0000000000921557
AUTHOR
S Todaro
Fracture stratigraphy of Mesozoic platform carbonates, Agri Valley, southern Italy
The outcropping platform carbonates form a layered succession crosscut by a dense array of bed-parallel pressure solution seams and veins, oblique-to-bedding pressure solution seams, and high-angle joints, veins, and pressure solution seams. Altogether, these structural elements form sub-seismic heterogeneities that formed during the polyphase tectonic evolution of the southern Apennines fold and-thrust belt, Italy. Aiming at assessing the role exerted by the primary carbonate architecture on failure modes and fracture geometry and distribution, we conduct a multi-disciplinary study by performing stratigraphic, petrographic, mineralogical, and mesoscale structural analyses. Based on carbona…
Shallow ocean oxygen decline during the end-Triassic mass extinction
The end-Triassic mass extinction (ETME) was associated with intensified deep-water anoxia in epicontinental seas and mid-depth waters, yet the absolute oxygenation state in the shallow ocean is uncharacterized. Here we report carbonate-associated iodine data from the peritidal Mount Sparagio section (Southern Italy) that documents the ETME (~ 200 Ma) in the western Tethys. We find a sharp drop in carbonate I/(Ca + Mg) ratios across the extinction horizon and persisting into the Early Jurassic. This records local dissolved oxygen and iodate decline in the near-surface ocean of low-latitude Tethys due to the development of depleted oxygen concentrations. Consequently, during the ETME even sha…