STRATIGRAPHY OF THE CROTONE BASIN FILL (for figure numbers refer to the paper on
Basin Research)
The stratigraphic succession of the onshore Crotone Basin is schematically depicted in Figure
4. For consistency with the established stratigraphy, we place the base of the Quaternary at
the boundary between Gelasian and Calabrian. The stratigraphic units cropping out in the
Crotone Basin are described in Massari et al. (2010) and a more concise version is available
here. For the main formations we refer to Roda’s stratigraphic nomenclature (1964); for minor
units we refer to Van Dijk’s stratigraphy (1992) (although the latter contains many local
names). In the case of missing references, we proposed informal units (Massari et al., 2010).
Although the present study focuses on the SW part of the basin, reference is frequently made
to the entire basin (Fig. 2) in order to present a more complete forearc history.
The upper Serravallian (?) – Messinian succession
The base of the Crotone Basin succession is a nonconformity on basement (mostly
granodiorite and tonalite of Sila Piccola). Alluvial-fan to proximal braided-stream deposits of
the Formazione di San Nicola (upper Serravallian?--Tortonian) (Fig. 4), 0--90 m thick, bury
and onlap a rough topography and consist of clast-supported, brownish to reddish, pebble to
boulder conglomerate and arkosic sandstone. Well-rounded clasts include granodiorite and
tonalite, gneiss, low-grade metamorphic rocks, migmatites, aplites, chert, quartz, and rare
sandstones.
The Molasse a Clipeastri (upper Serravallian?--Tortonian) up to 60 m thick caps the
Formazione di San Nicola or lies directly on basement. It is floored by a ravinement surface
and consists of shoreface to delta-front deposits, moderately fossiliferous in the lower part
(Clypeaster, Scutella, thick heavily bored oyster shells, pectinids, bryozoans), that fine upward
from conglomerate to arkosic sandstone. Pebble imbrication near the base suggests a NEtrending shoreline. This unit partly represents the distal correlative of the younger part of the
Formazione di San Nicola and the proximal correlative of the older part of the overlying Argilla
marnosa del Ponda, which consists of outer-shelf to prodelta clayey and silty mudstone with
N. acostaensis, showing variable and limited (0-20 m) thickness in the study area.
The Argilla marnosa del Ponda grades at the top into white diatomaceous laminites a few
metres thick, the so-called Formazione del Tripoli (lowermost Messinian). This records high
productivity in a restricted, low-oxygenated environment representing a prelude to the
Messinian Salinity Crisis.
The following unit, the Calcare di base (lower Messinian), 7--25 m thick corresponds to the
lower unit of Roda’s Formazione evaporitica inferiore (1964). In the study area it only crops out
along the W basin margin, where lower Messinian evaporites are lacking, and consists of
limestone, in places dolomitic, commonly vacuolar and locally stromatolitic, sometimes
containing a siliciclastic fraction. It lies unconformably with local low-angle discordance on
substrates ranging from the Argilla marnosa del Ponda, Molasse a Clipeastri, and Formazione
di San Nicola.
A major erosional unconformity marks the base of the upper Messinian Petilia Policastro
Formation (PPF) (Massari et al., 2010) (Fig. 4), which shows variable thickness and
composition. The unconformity corresponds to that recognized by Roda (1964) between his
Formazione evaporitica inferiore and Formazione detritico salina and to that identified by Van
Dijk (1990, 1994) at the base of his Mes-3 sequence (Teodoro Fm). The lower unit of the PPF
displays a coarse texture with sandstone, conglomerate, and local heterometric megabreccia
(typically with clasts of Calcare di base, in places occurring as true olistoliths), and shows
pronounced thickness variations on a variable substrate ranging from the Calcare di base to
basement. In the Mesoraca area this unit is particularly thick (~120 m) and shows evidence of
subaerial, alluvial-fan deposition with palaeoflow toward the south. Nearby, N of the Soleo
river, the unit is significantly thinner and shows different facies represented by alternating
sandstone, mudstone, debrite, and lenticular, scour-based rudite, with features suggesting
subaqueous resedimentation by sediment gravity flows.
