Delle Rose M., 2008, Eustatic-climate versus tectonic control of Pliocene-lower Pleistocene sequence stratigraphic surfaces (Salento, south Italy)., GEOSED 2008, pp. 47–49, Bari, 2008,
URL: http://www.cnr.it/prodotto/i/118202

The stratigraphic arrangement of two Pliocene-Lower Pleistocene Salento sequences have been reconstructed by means of stratigraphic and sedimentological analyses as well as the mapping of a number of lithozones (i. e. lithological facies, unformal units) and some uncoformities. The sequences show intriguing climate proxy records as well some sedimentological response to geodynamic phases and events. A chaotic assemblage lies above the basal disconformity surface. It consists of megablocks, breccias and pebbles in heterogeneous matrix containing lens of clay and limestone, probably formed inside transitional environments subject to intense evaporation under warm and dry climate, and oolithic calcarenites with Strombus coronatus (Massari and D'Alessandro, 2000). The chaotic assemblage fades into marlstones, related to the Trubi Fm (Bossio et al., 1991), and is draped by condensed glauconitic siltstones (Zanclean-Piacenzian). These lithozones respectively represent the sedimentation of clasts dismantled during the Messinian Salinity Crisis and later settled in transitional environment, the Pliocene inundation (Iaccarino et al., 1999) and the subsequent very low rate of sedimentation period (Cita et al., 1999) during the maximum Mediterranean flood. They are separated by a paraconformity from a phosphatized rudite which represents a regional marker and whose gravitational deposition can be related to the about 2.5 My cooling onset and/or the southern Apennines Middle-Upper Pliocene tectonic phase. The previous phosphatization process of the clasts probably occurred at inner-middle shelf (Delle Rose, 2006) during the most recent extended period significantly warmer than today. The aforementioned lithozone have been recognized at the south-eastern portion of the investigated region, whereas at the opposite Triglio hydrographic basin where Salento fades into le Murge plateau, a supposed Upper Pliocene marly unit (nearly unknown in literature) is interposed between Cretaceous and calcarenites and calcilutites (Delle Rose, 2007). The calcarenites and calcilutites (Gelasian-Santernian) consist of fossiliferous intensively bioturbated coarse to fine-grained beds, supplied from an expansive source area located to the north west of Salento as far as the Murge. This facies (the High Stand Tract relative to the sea level dropping) includes the Uggiano La Chiesa formation (Auct.) and can be related to the Gravina Calcarenite Fm. It presents depositional features mainly driven by the accommodation space. Along the east Salento, it is interbedded with greenish-brown clayey lutites that represent astronomical forcing sapropelic deposits. At the top, the calcarenites and calcilutites contain Arctica islandica, somewhere inside biogenic shell concentrations (Delle Rose and Medagli, 2007). With relation to the third order sequence cycles (Haq et al., 1987; Berggren et al., 1995), the first three lithozones can be related to TB 3.4, TB 3.5 and TB 3.6, the phosphatized rudite to TB 3.7 and the calcarenites and calcilutites to TB 3.8. Along the central and western Salento, the calcarenites and calcilutites are overlain by a glauconitic sandy deposit rich in mollusc and brachiopods, especially Terebratula scillae, by means of a disconformity surface. The "brachiopods sands"( D'Alessandro and Palmentola, 1978; Delle Rose and Medagli, 2007) zone form the base deposit of the upper sequence, about which an Emilian-Sicilian age could tentatively assigned. In any case the highest sandy beds have been referred to the Pseudoemiliana Lacunosa zone (Coppa et al., 2001; D'Alessandro et al., 2004). The age of formation of the disconformity between calcarenites and calcilutites and "brachiopods sands" falls into a period characterized both of eustatic-climate sea level drop and tectonic deformation of the southern Apennine and the Apualian Foreland. In any case, this phase set a drastic change of the sediments transportation and accumulation inside the shelf, stopping or reducing the sandy supplying of the east Salento and bordering the subsequent clayey sedimentation within the central and west sectors. Where complete successions are found, as an example in the Cutrofiano area (fig. 1), the aforementioned greenish sandy deposits fades into marly-clay beds that represent the local Argille azzurre (Auct.). The latter, more and more sandy toward the top containing at least one trachyte volcanogenic decimetric bed (Delle Rose et al., 2007), are in turn locally overlie by sands probably homologous of the Monte Marano Sands Fm of the Bradanic trough cycle (Auct.). The whole Emilian-Sicilian (or early Ionian) sequence is related to the TB 3.9 third orders cycle; the origin of its upper boundary surface appear related to the begin of the "glacial Pleistocene". REREFENCES Berggren W.A. et al., 1995. Late Neogene chronology_ New perspectives in high-resolution stratigraphy. Geol. Soc. Am. Bull., 107, 1272-1287. Bossio A. et al., 1985. La sequenza pliocenica di S. Andrea (Lecce) e il suo contenuto in pesci, ostracodi, foraminiferi e nannofossili. Mem. Soc. Toscana Sc. Nat., 92, 35-93. Bossio A. et al., 1987. Stratigrafia del pozzo Poggiardo. Atti Conv. Geol. Salento, 55-87. Bossio A. et al., 1991. Note geologiche e stratigrafiche sull'area di Palmariggi. Riv. It. Paleont. Strat., 97, 175-234. Cita B.M. et al., 1999. Changes in sedimentation rates in all Mediterranenan drillsites document basin evolution and support starved basin condition after early Zanclean flood. Mem. Soc. Geol. It., 54, 145-159. Cherubini C. and Margiotta B., 1984. Caratteristiche geolitologiche e geotecniche dei depositi quaternari di Nardò. Quad. Centro Studi Geotecnici Ingegneria, 9, 3-19. Coppa M.G. et al, 2001. The Pleistocene with Aequipecten opercularis of Campo di Mare. Boll. Soc. Paleont. It., 40, 405-429. D'Alessandro A. and Palmentola G., 1978. Sabbie a brachiopodi, una nuova unità del Salento leccese. Riv. It. Paleont., 84, 1083-1120. D'Alessandro A. et al., 2004. Pliocene-Peistocene bounded by subaerial unconformities within foramol ramp calcarenites and mixed deposits. Sedimentary Geology, 166, 89-144. Delle Rose M., 2006. Mediterranean Pliocene events in the Salento geological record. Thalassia Salentina, 29, 77-99. Delle Rose M., 2007. Sedimentological features of the Plio-Quaternary aquifers of Salento. Mem. Descr. Carta Geol. D'It., 76, 137-146. Delle Rose M. and Medagli P., 2007. The Lower Pleistocene succession of Contrada Torsano. Thalassia Salentina, 30, 57-79. Delle Rose et al., 2007. 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