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A revised stratigraphy of the Upper Cretaceous to Oligocene units from southeastern Salento (Apulia, southern Italy)
Abstract
A revised stratigraphy of the Late Cretaceous to Oligocene units of the southeastern Salento (Apulia, southern Italy) is proposed. In the study area this time interval is represented by six stratigraphic units. Four Paleogene units are recognized as unconformity-bounded stratigraphic units on the basis of the stratigraphic relationships observed in the study area. The hypothesis that the Ciolo Limestone represents a UBSU is put forward on the basis of several arguments deduced from the stratigraphy of the Upper Cretaceous deposits of the Apulian Platform. -from Author
... It is characterized by a series of relatively thin, superimposed sequences developed over an Upper Cretaceous basement, which are mainly concentrated on the distal portion of the platform and separated by major unconformities (Fig. 2) ). The first post-Cretaceous units are of Eocene age, represented by clinostratified bioclastic sediments (Torre Tiggiano Limestone, Lutetian/Bartonian) and by reef slope deposits (Torre Specchialaguardia Limestone, Priabonian), and are characterized by relatively small, discontinuous outcrops along the coastline (Bosellini & Russo 1992;Parente 1994;Russo 2006). The Eocene sequences are overlain by the Chattian coral-rich Castro Limestone (CL) and by the uppermost Chattian Porto Badisco Calcarenite, which is represented by poorly cemented bioclastic deposits with a basal accumulation of large rhodoliths (Bosellini & Russo 1992;Brandano et al. 2010;Pomar et al. 2014;Parente & Less 2019). ...
... mediterraneus zone by Bosellini & Russo (1992), on the basis of the identification of Nephrolepidina praemarginata "very close to the transition to N. morgani" using the biozonation scheme of Drooger & Laagland (1986). Parente (1994) ascribed the CL to the "lower Chattian" according to the presence of Eulepidina dilatata and Nephrolepidina praemarginata and using the biozonation scheme of Laagland (1990). In the framework of the Shallow Benthic (SB) Zones successively defined by Cahuzac & Poignant (1997), this corresponds with the SB 22B Zone (lower Chattian). ...
... More recently, Pomar et al. (2014) reaffirmed the CL as lower Chattian referring to the taxonomic determinations reported by Bosellini & Russo (1992) and Parente (1994) and mentioning the "absence of Miogypsinidae". In contrast, they report that the overlying Porto Badisco Calcarenite can be assigned to the "late Chattian" Miogypsinoides zone of Drooger & Laagland (1986), corresponding with the SBZ 23 of Cahuzac & Poignant (1997), because it contains among others "Miogypsinoides ex interc. ...
The Oligocene, well known as the apex of Cenozoic reef growth, is a crucial period of time to investigate the mutual relationship between coral reef construction and coral diversity and their link with palaeoclimate and palaeoenvironmental changes. Here we provide a complete characterization of the Upper Oligocene reef complex of the Castro Limestone (Salento Peninsula, S Italy), which is one of the best-preserved Oligocene coral reefs of the Mediterranean region. By combining facies analysis with the first detailed characterization of its coral fauna, we show that the Castro Limestone has both a rich scleractinian coral fauna (25 genera and 41 species) and a large reef volume, and it represents a luxuriant fringing reef formed within the euphotic zone in clear water conditions facing the open sea. The coral fauna differs both in its composition and in its proportions among reef palaeoenvironments, ranging from the shallow back reef to the fore reef slope, and its stratigraphic and palaeogeographic distribution testifies to the persistence of a cosmopolitan Tethyan fauna in Oligocene time, with the Mediterranean and Indo-Pacific provinces being more closely connected than the Mediterranean and the Caribbean. The age of the Castro Limestone is here reassigned to the middle-late Chattian, which coincides with the Late Oligocene Warming Event (LOWE) when atmospheric CO2 values declined. We suggest that the strong reef-building capacity of the Castro Limestone, coupled with high coral diversity, was not hampered by warming conditions but most probably promoted by the reduced pCO2 and a suitable local/regional physiographic setting.
... On the Salento Peninsula, platform carbonates are well exposed between Otranto and Ciolo (Fig. 9). Characteristic Maastrichtian carbonates are those belonging to the Ciolo Limestone Formation (Parente 1994;Laviano 1996). This limestone formation consists of 50 m (m) of alternating beds of floatstone/rudstone with coarse rudist debris and larger foraminiferal grainstone with orbitoids and sidertolitids (Fig. 10). ...