The upper unit of the PPF consists of a thick complex of silty and clayey mudstone, barren
or containing older foraminifer assemblages, commonly interbedded with thin and fine-grained
sandstones and encasing sandstone/conglomerate bodies 2.5--8 m thick and whitish
resedimented gypsarenite packages up to 12 m thick (Fig. 4). The sandstone/conglomerate
bodies predominantly show sharp-based, channelized geometry with evidence of subaqueous
or subaerial deposition. Less commonly, they show an upward-thickening and -coarsening
trend, thought to record mouth-bar progradation. Both show palaeoflow toward N 105°--110°.
The gypsarenite, particularly well represented in the Petilia Policastro area, is inferred to
derive from cannibalization and gravity-driven resedimentation at the expense of previous
evaporitic deposits. The mudstone encasing such a range of units is attributed to a low-energy
nonmarine basin with periodic subaerial exposure.
In the N part of the Crotone Basin and in the Cirò and Rossano depocentres large chaotic
tongues of Argille Scagliose were emplaced within upper Tortonian and Messinian units
(Ogniben, 1962, 1973; Roda, 1967; Cavazza et al., 1997; Barone et al., 2008; Cavazza &
Barone, 2010). In particular, a tongue of Argille Scagliose occurs in the NE corner of the basin
(Fig. 2) between the Roda’s Formazione evaporitica inferiore and Formazione detritico-salina
(1964) (the latter corresponding to the lower part of our PPF) (Barone et al., 2008) (Fig. 4)
The PPF locally fills small grabens or larger half-grabens, and is affected near the end of
deposition by transpression, locally accompanied by SW-verging thrusts (Petilia-Martelletto
fault zone) (Fig. 3; Fig. 6, profile A--A’, trace in Fig. 3) which are truncated by a major
unconformity (Fig. 13 in Massari et al., 2010) recognized by Van Dijk (1990, 1994). The
unconformities bounding the PPF at the base and top, and locally also the unconformable
base of the lower Pliocene mudstone, tend to converge into a single unconformity on the W
basin margin at the foot of the Sila Piccola massif.
The unconformity atop the PPF marks the lower boundary of the “Carvane Group”,
comprising the Conglomerato delle Carvane and the probably coeval Cropani conglomerate,
the Gigli Formation, and Arvano Formation (Fig. 4). The group is characterized by onlapping,
transgressive relationships on the substrate and shows an overall upward-fining trend. The
Conglomerato delle Carvane consists of clast-supported brownish conglomerate with rounded
pebbles to boulders, pebbly sandstone and sandstone interpreted as an extensive, coarse
braided fluvial system. It is mostly developed and best exposed S of the village of Marcedusa,
but is missing on the W basin margin, except in the Petilia Policastro area. Palaeoflow ranges
from SSE- to SSW-ward. Clast lithologies include granodiorite, tonalite, kinzigites, marble,
gneiss, phyllite, various arenites such as calcarenite and quartzarenite, chert, and limestone.
The probably coeval Cropani conglomerate is a localized alluvial-fan deposit cropping out near
the village of Cropani, mostly composed of small phyllitic pebbles, unconformably overlying
the Calcare di base and onlapped by lower Pliocene mudstone. Phyllitic rocks are presently
absent updip of this unit.
The Gigli Formation mostly consists of grey/greenish to blackish argillaceous and silty
mudstone up to 65 m thick, alternating in some intervals with fine-grained sandstone beds and
locally involved in slump folds. The unit is barren, except for sparse smooth-shelled
hypohaline ostracods (Cyprideis) (Roda, 1964) and reworked foraminifers, and is attributed to
a Lago-Mare fresh-water to brackish, low-energy basin with episodic deposition of sands
crevassing from nearby fluvial systems.
The Arvano Formation, up to 9--10 m thick, consists of light-grey medium-grained
sandstone to granule microrudite and is a key stratigraphic unit useful for intrabasinal
correlations due to its great lateral persistence. It generally shows an upward-coarsening and thickening trend and distinctive clinoforms and in places passes laterally into channel bodies.
