The Miocene vertebrate-bearing deposits of Scontrone (Abruzzo, Central Italy): Stratigraphic and paleoenvironmental analysis.

The Miocene carbonate deposits of Scontrone (Abruzzo, Central Italy) are well known among palaeontologists because of their fossil vertebrate content that exhibits striking similarities to those of the remarkable ‘‘Terre Rosse’’ faunal complex of the Gargano region, defining the existence of the Miocene Central Mediterranean Apulia paleobioprovince. The main goal of this paper is to establish the age and environment of the Scontrone vertebrate bonebeds. The vertebrate remains are embedded in the basal portion of the Lithothamnion Limestone, a widespread carbonate-ramp lithosome representative of the Tortonian-early Messinian transgression over the entire Apulia Platform. The bonebeds belong to marginal-marine deposits (here called ‘‘Scontrone calcarenites’’) preserved in a small area below transgressive ravinement surfaces. The rapid vertical and lateral facies variations displayed by the ‘‘Scontrone calcarenites’’, together with paleoenvironmental considerations deriving from the vertebrate association, document a complex wave-dominated river-mouth depositional setting developed over a large, flat and semi-arid carbonate ramp. The ‘‘Scontrone calcarenites’’ have been split herein into five facies associations representing the stratigraphic response to a discontinuous or punctuated transgression within an overall rise of the relative sea level. Because of the absence of age-diagnostic fossils, the age of the ‘‘Scontrone calcarenites’’ cannot be directly defined through their paleontological content. However, a regional stratigraphic correlation between the Lithothamnion Limestone of Scontrone and the Lithothamnion Limestone of northern Majella, which is biostratigraphically well constrained, allows the attribution of the ‘‘Scontrone calcarenites’’ to the Tortonian

Main recent deformation and seismotectonics in the Central Mediterranean Region.

Late Neogene-Quaternary tectonics in the Central Mediterranean region has been entirely controlled by the Africa-Adria-Europe plate interaction and by the passive subduction of the south-western margin of Adria. Presently the western, northern and eastern boundaries of Adria are outlined by first-order geological features (Apennines, Alps and Dinarides); the southern boundary, on the contrary, is still undefined and its location is controversial. The reconstruction of the Neogene-Quaternary relative motion of Adria versus Europe is well constrained by the geometrical configuration of the Insubric indenter and by the geometry of the young thrust systems in the Southern Alps, Dinarides and Hellenides. The major structural features of these areas may be simultaneously justified by a counterclockwise rotation of Adria around a pole located in the Western Mediterranean Sea not far from the Corsica coast. The slip vectors obtained by such a rotation pole satisfactorily account for the overall kinematic processes along the external margin of Adria during Neogene-Quaternary times

Upper Triassic basinal carbonates between the Molise and Sannio Nappes near Frosolone (Duronia, Molise): geological implications.

E’ stata riconosciuta nell’area di Duronia (Molise) l’esistenza di dolomie e calcari dolomitici con selce del Trias superiore riferibili alla Formazione dei “Calcari con Selce” delle Unità Lagonegresi. Questi carbonati bacinali, presenti nella parte basale della Falda Sannitica in prossimità del contatto con le Falde Molisane (Unità di Frosolone), sono stati interpretati in passato come olistoliti all’interno delle Argille Varicolori, come depositi della successione sannitica o come depositi della successione sicilide e ad essi sono state attribuite età che vanno dal Cretaceo superiore al Miocene medio. L’esistenza di depositi bacinali triassici nella regione molisano-sannitica ha come implicazione paleogeografica la continuazione verso nord di un ramo del Bacino Lagonegrese e come implicazione tettonica un forte raccorciamento tra i massicci carbonatici riferibili alla Piattaforma Appenninica e quelli riferibili alla Piattaforma Simbruini-Matese

Struttura tettonica ed evoluzione cinematica dell'Appennino meridionale.