Excavations in the Bruges' Medieval outer ports of Hoeke and Monnikerede, located along the Zwin tidal inlet, revealed numerous rounded cobbles of exotic geological provenance among which were two specimens of remarkable mineralogical composition. An interdisci-plinary study combining archeological, geological, petrographic-geochemical, and historical research has demonstrated their Mediterranean, i.e., Italian, provenance. A first stone is identified as Carrara marble originating from the alluvial fans of the Apuan Alps, deposited along the Versilian coast near the Renaissance towns of Lucca, Pisa, and Genoa. The second cobble is determined as a bioclastic calcarenite limestone from the Apulian shores. Both finds are interpreted as part of the non-saleable ballast once put in the holds of Italian carracks and galleys that touched the Flemish ports during the late thirteenth to fifteenth centuries. As such, both seemingly ordinary objects constitute a rare material and lithologi-cal testimony of an important late Medieval commercial network between the Mediterra-nean and North Sea coasts. Furthermore, the very rare occurrence of these Mediterranean cobbles compared to thousands of Scando-Baltic and Anglo-Scottish ballast stones in the whole of the Bruges outer harbor area can be related to differences in maritime traffic frequency and sheer commercial volumes. Also, the nature of the ballast itself and the ballast-ing procedures are important, the whole making Mediterranean ballast stones considerably less detectable in the Bruges' harbors than their North-European equivalents.
... Carbonate deposition was controlled by sea-level oscillations of moderate entity, with the production of limited accommodation space and the formation of a series of relatively thin depositional sequences, concentrated mainly on the distal portion of the plateau (Fig. 2a) (Bosellini et al., 1999). The first post-Cretaceous successions are Eocene/Oligocene in age, and are represented by clinostratified bioclastic deposits (Torre Tiggiano Limestone, Lutetian/Bartonian; Porto Badisco Calcarenite, upper Chattian) alternated with coral reef systems (Torre Specchialaguardia Limestone, Priabonian; Castro Limestone, lower Chattian) (Nardin and Rossi, 1966;Bosellini and Russo, 1992;Bossio et al., 1994;Parente, 1994;Bosellini, 2006;Brandano et al., 2010;Pomar et al., 2014;Tomasetti et al., 2018;Parente and Less, 2019;Bosellini et al., 2021). During the Middle Miocene this area was subjected to a rapid subsidence (Bosellini et al., 1999), with complete flooding of the Salento plateau, resulting in the formation of a thin, condensed hardground (Aturia level, Serravallian/Tortonian) (Föllmi et al., 2015;Vescogni et al., 2018). ...
The Terminal Carbonate Complex (TCC) is an upper Messinian shallow-water succession characterized by abundant oolites deposits and microbial-derived carbonates mainly known from the Western Mediterranean. The importance of the TCC derives from the close relation of its deposition with the Messinian salinity crisis and from the presence of large and diversified microbialite assemblages, which represent a rare occurrence in the Cenozoic marine sedimentary record. In this paper we provide the first detailed description of a carbonate system closely comparable to the TCC located in the central Mediterranean. This succession crops out at the southern end of the Salento Platform (South-eastern Italy) and has been investigated by means of stratigraphic, sedimentary, palaeontological and Sr isotopes analyses. Special attention has been given to the microbialite facies, with a detailed textural characterization focused on the reconstruction of their depositional and palaeoenvironmental settings. The Salento Platform TCC mainly consists of oolites deposits, Porites colonization and a diversified microbialite assemblage including six different facies, which developed mostly under shallow-water, normal marine salinity and warm climatic conditions. The overall stacking pattern is given by the superposition of three main sequences, each one including lowstand, transgressive and highstand system tracts. The Salento Platform TCC is dated to the late Messinian; our microfacies and geochemical data suggest that it could have developed during the first stage of the MSC; these carbonates are in fact followed by a sharp unconformity sealed by thick breccia deposits, possibly related to the onset of the Messinian erosional surface and to the subsequent stages of the Messinian salinity crisis.
... A partire dal Pleistocene Medio la definitiva emersione dell'area ha favorito l'alterazione carsica sia superficiale, sia ipogea (Doglioni et al., 1994). In questo contesto, Grotta Romanelli si sviluppa nel Calcare di Altamura (Cretaceo Superiore) (Martinis, 1967;Parente, 1994), posto stratigraficamente al di sotto dei Calcari di Castro (Oligocene Superiore) (Martinis, 1967). Morfologicamente, il paesaggio costiero della Penisola salentina fra Otranto e S. Maria di Leuca è caratterizzato dalla presenza di cinque ordini di terrazzi marini, risultato dell'interazione tra le fluttuazioni eustatiche del livello marino e il sollevamento tettonico a partire dal Pleistocene Medio (Mastronuzzi et al., 2007;Antonioli et al., 2018). ...