Palaeoflow is toward ESE. This unit is interpreted as the record of a relatively thin Gilbert-type
delta associated with a distributary feeder channel system. The transition to the overlying
lower Pliocene hemipelagic mudstone is remarkably sharp, matching the well-known Pliocene
transgression in the Mediterranean.
The Pliocene – lower Pleistocene succession
Description of this succession requires a comparison between the marginal N sector of the
Crotone Basin and the southern basinal area, since the depositional settings and stratigraphic
architectures are significantly different. Unconformities fundamental for a sequencestratigraphic analysis are developed in the marginal part, and generally pass basinward into
conformable surfaces.
The northern part of the Crotone Basin
In the N part of the basin, Roda (1964) recognized an upward shallowing lower Pliocene
succession comprising a mudstone unit (the Marna argillosa dei Cavalieri, consisting of outershelf marl transitionally overlain by prodelta siltstone) that grades upward into a thick
monotonous shallow-water unit (the Molassa di Zinga) (Fig. 4), also attributed to the lower
Pliocene but devoid of marker fossils. This unit is composed of delta-front to shoreface
sandstone and hybrid calcarenite, with common storm-related concentrations of pectinids,
thick-shelled oysters, and barnacles.
A major unconformity, locally with angular discordance truncating compressional
structures, caps this formation (Roda, 1964). It is overlain by a transgressive, middle(?)
Pliocene
succession
(Spartizzo-Scandale
complex)
of
backstepping
parasequences
(cyclothems) developed in an extensional regime (Mellere et al., 2005). Individual cyclothems
typically consist of greenish-grey lagoonal mud locally rich in Cerastoderma glaucum (Argilla
marnosa di Spartizzo) overlain by a ravinement surface and fossiliferous shoreface sandstone
(Molassa di Scandale) and in places underlain by fluvial gravel.
The Spartizzo-Scandale complex is overlain by and partly correlative with hemipelagic
mudstone showing a rapidly deepening trend in the lower part. These hemipelagites, included
by Roda (1964) in the lowermost Argilla marnosa di Cutro (AMC), were formerly distinguished
by Ogniben (1955) as Argilla marnosa di Timpa Biso (AMTB) (Fig. 4). Most of the AMTB was
dated to the D. tamalis Zone p.p. and the upper part to the D. pentaradiatus Zone p.p.
(Consolaro, 2004; Capraro et al., 2006). The upper portion of this unit, above a sapropel-like
layer correlatable with S 258, becomes rapidly siltier and shows a rapid shoaling trend (forced
regression) not definitively of glacioeustatic nature, as it occurs during a fully interglacial stage,
and therefore was interpreted to imply synsedimentary uplift (Capraro et al., 2006). In turn, this
forced-regressive portion of the AMTB grades into inner shelf to shoreface, richly fossiliferous
sandstone cropping out at the village of Strongoli. This unit, distinguished by Ogniben (1955)
as Arenaria di Strongoli (AS), is overlain by an abruptly deepening outer-shelf to slope
mudstone unit, called Argilla di Gigliolo (AG) (Fig. 4) by Ogniben (1955) and incorporated by
Roda (1964) in the AMC, together with AS. The AG was deemed by Ogniben (1955) to be the
local record of the so-called “Calabrian transgression” Auctorum (Gignoux, 1913; Ruggeri &
Selli, 1948; Selli, 1949), a supra-regional event identified in the Italian peninsula and regarded
as the beginning of a major Pleistocene cycle. Consolaro (2004) and Capraro et al. (2006)
dated the AS to the D. pentaradiatus Zone p.p. and the lowermost AG to the lower part of the
D. brouweri Zone. Using planktonic foraminifera and correlation of sapropel-like layers with
Mediterranean cluster B, these authors established that the drowning associated with initial
AG sedimentation occurred between 2.3 and 2.1 Ma. AMC muddy sedimentation then
continued in a slope setting during the Gelasian and early Pleistocene, with a gradual shoaling
into an outer-shelf setting.
