3D seismic geomorphology of mass transport complexes in a foredeep basin: Examples from the Pleistocene of the Central Adriatic Basin (Mediterranean Sea)

Abstract

Three-dimensional (3D) seismic-reflection data has shed light on the character of a series of mass transport complexes (MTCs) emplaced during the Pleistocene in the Pescara Basin (Central Adriatic Sea, Italy). The Pescara Basin is the Plio-Pleistocene inner foredeep of the Central Apennines orogen, which was filled by a rapidly prograding, margin-scale clinoforms system. Three MTCs punctuate the normal turbiditic and hemipelagic sedimentary succession of the Pescara Basin foredeep. MTC_0 is the oldest one and covers an area of around 74km2. It is composed of three different mass transport deposits (MTDs) resulting from individual collapses that involved a shelf-edge delta during a period of relative sea level rise. MTC_1, the intermediate age MTC, is the largest one, with an area of 90km2. It has a 10km wide cookie-bite headwall region that indents the upper slope and, in places, reaches the continental shelf-break. MTC_1 is made up of four laterally and vertically stacked MTDs which are the result of a composite set of failures that migrated progressively upslope in a sedimentary setting dominated by contourite deposits. MTC_2 is the youngest and the smallest one, with an area of 55km2. It has a 5km long headwall confined in correspondence with a sedimentary bulge developed in the upper slope. Its geomorphic setting leads us to consider two different episodes of failure rooted at different depths.The investigation of the MTCs, through the coupling of 3D seismic geomorphology, seismic facies analysis and rollover trajectory analysis, reveals that the type of sedimentary environment, the rate of sediment accumulation, the source region and the depth of rooting of the failure, are the major controlling factors on MTC evolution and emplacement. Each MTC of the Pescara Basin foredeep is generally confined within a discrete clinotheme. Finally, the rollover trajectory analysis has shown that, in the PB foredeep, a sediment failure can possibly occur at any relative sea level position.