Morphology of the submerged Ferdinandea Island, the ‘Neverland’ of the Sicily Channel (central Mediterranean Sea)

We present the bathy-morphological map at a scale of 1: 50,000 of the area around the submerged Ferdinandea Island, the ‘Neverland’ of the Sicily Channel (central Mediterranean Sea). We investigate an area of 100 km2, between 10 and 350 m, which is part of a triangular morphological high, 360 km2 wide, representing the SE-wards prolongation of the Adventure Bank. The study is based on the morphometric analysis based on high resolution multibeam, and sub-bottom CHIRP profiles collected in 2015. The area around the remains of Ferdinandea Island is morphologically shaped by the interplay between volcanic, tectonic, fluid seepage, and oceanographic processes. Since the study area is considered a hot spot of biodiversity affected by maritime traffic (especially in Ferdinandea Channel) and hosting communication pipelines, this map provides insights both for habitat mapping purposes and preliminary marine geohazard assessment due to the occurrence of historically active submarine volcanoes, pockmarks, and mass transport deposits

Seismically-induced soft-sediment deformation structures in Upper Triassic deepwater carbonates (Central Sicily)

We describe soft-sediment deformation structures into the Upper Triassic cherty limestone outcropping in the Pizzo Lupo section (Central Sicily, Italy), pertaining to the deep-water palaeodomain of the Southern Tethyan margin. In the study section, mainly consisting of thin-bedded mudstone/marl alternations with bedded chert intercalations, some lithofacies have been separated on the basis of the abundance of the calcium carbonate/clay content and the overall textural features. The deformational structures, displaying different deformational styles as folded and faulted beds, disturbed layers, clastic dikes, and slumps occur mainly in the deformed horizons that involve marl-dominated lithofacies. Small-scale water-escape structures involve beds with nodular fabric. Synsedimentary faults affect the mud-limestone dominated lithofacies, which are characterized by fault-rotating blocks producing lateral thinning. These bodies appear to have moved coherently along an overall planar surface. We relate these soft-sediment deformations to slump sheets, associated with down-slope sliding of sedimentary masses. The deformation mechanism and driving force for these soft-sediment deformations are due essentially to gravitational instability and dewatering. Detailing, rotational (slump) and translational (glide) slides and water-escape are the main processes causing the distinguished deformational styles. The synsedimentary extensional tectonics that affected the Upper Triassic pelagic deposits was the triggering process responsible for the instability of the seafloor inducing loss of coherence of the unconsolidated sediments on the sea bottom, developing a large number of gravity-driven slides. The analysis of both of these SSDSs and their relationships with the structural scenario allow us to hypothesise that they are seismically-induced

Multidisciplinary approach for outcropping and subsurface Permian-Cenozoic deepwater carbonates (Central Sicily): outcome for paleogeography of the Southern Tethyan continental margin

An integrated stratigraphic study of the outcropping and buried Permian-Cenozoic deep-water carbonate successions have been performed. These successions form some of the tectonic units, mostly buried beneath the Late Neogene sedimentary cover, in the fold and thrust belt of Central Sicily. Three main successions, pertaining to the well known Lercara, Imerese and Sicanian domains, have been reconstructed on the basis of a detailed facies analysis, seismostratigraphic interpretation, biostratigraphy (mostly based on palynological data) and comparison between outcropping and subsurface deep-water sediments. The main results reveal a continuous sedimentation of the deep-water Southern Tethyan Sicilian succession since the Permian to Cenozoic. In detail: a) the Permian-Middle Triassic terrigenous and carbonate deep-water successions, outcropping or buried in the Cerda, Lercara-Roccapalumba and Sosio Valley regions, are well comparable to each other and represent the common substrate of the Mesozoic-Paleogene Imerese and Sicanian carbonate successions; b) the Mesozoic-Paleogene deep-water carbonates, when compared among them, reveal the occurrence of different sedimentary successions (Imerese and Sicanian); c) the Oligo-Miocene foreland basin terrigenous sediments (Numidian flysch) clearly differ from the coeval foreland hemipelagic to open-shelf carbonates. The paleogeographic reconstruction envisages: a) during the Permian-Triassic, a wide subsident continental rifting area, bordered by a shallow-water domain periodically supplying the basin with calciturbiditic to gravity flows sedimentation (rift stage of the Southern Tethyan margin); b) during the Jurassic-Paleogene, two different deep-water basins developed in a context of a post-rift stage. The different sedimentation reflects the location of the Imerese and Sicanian basins, respectively, along adjacent rimmed shelf and stepped carbonate platform margins; c) the Oligo-Miocene sedimentation reflects the afore-mentioned different location of the two deep-water domains. Flysch deposits suggest that the Imerese was located near an accretionary prism, differently the Sicanian open-shelf carbonates and marls developed on a still undeformed foreland