The southern part of the Crotone Basin
In the south, lower Pliocene sedimentation was predominantly pelitic and characterized by
a deeper-water deposition. Despite the lithologic uniformity, the Marna argillosa dei Cavalieri
can be distinguished from the younger stratigraphic unit. It is represented by a marly unit of
Zanclean age (upper MPL1 to lower MPL3), lying abruptly on Lago-Mare deposits and
consisting of outer-shelf to slope, hemipelagic bluish-grey marl and mudstone, commonly
massive, rich in foraminifers and calcareous nannoplankton but poor in macrofossils. Local
banding is due to lighter, more limey bands alternating with darker, more siliciclastic bands.
Where the basal contact is preserved, as in the Cropani area, the unit shows onlap
relationships with Messinian deposits. In the marginal W area, at the foot of the Sila Piccola
massif, S of the village of Belcastro, lower Pliocene mudstones fill a palaeovalley cut into
basement (Fig. 3). A unit that is probably time-equivalent to the Molassa di Zinga, and locally
to the upper portion of the Marna argillosa dei Cavalieri, is represented by flysch-like deposits
consisting of an alternation of bluish-grey and grey argillaceous mudstone and sandstone
layers indicating SSE-ward palaeoflow (Timpone Giudei flysch, upper MPL2 and lower MPL3)
(Fig. 4). This facies contains in the Timpone Arciere area a sharp-based, upward-thinning,
lenticular body of resedimented, sparsely bioclastic sandstone (the Timpone Arciere
sandstone).
The contact with the overlying slope mudstones of the AMC, where observable, is
apparently conformable, although evidence of late Zanclean deformation is clear along the
main NNW- to NW-trending fault system, for example along the Fosso Umbro, MarcedusaSteccato and Timpone Arciere faults (Fig. 3; Fig. 6, profiles C--C’, D--D’ and E--E’; traces in
Fig. 3). Along restraining bends of major NNW- to NW-trending faults, elongate, lenticular
bodies of chaotic breccias (Madama Lucrezia breccia) have been emplaced (Fig. 3). They
consist of widely ranging clast sizes, from small fragments to slabs several metres across, of
older sediments (mostly massive or crystalline gypsum, gypsum breccia, and laminated
gypsarenite, associated with vacuolar limestone of the Calcare di base, and minor
components including basement rocks, sandstone/conglomerate of the Formazione di San
Nicola and various terrigenous lithologies of the Petilia Policastro Fm) in a matrix of yellowish,
sometimes vacuolar, calcareous and gypsiferous mudstone. The breccia is locally cut by small
subvertical dykes.
In spite of the conformity, the AMC basal contact marks a change in composition and
sedimentation, since an abrupt increase in sedimentation rate (from ~110-150 m/Myr to ~500600 m/Myr) occurred in the upper MPL4a Zone, accompanied by the appearance of a
distinctive siliceous fraction (sponge spicules and sometimes radiolaria and diatoms), pointing
to increased productivity. This type of sedimentation lasted from ~3.6 Ma to ~3.35 Ma, and
was followed, since the lower MPL4b Zone, by an interval rich in diatomaceous laminite, in
places affected by slumping. These occur in the D. tamalis Zone, are less common in the D.
pentaradiatus Zone, and reappear again in the upper D. brouweri Zone and in the D.
productus Zone, interbedded with muddy/marly packages, as well as intervals of turbiditic
sand/mud couplets and local sandstone bodies. The diatomaceous interval corresponds to the
Formazione tripolacea of Emiliani et al. (1961). Methanogenic cold-seep carbonate are
particularly associated with both siliceous and diatomaceous units, commonly in irregular
masses or cylindric chimneys with axial cavities, interpreted as pathways for fluid expulsion
(e.g. Clari et al., 2004).
