Search results for "platform"
showing 10 items of 488 documents
Paleoclimate and extensional tectonics of short-lived lacustrine environments. Lower Cretaceous of the Panormide Southern Tethyan carbonate platform …
2017
Abstract Subaerial erosion and continental sedimentation interbedded with shallow-water carbonates are unequivocal stratigraphic records to evaluate paleoenvironmental and paleoclimate evolution of emerged landmass. Stratigraphic analysis of the Cretaceous Monte Gallo section of the Mesozoic Panormide carbonate platform, in the northern side of the Palermo Mountains (NW Sicily) records a peculiar continental-derived clays that interrupted the shallow-water carbonate sedimentation. These clays rest, with lenticular geometries, above the tectonically-enhanced subaerial erosional unconformity of the Barremian-Lower Aptian Requienid limestones and are covered by the Upper Cretaceous Rudistid li…
The end-Triassic mass extinction: A new correlation between extinction events and δ13C fluctuations from a Triassic-Jurassic peritidal succession in …
2018
Abstract A new δ13Ccarb curve was obtained from an expanded peritidal succession in western Sicily and was used to investigate the relationships between isotopic signatures and biological events on carbonate platforms across the Triassic-Jurassic boundary (TJB). The resulting curve shows two main negative carbon isotopic excursions (CIEs) that fit well with the “Initial” and “Main” CIEs that are recognized worldwide and linked to the End-Triassic Extinction (ETE). In the studied section, the first negative CIE marks the disappearance of the large megalodontids, which were replaced by small and thin-shelled specimens, while the “Main” CIE corresponds to the last occurrence (LO) of the megalo…
Spongy-like porosity in peritidal carbonates: An interaction of cyclic sea-level oscillations, fresh water supply and sediment texture
2016
Abstract This paper focuses upon the analysis of a complex paleokarstic system recorded within uppermost Triassic peritidal cycles in northwestern Sicily. Besides documenting spectacular karstification at the Triassic/Jurassic boundary, it provides an example of stratabound ‘spongy’ or ‘swiss-cheese’ dissolution. On the base of field observations, microfacies analysis, transmitted-light and cathodoluminescence petrography and stable-isotope analyses we put forward an original model for the formation of this peculiar stratabound dissolution. It implies a complex interaction of several controlling factors at the interface between the marine and meteoric diagenetic realms during the relative c…
Basin analysis in the Southern Tethyan margin: Facies sequences, stratal pattern and subsidence history highlight extension-to-inversion processes in…
2018
Abstract In the Mediterranean, the South-Tethys paleomargin experienced polyphased tectonic episodes and paleoenvironmental perturbations during Mesozoic time. The Cretaceous shallow-water carbonate successions of the Panormide platform, outcropping in the northern edge of the Palermo Mountains (NW Sicily), were studied by integrating facies and stratal pattern with backstripping analysis to recognize the tectonics vs. carbonate sedimentation interaction. The features of the Requienid limestone, including geometric configuration, facies sequence, lithological changes and significance of the top-unconformity, highlight that at the end of the Lower Cretaceous the carbonate platform was tecton…
Geology of Monte Gallo (Palermo Mts, NW Sicily)
2016
The promontory of Monte Gallo (Palermo, NW Sicily) is a spectacular site where Upper Triassic-Eocene carbonate platform rocks and Quaternary continental to marine deposits are well exposed. A Mesozoic-Paleogene rock succession allows the potential visitor to easily detect the features and the evolution of the Panormide carbonate platform, a shallow-water paleogeographic domain of the Southern Tethyan margin. Quaternary deposits, as well many landforms, enable the visitor to directly identify the interplay between climate changes, tectonics and fluctuations of marine level that occurred during the Quaternary Period. A detailed geological map (1:15,000 mapping scale) is presented, accompanied…
The migration path of Gondwanian dinosaurs toward Adria: New insights from the Cretaceous of NW Sicily (Italy)
2021
Abstract The increasing dinosaur record from Italy questioned classic palaeogeographic scenarios for the Central Mediterranean area and suggest the proximity of landmass areas and a geographical connection between Gondwana and Laurasia during Cretaceous times. Besides several track-sites and exceptionally-preserved specimens (e.g. Scipionyx samniticus), the Italian dinosaur record also consists of isolated bones, among which the bone fragment of a theropod discovered in north-western Sicily. The bone occurs in a shallow-water carbonate succession (i.e. Pizzo Muletta, Palermo Mountains) pertaining to the Panormide Carbonate Platform (PCP). The bone was previously ascribed to the Cenomanian, …
Biostratigraphy and isotope stratigraphy of upper Maastrichtian–Danian marine deposits of the Kopet-Dagh Basin, northeast Iran
2018
Abstract Biostratigraphy, using foraminifera and echinoids, plus high-resolution carbon isotope stratigraphy of the upper Maastrichtian–Danian interval in the western part of the Kopet-Dagh Basin in northeast Iran are outlined. Our study of shallow-marine carbonate platform deposits of the Kalat Formation, rich in larger benthic foraminifera (predominantly Clypeorbis mammillatus Schlumberger, Lepidorbitoides sp. and Siderolites calcitrapoides Lamarck), has allowed the definition of a C. mammillatus-S. calcitrapoides Assemblage Zone, of late Maastrichtian age. Clypeorbis mammillatus is here recorded for the first time from the Maastrichtian Kalat Formation and represents the most easterly fi…
Carbonate slope re‐sedimentation in a tectonically‐active setting (Western Sicily Cretaceous Escarpment, Italy)
2020
Tectonic processes are widely considered as a mechanism causing carbonate platform margin instabilities leading to the emplacement of mass transport deposits and calciturbidites. However, only few examples establishing a clear link between tectonics and re-sedimentation processes are known from the lit- erature. The two-dimensional and three-dimensional wire-cut walls of hun- dreds of quarries extracting ornamental limestones (for example, Perlato di Sicilia) from the Western Sicily Cretaceous Escarpment in Italy expose a series of mass transport deposits. The depositional architecture, spatial facies distri- bution and sedimentary features of these deposits were studied in detail. Thin sec…
A Cretaceous carbonate escarpment from Western Sicily (Italy): biostratigraphy and tectono-sedimentary evolution
2020
Abstract The presence of a huge carbonate slope of Cretaceous age is recorded in some imbricated thrust sheets from the Maghrebian fold-and-thrust belt cropping out in northwesternmost Sicily (southern Italy). The sedimentological features of this escarpment, named as the Western Sicily Cretaceous Escarpment (WSCE), have been recently described. The present paper aims to provide a detailed bio-chronostratigraphic characterization of the different facies types that occur in the four lithostratigraphic units spanning the whole slope depositional system. The detailed biostratigraphic analysis and correlation of a number of well-exposed sections allowed to differentiate eight informal biozones …
Sea–land geology of Marettimo (Egadi Islands, central Mediterranean sea)
2016
We present a 1:10,000 scale geological map of Marettimo Island and its offshore (Egadi Archipelago, central Mediterranean Sea). The map was achieved by integrating a new geological survey with data from recent, marine, geological and geophysical surveys acquired along the adjacent continental shelf. The island is composed of a Mesozoic, mostly carbonate platform succession, which is overlain by continental to coastal marine Quaternary deposits. Extensional tectonics have affected the carbonate platform since the Late Triassic producing an initial increase of accommodation space that was filled by interbed breccias, marls and calcareous marls. During the Jurassic, a NE-SW-directed normal fau…