Delle Rose M.,, 2007, Marker beds and lithological facies of the Pliocene-lower Pleistocene sequence of Salento (southern Italy)., Epitome (Udine) 2 (2007): 399–400.,
URL: http://www.cnr.it/prodotto/i/118245

Very few Cretaceous to Quaternary units cropping out along the Salento peninsula are formally defined or, at least, represented by proposed stratotype sections. Moreover, the literature of the local Pliocene and Pleistocene shows a number of stratigraphic schemes surprisingly high. Geological surveys performed through the southwestern Salento allow the recognition of some lithological facies (unformal units or stratigraphic levels) and the definitions of marker beds useful to correlate reduced and condensed successions. The facies are named_ chaotic assemblage; massive marlstones; glauconitic siltstones; phosphatized calcirudite; calcarenites and calcilutites. They are linked to Mediterranean paleo-environmental and paleo-climatological events and, as a whole, form a lower Pliocene - lower Pleistocene sequence overlies, in turn, by marine and terrestrial middle-upper Pleistocene deposits. Chaotic assemblage consists of megablocks, breccias and pebbles from older units in calcarenitic or calciruditic matrix (early Zanclean). It contains lens of limestone and is draped by the aforementioned marlstones and glauconitic siltstone (Zanclean-Piacenzian). In spite of the description of the chaotic assemblage was made about 130 years ago and a recent proposition of lihostratigraphic formalization of a representative section, its recognition appears again a questionable task. As an example, at Capo San Gregorio wide outcropping breccias is assigned by a recent literature to the above unit, notwithstanding they form intraclastic layers interbedded within a carbonate platform succession. Moreover, it also mentionable that east of Lecce a decimetric breccias is recognized, below a phosphatized pebbles in calcarenitic matrix level, in place of some tens metres thick of the so called "Leuca formation" recently mapped, and that such deposit cannot be considered a formation according to the stratigraphic codes. The phosphatized calcirudite (early Gelasian) locally (for example at Otranto) contains a number of squashed marly inclusions and shows a three-folded partition (reverse grain-size grading basal portion; middle one contains a dense detritus component; normal grain-size grading upper portion) which suggest intra-platform grain flow re-sedimentation processes. The phosphatization of the clasts probably developed below the euphotic zone, between the deepest inner shelf and the shallowest middle shelf. This marker bed is particularly suitable as a sequential stratigraphy tools and lets the correlation between a number of successions. The calcarenites and calcilutites (Gelasian-Calabrian) consist of fossiliferous intensively bioturbated coarse to fine-grained beds. This deposit can be related to the Calcarenite di Gravina Fm (Auct.). At the top it presents Arctica islandica which, in some place, form shell concentrations. The lowest stratum containing the northern guest allows the correlation between various successions. At least along the southwestern Salento, Pliocene is not formed by two sedimentary cycles as reported in literature. The chaotic assemblage represents the Transgressive System Tract relative to the fast early Mediterranean Pliocene sea level rise; marlstones and glauconitic siltstones are the condensed deposits linking the maximum flood surface, whereas the overlying erosional surface represents an unconformity marking a gap in the sequence. Finally, calcarenites and calcilutites constitute the High Stand Tract relative to the sea level dropping. Especially along the central and western sectors of the Salento, lower Pleistocene calcarenites and calcilutites are overlie by a sandy deposit rich in mollusc and brachiopoda, especially Terebratula scillae, that forms an umpteenth marker bed.

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