The lower Pleistocene stratigraphy (corresponding to the Formazione di Papanice of
Emiliani et al., 1961) is dominantly terrigenous and shows a sharp differentiation into three
sectors (Massari et al., 2010; Capraro et al., 2011) (Fig. C online).
(a) Sector 1, bounded by the Marcedusa-Steccato and San Antonio faults, displays a
spectacularly expanded succession (~450 m in the C. macintyrei, H. sellii, and “large”
Gephyrocapsa zones; 360 m if counted from the base of the H. sellii Zone) containing
turbidite sandstone bodies and clusters of laminated sapropel-like layers. Sandstone
bodies show limited lateral persistence and palaeocurrent directions ranging from 170° to
135°. They are channelized in the upper succession and unchannelized in the lower part, a
trend interpreted to reflect progradation of slope channels passing downslope into turbidite
lobes on a low-gradient seafloor.
(b) Sector 2 is located in the Timpone Serrano area, bounded to the S by the San Antonio
Fault and to the E by the Casella Monaca Fault. It shows a stratigraphy and organization of
sandstone bodies similar to that of sector 1 but with significantly lower overall thickness (~200
m from the base of the H. sellii Zone to the top of the “large” Gephyrocapsa Zone).
(c) Sector 3, located in the Colle Erbebianche area, NE of the San Antonio Fault, lacks
sandstone bodies and is characterized by highly condensed stratigraphy, being dominated by
hemipelagic mudstones, with remarkably lower overall thickness (~110 m from the C.
macintyrei Zone to the “large” Gephyrocapsa Zone; 75 m if counted from the base of the H.
sellii Zone) and rare sapropel-like layers.
The upper AMC shows a trend shallowing upward first into upper-slope and then into a
shelf setting.
The younger part of the succession pre-dating terrace formation
In the upper AMC a marked unconformity, with low-angle angular discordance (Fig. 6, profile
G--G’; Fig. 11), has been identified in the San Mauro area, where it implies a gap
encompassing the uppermost “large” Gephyrocapsa and the lower “small” Gephyrocapsa
zones.
As detailed below, this stratigraphic break is thought to mark an important
palaeogeographic change involving subdivision of the Crotone Basin into separate
depocentres: the Foresta, San Mauro, and Troiani subbasins in the more marginal N setting,
and Marcedusa Subbasin in the S deeper-water setting. The sole interval confidently dated in
this part of the succession, above the unconformity or correlative conformity, is the uppermost
AMC interval, since the youngest, shallow-water cyclothems lack any reliable biostratigraphic
signal (Fig. 11). Its age is well constrained in the San Mauro and Marcedusa subbasins, being
based on 18O and magneto-biostratigraphic data (Rio et al., 1996; Capraro et al., 2005;
Capraro et al., 2011), whereas in the other two subbasins it is essentially based on the sole
nannoplankton biostratigraphy (Fig. 11). The age of youngest deposits cannot be determined
precisely, as noted above. In any case, they should pre-date the oldest marine terrace
identified in the Crotone area, attributed to MIS 7 by Gliozzi (1987). As the stratigraphy and
environmental setting of the San Mauro, Troiani and Foresta subbasins are similar, the
proximal-to-distal comparison is based on the best documented successions of San Mauro
and Marcedusa subbasins.
The San Mauro Subbasin
In the San Mauro area the unconformity marks a sharp bathymetric change from upper
slope/outermost-shelf muds (Cutro 1 of Rio et al., 1996) to mid- to inner-shelf cyclothems of
the “small” Gephyrocapsa“ Zone (Cutro 2 of Rio et al., 1996) (Fig. 4; Fig. 6, profile G--G’; Fig.
11), whose condensed sections have been correlated with Marine Isotope Stages (MIS) 33 to
25 using bio-magnetostratigraphic constraints (Rio et al., 1996). The overlying shallow-marine
Timpone San Litano Formation shows a sharp or rapidly transitional contact at the base,
suggesting a forced regression which can be correlated to the beginning of the severe
glaciation associated with the MIS 24--22 interval (Rio et al., 1996). This unit is represented by
a progradational, storm-dominated shoreface wedge of hybrid biocalcarenite/biocalcirudite
with Arctica islandica and abundant bio-debris (Massari et al., 1999), locally associated with,
or replaced by, inferred delta-front, Scolicia-bearing, fine sand. Clinoforms in both facies
indicate SE-ward progradation.