Nel parco Naturale Regionale Costa Otranto Santa Maria di Leuca - Bosco di Tricase sono presenti cavità carsiche che rappresentano preziosi archivi naturali dei cambiamenti climatici avvenuti nel corso del Quaternario e dell ' antica presenza umana sul territorio. Tra queste cavità, Grotta Romanelli ha attirato l' attenzione degli studiosi sin dalla fine del 1800. Grazie alle loro ricerche, la grotta ha restituito numerosi reperti archeologici (manufatti in calcare e in selce), sepolture umane, arte parietale e mobiliare, e reperti paleontologici, come il pinguino boreale alca impenne (Pinguinus impennis) divenuto una vera e propria icona della cosiddetta "era glaciale". La straordinaria ricchezza dei depositi ha reso Grotta Romanelli un sito chiave per lo studio dei cambiamenti climatici e delle relazioni tra uomo e ambiente nell'area mediterranea durante il Quaternario. Il contenuto della grotta, che si apre direttamente sul mare, è esposto ad un alto rischio di degrado per alterazione ad opera delle acque sia continentali (precipitazione, percolazione, ruscellamento), sia marine (mareggiate e spray marino). Pertanto, la nuova fase di scavi, iniziata nel 2015 e tuttora in corso, pone un'attenzione particolare alla documentazione e alle azioni atte alla conservazione della cavità, del deposito che vi è ancora conservato, delle pareti decorate con centinaia di incisioni. A tal fine è stato avviato il monitoraggio sistematico dei fattori di degrado, il rilievo speleologico e archeologico delle evidenze di arte rupestre e la realizzazione di modelli 3D, importante risorsa per la musealizzazione e la valorizzazione interattiva di grotte di difficile accesso ai non addetti ai lavori, come è Grotta Romanelli.
... An Upper Cretaceous to Palaeogene carbonate platform succession at Qalhat (Oman) includes the K/Pg boundary interval as indicated by biostratigraphical and geochemical data provided by Schlüter et al. (2008a). On the Apulian Carbonate Platform (Salento, S Italy), an erosional unconformity truncates the uppermost Maastrichtian platform margin deposits (Eberli et al., 1993;Parente, 1994;Vecsei and Moussavian, 1997;Bosellini et al., 1999;Steuber et al., 2007;Schlüter et al., 2008b), and platform-type sedimentation resumed either in the late Danian to early Thanetian or during the Eocene. Upper CretaceousePalaeogene carbonates of Gavrovo subzone in Klokova mountain of the GavrovoeTripolitza platform were investigated by Fleury (1970Fleury ( , 1980. ...
The Likva Cove section on the island of Brač (Croatia) represents a rare example within the Adriatic Carbonate Platform (AdCP) succession of the basal Palaeocene limestones overlying the uppermost Maastrichtian shallow-platform limestones with evidence of only a brief stratigraphic hiatus at the Cretaceous/Palaeogene (K/Pg) contact. Detailed study of the 50-m-thick section resulted in the description of eight lithofacies arranged into six lithostratigraphic units: rudist limestones, deposits with coral–stromatoporoid patch reefs, bindstones, and fine-grained limestones with benthic and rare planktonic foraminifera in the uppermost Maastrichtian (comprising microfossil assemblage biozones I and II), and limestones with benthic foraminifera (mostly discorbids), ostracods and rare planktonic foraminifera, and ostracod–discorbid limestones in the lowermost Palaeocene (representing microfossil assemblage biozone III).
The K/Pg contact is constrained between the last occurrence of Maastrichtian benthic and rare planktonic foraminifera, and the first occurrence of Danian planktonic and benthic foraminifera. The uppermost Cretaceous bed represents a firmground, but low biostratigraphic resolution precludes defining duration of a probable short-lasting hiatus at the K/Pg contact. Planktonic foraminifera are mixed with benthic forms in a 3.5-m-thick interval comprising the K/Pg contact as a consequence of decreased depositional rate and probable storm influence.
Top of the section contains well developed coral patch reefs intensely karstified during a long-lasting regional unconformity, which in the studied part of the AdCP commenced in the early Palaeocene, i.e. later than at most parts of the platform. Therefore, the end of AdCP deposition should be locally extended into the Palaeocene in both its NW and SE parts.
... Skeletal components include coralline algae which form rhodoliths, larger benthic foraminifera and subordinate poritid and faviid corals (Brandano et al., 2010;Pomar et al., 2014). It is overlain unconformably by a phosphate-glauconiterich horizon which is informally known as the "Aturia level" (Bosellini and Russo, 1992;Parente, 1994) and which has been dated to the Serravallian -Tortonian (Fӧllmi et al., 2015). ...