La struttura profonda dell'Appennino meridionale è definita, come ben noto, da un sistema duplex sepolto di carbonati mesozoico-terziari derivanti dal margine interno della Piattaforma Apula ricoperto da un sistema di falde di provenienza occidentale. Il sistema di falde comprende unità di piattaforma, scarpata e bacino la cui ricostruzione palinspastica è tuttora oggetto di discussione. Un recente riprocessamento della linea CROP-04 mostra che la superficie di scorrimento basale del cuneo tettonico raggiunge una profondità superiore ai 20 chilometri in corrispondenza della costa tirrenica. L'assetto geometrico generale della catena è complicato da numerosi sovrascorrimenti fuori sequenza e dallo sviluppo di sistemi duplex all'interno delle coltri di tetto (in particolare potenti cataste antiformi di embrici lagonegresi). La propagazione della deformazione è avvenuta in maniera non cilindrica, per cui segmenti di catena adiacenti, deformati nello stesso intervallo temporale, possono mostrare geometrie fortemente diverse risultanti dalle diverse traiettorie delle superfici di scorrimento

The Geological map of Sannio and surrounding Areas by Raimondo Selli (scale 1:100.000). A precious collection of still current data.

In 1962, on the occasion of the congress of the Italian Geological Society on the theme of «The geology of the Apennines» (Rome, 13-14 December 1962), Raimondo Selli presented a work entitled «The tectonic problem of the Southern Apennines» in which the stratigraphic and structural lineaments of a wide and complex area stretching from Southern Abruzzi to Northern Calabria were illustrated in detail. This work was never published and the reason is unknown. At about twenty years from the death of Raimondo Selli a typewritten text of this work, which should have been published in 1964 in the Volume 4 of the Memoirs of the Italian Geological Society, has been discovered. Together with the manuscript, an unpublished geological map at a scale of 1:100,000 entitled «Geological Map of Sannio and Surrounding Areas» was recovered. This map covers a wide area of the Southern Apennines from Southern Abruzzi to Irpinia. We do not know exactly the date of compilation, but from the legend we can suppose a date surely before 1962. In the unpublished paper «The tectonic problem of the Southern Apennines» Selli modified quite significantly the ideas expressed in the oral presentation of 1962 and in the previous publications on the geology of the Southern Italy (SELLI, 1957, 1962), but there is no trace of this revision in the legend of the «Geological Map of Sannio and Surrounding Areas». Therefore, we have considered it appropriate to make some brief comments on the content of the unpublished work with the aim of enabling a reading of the geological map that respects the ideas arrived at by its author in 1964. A reading of the map without knowing the content of the unpublished paper, in fact, would not enable the reader, even though expert in the geology of Southern Italy, to fully appreciate its value and above all would not do justice to Raimondo Selli’s capacity to recognize and acknowledge geological evidence in conflict with ideas expressed in its previous publications. On superficial analysis the Geological Map of Sannio and Surrounding Areas could be considered as a document of purely historical value, given that the legend reflects a scheme already surpassed by the same Selli in 1964. In reality, this map is far from obsolete because it is an objective restitution of the geology of the study area not at all influenced by any pre-existing model. The geological map of Selli is therefore an unexplored mine of data still to be fully exploited containing observations that are well worth recovering and studying in the case we wish to realize an efficient update of the geological cartography of the region. Products such as this are increasingly rare today because too often do we see geological maps that derive from models instead of contributing to create them

Geological interpretation of the seismic line CROP-04

The interpreted CROP - 04 line is a stack section derived from a recent reprocessing down to 10 seconds TWT of the original seismic data. The new stack shows a remarkable improvement with respect to the previous one that had been obtained by a standard processing sequence. The principal steps of the reprocessing sequence are described in Mazzotti et al. (this volume). In this paper we shall describe the principal elements that have contributed to the interpretation of the seismic line and the main steps we have taken in order to reach the final geological profile