Search results for "Sicily Channel"

Surface and deep water conditions in the Sicily channel (central Mediterranean) at the time of sapropel S5 deposition

2011

New centennial-scale data of benthic foraminifera assemblages and of stable isotopes of foraminifera shells from the Sicily Channel, representative of surface and bottom waters, over the interval between about 140 and 110 kyr BP, are presented. During this period anoxia developed on the eastern Mediterranean basin and sapropel S5 deposited. Although anoxic sediments have not been deposited in the Sicily Channel, this area is strategic to study the character of intermediate waters, whose chemical-physical properties strongly precondition the eastern Mediterranean deep water formation. So far, no data from these water masses have been obtained, apart from the isotopic composition of shells of…

Dynamics at the Strait of Sicily and Mediterranean Sapropels

2012

Millennial-scale paleoenvironmental changes in the central Mediterranean during the Last Interglacial: comparison with European and Mediterranean rec…

2008

Invasive Amphisteginids conquer the Sicily Channel and knock on the door of the Western Mediterranean Sea

2018

This study reports an updated overview of the current distribution and establishment status of the invasive species Amphistegina lobifera Larsen, 1979 and of other non-indigenous foraminifera in the Sicily Channel. The dispersal of marine non-indigenous species (NIS) by human activities is redefining the biogeography of the oceans and is one aspect of global change. Understanding the role of NIS in altering the structure of marine communities requires accurate information on their temporal occurrence, spatial distribution and effect on native ecosystems. However many NIS, particularly those belonging to small-sized unicellular taxa, such as benthic foraminifera, are largely unrecognized and…

NEOTECTONIC ACTIVITY AND EMISSION OF FLUIDS IN THE NORTHWEST SICILY CHANNEL

The southern Sicilian coast represents an important contribution to Italian tourism, the Sicily Channel is an important communication path because at the top of its seafloor there are many pipelines, and submarine communication cables which are laid to carry signals, and which are very important to the minor islands. In this work, we are presenting results of the detailed geomorphological and seismostratigraphic analysis based on new very high-resolution dataset (multibeam and CHIRP) acquired during the ACUSCAL 2015 Cruise. We also used low resolution bathymetric and seismic data provided from online database (ViDEPI, GEBCO, EMODnet). This study allows us to reconstruct the tectonic volcani…

Architecture and Pliocene to Recent evolution of the offshore prolongation of the Granitola - Castelvetrano Thrust System (Sicily Channel)

2014

High-resolution, seismic profiles were recorded in the offshore of Mazara - Punta Granitola with the purpose of reconstructing the architecture and Pliocene to Recent evolution of the south-west prolongation of the Granitola- Castelvetrano Thrust System, identified as an active structure possibly related to destructive historical earthquakes (Barreca et al., 2014; Ferranti et al., this meeting). A number of seismic units were identified. The oldest one is interpreted as representative of the Lower Pliocene pelagic deposits known in the region as Trubi. Lower-middle Pleistocene calcarenites are widespread along the continental shelf (CS) between Mazara del Vallo while their top rapidly deepe…

The NW sector of the Sicily Channel: geometry and evolution of inverted structural lineaments

2014

The 3-D trend of anticline axial planes, fault planes and surfaces has been reconstructed in the offshore area between the Egadi Islands and the Sciacca High from the interpretation of multichannel seismic reflection profiles and well data (available from the VIDEPI project database). In particular, isopach maps generated for the five seismic units of age between Cretaceous and Quaternary allowed highlighting the space-time migration of the tectonic processes. The western portion of the studied area covers the submerged prolongation of the inner sector of the Sicilian-Maghrebian chain, limited in the NW and in the SE by two tectonic lineaments running along the western and eastern margins o…

Petrologic constraints on melting conditions in the Strait of Sicily Rift Zone.

2013

The Strait of Sicily Rift Zone (SSRZ) is a northwest-southeast trending transtensional rift situated in the Mediterranean Sea between Sicily and north Africa. The SSRZ consists of three basins: the Pantelleria Trough, the Linosa Basin, and the Malta Trough. Volcanoes are situated in or adjacent to all except the Malta Trough, and include two islands (Pantelleria and Linosa) and several seamounts. The thickness of the crust throughout the region is 25-35 km, but thins to 16-18 km in the basins of the SSRZ. The Pantelleria Trough is characterized by high average heat flow values and a strong positive Bourger anomaly, which suggest assthenospheric upwelling to ~60 km and the presence of abunda…

Multi-disciplinary analysis to construct a crustal model of the Sicily Channel using geological and geophysical techniques (data): impacts on geologi…

2023

To understand the dynamics of crustal deformation and earthquakes in active orogenic systems, it is essential to have a detailed view of the lithospheric structures in three dimensions (3D). Several studies in the literature explain how 3D visualization can enable the recognition of tectonic structures or to be able to establish connections between intraplate volcanoes (Wu et al., 2016; Lei & Zhao, 2016; Tan et al., 2019). This work aims to define and discretize a 1D-velocity model of the Sicily Channel; create a detailed 3D lithospheric model of the Sicily Channel using a multidisciplinary approach to evaluate the geological hazard elements that affect the Iblean foreland integrating bathy…

Astronomical dating of two Pliocene alkaline volcanic ash layers in the Capo Rossello area (southern Sicily, Italy): implications for the beginning o…

2009

Key-words. - Sicily Channel rift, Biostratigraphy, Astronomical calibration, Pliocene, Volcanic ash layers. Abstract. - Two volcaniclastic ash layers (AL1 and AL2) are intercalated throughout the middle Pliocene sedimentary sequences of Punta Piccola and Capo Rossello exposed along the south coast of Sicily (Italy). Astronomical calibration of the Punta Piccola section provided an age of 2.676 Ma for the deposition of the AL1 layer. The high-resolution bio-cyclostratigraphy of the Capo Rossello section, in combination with detailed correlations with previously astrono- mically calibrated coeval sequences, provided an age of 2.225 Ma for the deposition of the AL2 layer. Mineralogical, petrog…