Abstract
Abstract The recent release of a large number of subsurface geological data by the Italian Minister of Economic Development, including boreholes and seismic profiles, provided the occasion for a new assessment of the deposits associated with the Messinian salinity crisis (MSC) in the Adriatic foreland basin system and a new integration with the outcropping successions of the Apennines. In particular, the study of the Messinian evaporites allowed to reconstruct a new detailed palaeogeographic and palaeobathymetric framework for all the stages of the crisis. We identified the largest evaporitic marginal basin ever described for the Mediterranean hosting the precipitation of the primary shallow-water gypsum deposits (PLG, Primary Lower Gypsum) during the first stage of the crisis. During the second and third stages of the crisis, the PLG basin underwent uplift and erosion and the evaporite accumulation moved to the deeper part of the basin and was characterized by the deposition of the Resedimented Lower Gypsum unit including clastic evaporites, recycling the PLG ones, primary halite and terrigenous deposits. The distribution of the different evaporitic facies, was the basis for an improved reconstruction of the upper Miocene tectonic evolution of the Apennines thrust belt. Our results show a clear separation between shallower depocenters, located in the wedge-top and in the Adriatic foreland basins and characterized by MSC stage 1 PLG deposition, and deeper-water ones, located in the Adriatic foredeep and close to the Calabrian Arc, where MSC stage 2 terrigenous and gypsum-bearing clastic deposits and primary halite accumulated.
Highlights
The distribution of the Messinian salinity crisis (MSC) related deposits in the Apennines and in the Adriatic foredeep basin has been matter of several studies during the last decades, mostly based on outcrop data (Roveri et al, 2001, 2004, 2006, 2014b).Recently, the Ministry of Economic Development of Italy (MISE, Ministero dello Sviluppo Economico), through the project entitled “Visibility of petroleum exploration data in Italy” (ViDEPI, Visibilità dei dati afferenti all'attività di esplorazione petrolifera in Italia) has released a large amount of subsurface data filed since 1957 and covering the whole Italian territory
We focused of the late Tortonian-early Pliocene stratigraphic interval in order to reconstruct the distribution of the deposits associated with the Messinian salinity crisis along the Adriatic foredeep
Two main groups can be distinguished (Fig. 4a): The Adriatic foreland units - These deposits resting on the Autochthonous Domain and covered by the Plio-Pleistocene succession are found in the more external domains that were only partially involved in the Apennine deformation, the foredeep and foreland ramp basins
Summary
The distribution of the Messinian salinity crisis (MSC) related deposits in the Apennines and in the Adriatic foredeep basin has been matter of several studies during the last decades, mostly based on outcrop data (Roveri et al, 2001, 2004, 2006, 2014b).Recently, the Ministry of Economic Development of Italy (MISE, Ministero dello Sviluppo Economico), through the project entitled “Visibility of petroleum exploration data in Italy” (ViDEPI, Visibilità dei dati afferenti all'attività di esplorazione petrolifera in Italia) has released a large amount of subsurface data filed since 1957 and covering the whole Italian territory. The distribution of the Messinian salinity crisis (MSC) related deposits in the Apennines and in the Adriatic foredeep basin has been matter of several studies during the last decades, mostly based on outcrop data (Roveri et al, 2001, 2004, 2006, 2014b). The ViDEPI database includes a large number of boreholes and industrial seismic profiles for hydrocarbon investigation. A great part of these boreholes crossed the Messinian deposits, especially in the offshore areas. Their analyses made it possible to recognize the subsurface equivalents of the deposits cropping out in the Apennines and to provide a detailed reconstruction of the distribution of the MSC-related deposits all along the Apennines foredeep
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