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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Solution and recrystallisation processes and associated landforms in gypsum outcrops of Sicily

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Abstract Four small areas of Messinian (Upper Miocene) age gypsum, outcropping in western Sicily, are described. Messinian age evaporites are found in Sicily over a 1000-km 2 area. Here, gypsum outcrops extensively as a consequence of soil erosion induced by human impact. Geomorphological maps show how the rocky surfaces are characterized by a wide range of forms. There are large, medium, small, and microsized forms, which can be identified as belonging to different morphotypes. The morphotypes can be classified into two main categories: those that originated by solution and those that originated through recrystallisation. Four areas, illustrated by geomorphological maps, were specifically chosen to describe a type of medium-sized form: dome-like hills. These medium-sized forms are covered by a mosaic of smaller forms, related to both the previous categories: different types of karren and of “expansion” forms. The types of karren can be explained as the results of the solution process under different hydro-dynamical behaviour; the dome-like hills and other related “expansion” forms are more difficult to understand. These “expansion” forms can be explained by the same process that leads to the development of gypsum tumuli. The outcrops of gypsum lacking soil cover and influenced by alternating seasonal water conditions of surplus and deficit are affected by both solution and recrystallisation processes. During the wet season, the water soaks into the rocky mass, filling all the fissures and pores of the outer rocky layer from a few centimetres to some metres below the surface. During the dry season, there is a capillary upward motion of the water solution. Near the surface, gypsum precipitates from the oversaturated solution, increasing the crystal size or forming new crystals. In this way, during the dry season, there is a pressure increase in the outer gypsum layers, which is responsible for the development of a “gypsum weathering crust” and characterised by many different forms such as gypsum tumuli, pressure ridges, pressure humps, and other related small forms. The crust may also lead to the development of mega-tumuli and dome-like hills. From the morphostructural point of view, the dome-like hills do not seem to be controlled by the strike, dip, or fissuring of the gypsum beds. Their evolution seems to be linked to the fact that on most of the dome surfaces, the weathering crust is evolving through a nearly isotropic field of stresses, resulting in volume increase in the outer gypsum layer.