitrophyric texture. Crystals include Pl, Opx, Cpx, Hbl and rare Bt. Sedimentological features suggest that the volcanic material accumulated near the basin margin by primary fallout processes and was later remobilized by density currents. 40 Ar– 39 Ar geochronology allowed dating of one succession at 2.24 ± 0.06 Ma, corresponding to the Late Pliocene. Composition of the volcaniclastic material is typical of a transitional high-K calc-alkaline series. The age and chemical composition constrain the provenance of the volcaniclastic rocks from the Southern Tyrrhenian domain. Here, volcanic centres were active during Pliocene time, approximately at the northern end of a volcanic arc formed before the opening of the southernmost part of the sea. This paper shows that a detailed study of volcaniclastic products from the southern Apennines and Calabria can be very useful in collecting new pieces of information on the eruption history of the southern Tyrrhenian domain, since they record additional data not available from the study of exposed volcanic edifices.

Late-Hercynian shearing during crystallization of granitoid magmas (Sila massif, southern Italy): regional implications

Shearing of regional extent, involving granitoids and underlying mid-crustal rocks of the Sila massif (Calabria, Italy), is analysed in this paper. The deformed granitoids are affected by a wide NNW-SSE oriented deformation zone, stretching for about 60 km, from the neighbourhood of Cecita Lake to Cropani village. Meso- and micro-structures in granitoids, close to the boundary with underlying migmatitic paragneiss, indicate that deformation developed from melt-present to solid-state conditions. Simultaneous tectonics and magmatism activated a plutonic accretionary process at mid-crustal levels. This took place at about 300 Ma and involved hybrid magmas with a dominat contribution from a mantle source. The deformation regime remained steady for a long time during magma crystallization and cooling in subsolidus conditions. The regional top-to-the-W sense of shear in the present geographic coordinates, recorded in the deformed granitoids, seems geometrically consistent with the coeval direction of maximum extension found in another sector of the southern Hercynian belt, suggesting the original position of the Sila basement in this context. Magmatic ativity ended with the intrusion of mafic and felsic magams affected by a very weak deformation, ongoing during the final strain increments of the late-Hercynian stage.

Structural architecture and Discrete Fracture Network modelling of layered fractured carbonates (Altamura Fm., Italy)

This work focuses on the spacing and height distributions of bed-perpendicular fracture sets present within a carbonate multilayer, and on their effect on the volumetric (P32 and fracture porosity) and hydraulic (correspondent permeability) properties of the rock mass computed after DFN modelling. Results of integrated field and laboratory analyses are consistent with an uneven spacing distribution of Strata-Bound (SB) fractures. The oldest SB fractures formed within individual limestone beds bounded by bed interfaces, which likely acted as mechanical interfaces. Differently, the youngest SB fractures formed within smaller rock volumes bounded by the pre-existing fractures. Non Strata-Bound (NSB) fractures consist on sheared bed-perpendicular fractures, originally compartmentalized within individual beds, which now form incipient strike-slip faults. DFN modelling of representative rock volumes show that both volumetric and hydraulic properties are strongly affected by the two main sets of NSB fractures, which form a conjugate system of faults producing the principal structural anisotropy in the fractured carbonate multi-layer.

The complete Apennines orogenic cycle preserved in a transient single outcrop near San Fele, Lucania, southern Italy

Orogenic cycles may be viewed as comprising two extensional stages that are separated by a stage of contraction. This sequence has characterized the evolution of most mountain belts resulting from continental collision, and the structural signature of individual stages is recognized on a wide variety of scales, i.e. from microscopic to regional. Whereas the history of mountain belts is generally inferred from observations carried out at different sites, the entire sequence of deformation is very rarely recorded in single exposures. The double switch in tectonic regime that led to the development of the Lucanian Apennines in southern Italy, from pre-orogenic drifting through synorogenic thrusting to post-orogenic extension, is preserved in a superb metre-scale outcrop at Serra Manarella, in the vicinity of San Fele. A Late Jurassic, synsedimentary normal fault is sealed by strata affected by a Mid-Pliocene thrust-related fold. This composite structure, in turn, is truncated by a Mid-Pleistocene normal fault. Observation of these relationships represents a unique opportunity to unequivocally establish the relative chronology of deformations in the Lucanian Apennines, and may provide useful constraints for regional cross-section restoration.

Time–space relationships among structural and metamorphic aureoles related to granite emplacement: a case study from the Serre Massif (southern Italy)

Tectonic and thermal perturbations, related to emplacement of granodiorite in the upper continental crust, have been investigated in the late-Hercynian basement exposed in southern Calabria (Italy). Here, the structural aureole is marked by the presence of a major rim fold adjacent to the intrusive contact for a length of at least 20 km. Geometrical analysis of the structural aureole and related foliations, lineations and crenulations reveals that the perturbed zone is at least 3000 m wide and characterized by an open synform trending nearly parallel to the intrusive contact. This pattern is compatible with a laccolith-like mode of magma emplacement, related to the accretion of the pluton that shouldered weak phyllitic and slaty wall rocks. The metamorphic aureole, about 1800 m wide, is characterized by biotite, cordierite and andalusite that appear sequentially in spotted schists and hornfelses approaching the intrusive contact. The peak assemblage equilibrated between 535 and 590°C at pressures between 175 and 200 MPa, confirmed by Al-in-hornblende barometry on granodiorite. Microstructural analysis allowed the inference of a time lag between the thermal and tectonic perturbations. With the aid of thermal modelling it was possible to quantify the time required to reach the peak temperature at a distance from the intrusive contact where cordierite spots and andalusite porphyroblasts clearly overprint crenulations. This estimate represents the time limit to accomplish deformation in the inner portion of the aureole and thus indicates a minimum strain rate of 4 × 10 −14 s −1 within the country rocks during granodiorite intrusion.