Noise Induced Phenomena in the Dynamics of Two Competing Species

Noise through its interaction with the nonlinearity of the living systems can give rise to counter-intuitive phenomena. In this paper we shortly review noise induced effects in different ecosystems, in which two populations compete for the same resources. We also present new results on spatial patterns of two populations, while modeling real distributions of anchovies and sardines. The transient dynamics of these ecosystems are analyzed through generalized Lotka-Volterra equations in the presence of multiplicative noise, which models the interaction between the species and the environment. We find noise induced phenomena such as quasi-deterministic oscillations, stochastic resonance, noise delayed extinction, and noise induced pattern formation. In addition, our theoretical results are validated with experimental findings. Specifically the results, obtained by a coupled map lattice model, well reproduce the spatial distributions of anchovies and sardines, observed in a marine ecosystem. Moreover, the experimental dynamical behavior of two competing bacterial populations in a meat product and the probability distribution at long times of one of them are well reproduced by a stochastic microbial predictive model.Comment: 23 pages, 8 figures; to be published in Math. Model. Nat. Phenom. (2016

Paleo-redox conditions during the demise of a carbonate platform in the Tethyan ocean: Evidence from phosphatized and metals (Mn and Fe) rich hardgrounds

Phosphatized Mn and Fe rich hardgrounds and condensed pelagic deposits in carbonate platform successions are precious archives of abrupt climate and environmental changes (redox conditions and phosphorous availability) in the past shallow-water marine environment. While numerous examples have been documented in the Cretaceous successions of the Northern Tethys, the scarcity of similar descriptions from the southern margins suggests differences in sedimentary processes or preservation conditions. In this work we study three phosphatized Mn and Fe rich hardgrounds and pelagic condensed deposits that mark the repetitive demise of the Panormide carbonate platform developed in the Southern Tethyan margin during the Cretaceous. The integration of SEM-EDS, PXRD, and Micro-Raman spectroscopy data shows that these hardgrounds consist of fine-grained Fe (goethite and hematite) and Mn (birnessite and/or vernadite) oxides dispersed in a calcite and apatite matrix. Micro-Raman spectroscopy shows the presence of oxidized Mn species: Mn3+ and Mn4+. The oxidation of Mn2+ → Mn3+/4+ and/or Fe2+ → Fe3+ occurred at the sediment-seawater interface under oxic conditions (where both Mn and Fe oxidize) or suboxic conditions (where only Fe oxidizes). The paleoenvironmental perturbations that triggered the formation of both hardgrounds and condensed pelagic deposits were likely related to pCO2 cycle, upwelling of P-Mn-Fe-rich water masses, eutrophication and phosphatization related to the Cretaceous climate oscillations during the main Oceanic Anoxic Events. These perturbations were likely enhanced by tectonic activity. Moreover, we show that the formation of the phosphatized metals-rich hardgrounds and the recovery of shallow-water sedimentation occurred after long-term periods (6–12 Ma). Thus, the Panormide serves as a remarkable example of resilience amidst significant climatic changes

Quaternary marine and continental unconformity-bounded stratigraphic units of the NW Sicily coastal belt

In the coastal sector of NW Sicily, the regional correlation of relevant unconformities recognised within the Quaternary sedimentary successions allowed the mapping of seven unconformitybounded stratigraphic units (UBSUs). The regional unconformities are marine or subaerial erosional surfaces, as well as non-depositional surfaces, locally marked by paleosoils. The erosional surfaces were produced from marine abrasion, surface water overland/ concentrated flow, river erosion, karst solution, mass movement, or wind erosion. The main lithofacies of the Quaternary UBSUs consist of: (a) marine and coastal bioclastic calcarenites, (b) aeolian sandstones, (c) river deposits, (d) colluvial deposits, (e) talus slope deposits, (f) landslide deposits, and (g) chemical carbonates (travertines and speleothems). Quaternary environmental changes, due to tectonics, climate, and sea-level oscillations, are the causes that favoured the development of erosion/deposition processes responsible for the genesis of unconformities and deposits. As a result, through the UBSU map of the NW Sicilian coastal belt, it is possible to: (i) recognise stratigraphic units controlled by tectonic, climatic, and environmental processes (and their interplay) and (ii) detect Quaternary sedimentary evolution

Seventh Cranial Nerve Palsy: The First Sign of Multiple Sclerosis in A Young Children

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic autoimmune inflammatory disease of the central nervous system characterized pathologically by demyelination and subsequent axonal degeneration..