The Timpone San Litano Formation is overlain by an outer- to middle-shelf mudstone unit
attributed to MIS 21--19, which straddles the Brunhes/Matuyama magnetic reversal, almost
coinciding here with an important key bed, the “Pitagora Ash” (Rio et al., 1996; Capraro et al.,
2005) (Fig. 11). Since the Timpone San Litano Formation wedges out southward into the
AMC, this pelitic unit is incorporated as the youngest local unit in the AMC.
We propose to combine the Timpone San Litano Formation and younger Lamone
Formation (middle Pleistocene) in the “Molassa di San Mauro” Group, characterized by a
cyclothemic organization denoting an overall upward-shallowing trend (Massari et al., 2010)
(Figs 4 and 11). In the lower part of the group individual cyclothems show shelf mudstone
overlain, with commonly sharp contact, by variably bioclastic and clino-bedded shoreface
sandstone, whereas younger cyclothems incorporate increasing volumes of marginal-marine
and continental deposits (lagoonal mudstone and braided stream conglomerate) (Massari et
al., 1999).
The Marcedusa Subbasin
In the Marcedusa Subbasin, characterized by a comparatively deeper-water setting, the
conformable surface correlative with the San Mauro unconformity is overlain by an interval of
fine sandy turbidites. The upper interval of the AMC has been the subject of a detailed
biostratigraphic and oxygen-isotope analysis in the Petrogallo section, SSE of the village of
Marcedusa (Capraro et al., 2011) (Fig 3). Up to MIS 19 the local succession consists of
hemipelagic slope to deep outer-shelf mudstone, which in the lower part (“small”
Gephyrocapsa Zone) contains sapropel-like layers (Fig. 11). The first evidence of shallowing is
provided by an upward-coarsening silty package with sparse Arctica, interpreted to represent
a shelf-edge lowstand progradational unit emplaced during a glacial stage, as supported by
“heavy” δ18O values. This unit contains in the uppermost part a whitish ash layer, 10--15 cm
thick (Fig. 11), dated to 710 ka ± 5 kyr by
40Ar/39Ar
methods (Capraro et al., 2011). This dating
makes it possible to attribute to MIS 17 the following interval consisting of outer-shelf
mudstone 9 m thick, with foraminiferal assemblages and isotopic evidence indicating an
interglacial stage. The overlying unit is a package ~60 m thick of muddy and silty low-angle
clinobeds showing a SE dip, which suggests a distal delta-front facies association. This unit,
representing the youngest local AMC, shows a heavy δ 18O record indicating extreme glacial
conditions, consistent with its attribution to MIS 16 (Fig. 11).
The youngest Marcedusa succession is represented by two shallow-water cyclothems
(Lamone Formation) (Fig. 11) that include fossiliferous shoreface sands and are similar in
organization to those in the N area.
The fluvial and marine terraces
Sediments post-dating the subbasin fill and laid down during recent uplift in the Crotone area
are represented by fluvial and marine terraces as well as the recent to present-day continental
deposits. The oldest and highest marine terrace, namely the Cutro terrace, has been attributed
to MIS 7 by Gliozzi (1987), and the youngest (Le Castella terrace) to MIS 3 by Mauz & Hassler
(2000). Marine terraces are affected by normal faulting (Gliozzi, 1987; Zecchin et al., 2004).
Regionally, their uplift rate is variable, ranging from 0.6 to 1.0 mm/yr (Lanzafame & Tortorici,
1981; Carobene & Dai Pra, 1990; Tortorici et al., 1995; Mauz & Hassler, 2000; Zecchin et al.,
2004; Nalin et al., 2007). This variability was attributed to complicated interaction between
Quaternary uplift and local active faulting (Molin et al., 2004).
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