Stratigraphy and palaeogeography of the Capo Milazzo area (NE Sicili, Italy): clues to the evolution of the southern margin of the Tyrrhenian Basin during the Neogene

Abstract

The Neogene sedimentary sequence of Capo Milazzo (NE Sicily, Italy), with particular reference to the Niocene interval, is described in detail and a paleoenvironmental evolution for the Late Miocene/Pliocene time is proposed. The sequence represents a portion of the northern side of the Calabrian Arc and documents the response of the coastal environment to the complex events (salinity crisis, opening of the Tyrrhenian Basin) which affected the Mediterranean Basin during the Neogene. The beginning of rifting and increased subsidence of the northern sectors along NE-SW faults are recorded in the Late Tortonian, together with a southbound marine transgression, documented by clastic littoral facies. The transgressive trend continued during the Early Messinian, though the moderate subsidence maintained a neritic environment in which a small reef complex adjacent to a lagoon developed. Emersion, and karstic erosion of the Early Messinian limestones is recorded in the Late Messinian time equivalent of the Lower Evaporite. Reactivation of NE-SW faults at this time favoured the formation of large breccias, collapsed from the peripheral portions of the reef complex. Subsequent lowering of the NW sector allowed the area to ne reached by a limited marine episode during the Intra-Messinian Transgression. High-energy stream deposits, coeval with the deposition of the “Lago-Mare” facies in the Mediterranean, end the Messinian sequence. The Pliocene sequence fossilizes a complex palaeotopography with submerged highs and narrow depressions. A rapid marine transgression is recorded at the Miocene/Pliocene boundary, with the development of circalittoral/epibathyal environments. Tensional movements during the latest Messinian/earliest Pliocene and Late Pliocene are recorded by a system of fractures and respective fillings that affect the upper portion of the Early Messinian limestones. The erosion and reworking of most Early Pliocene sediments into Late Pliocene bathyal deposits, together with the local presence of clastic foreset deposits and large blocks of Messinian limestones collapsed into the lower part of Late Pliocene deep water sediments, document a Mid-Pliocene event, likely referable to the Middle-Pliocene Tectonic Phase.