Appraisal of the volumes of fluid in a carbonate reservoir will typically require a reliable predictive model. This can be achieved by combining studies of well‐exposed carbonate successions with 3D models in order to obtain reliable quantitative data. In this paper, we present a detailed outcrop study and a 3D porosity model of a well‐exposed Oligocene carbonate ramp (Salento Peninsula, southern Italy) to investigate the nature of small‐scale facies and porosity heterogeneities. Porosity and permeability in the ramp carbonates appear to be controlled by the original mineralogy of skeletal components and by depositional textures. The aims of the study were therefore to identify the factors controlling porosity development in an undeformed carbonate ramp; to model the scale‐dependent heterogeneities characteristic of the facies associations; and finally to produce a 3D model of the porosity distribution.
The upper Chattian Porto Badisco Calcarenite which crops out along the coast of the Salento Peninsula consists of six lithofacies ranging from inner ramp deposits to fine‐grained outer ramp calcarenites. The lithofacies are: inner ramp small benthic foraminiferal wackestone‐packstones associated with (i) sea grass meadows (SG) and (ii) coral mounds (CM) consisting of coral bioconstructions with a floatstone/packstone matrix; middle ramp (iii) large rotaliid packstones to wackestone‐packstones (LR), (iv) rhodolith floatstone‐rudstones (RF), and (v) large lepidocyclinid packstones (LL); and (vi) outer ramp fine‐grained bioclastic calcarenites (FC). A total of 38 samples collected from six stratigraphic sections (A, B, D, J, E, LO), measured in the Porto Badisco ravine, were investigated to discriminate the types of porosity. Effective and total porosity was measured using a helium pycnometer. The 3D porosity modelling was performed using PETREL™ 2016 software (Schlumberger).
Four main types of porosity were recognized in the carbonates: interparticle, intraparticle, vuggy and mouldic. Primary porosity (inter‐ and intraparticle) is limited to middle ramp lithofacies (LL and LR) and outer ramp lithofacies (FC), whereas secondary porosity (vuggy and mouldic) was present in both inner ramp lithofacies (CM and SG) and middle ramp red algal lithofacies (RF).
In the Porto Badisco carbonates, stratigraphic complexity and the distribution of primary porosity are controlled by lateral and vertical variations in depositional facies. Significant secondary porosity was produced by the dissolution of aragonitic and high‐magnesium calcite components, which are dominant in the sea‐grass and coral mound facies of the inner ramp and in the rhodolith floatstone‐rudstones of the middle ramp.
3D models were developed for both effective and total porosity distribution. The porosity models show a clear correlation with facies heterogeneities. However of the two models, the effective porosity model shows the best correlation with the 3D facies model, and shows a general increase in effective porosity basinwards in the middle ramp facies.
On the occasion of the review of the portable art of Grotta Romanelli, a decorated stone with a feline figure was object of an interdisciplinary study. The analysis considered different approaches so to: characterise the stratigraphic setting of the finding, the rock support, look into the techniques used to decorate the stone, elaborate a graphic documentation (photographs, 3D models and tracings), relate the symbolic production with the environmental context, and consider the motifs into the wider late Upper Palaeolithic (LUP) art production.
The work allows confirming that the represented subject corresponds to a Panthera spelaea, and fixing some issues concerning the variability of the decorating activity, which is in line with the graphic tradition of the European LUP. Style and formal variable features of the figure might have responded to specific social conventions or to single author's skills, tracing new investigation lines about the cultural behaviour and the decorating activity: from the collection of the raw material and the preliminary modelling of the support, to the different artistic techniques (engraving and painting), from the use of the object to the definition of possible local artistic variations and/or inspiration at large scale. Moreover, it questions the thematic aspect in relation to the local fauna and its influence in the symbolic production, highlighting the importance of this stone in the wider debate about the extinction of the cave lions. Indeed, the Romanelli lion may represent the last evidence of this animal in Europe.
The carbonate succession of the Cenomanian-Turonian Sarvak Formation SW Iran, Zagros Zone contains a diverse assemblage of (larger) benthic foraminifera, such as alveolinids, orbitolinids and others. Two new taxa are described herein as Pseudocyclammina sarvakensis sp. nov. and Pseudotextulariella brevicamerata sp. nov. They are generally not frequently observed (likely biased through a stratigraphic or facies control) as other most common taxa found in the Sarvak Fm. They are herein reported from the Tang-e Darbast (type-locality of both species) and Shahneshin surface sections, and also from the Arman well-1 subsurface section, Fars area and Abadan Plain, respectively in the parts referred to the middle Cenomanian. The Tang-e Darbast section also represents the type-locality of Iraqia ultima Yazdi-Moghadam & Schlagintweit and Simplorabanitina simplex Consorti, Schlagintweit & Yazdi-Moghadam. Pseudocyclammina sarvakensis and Pseudotextulariella brevicamerata are further elements of the so-called ‘Nezzazata-alveolinid’ assemblage zone.
Larger benthic foraminifera from the upper Maastrichtian Auradu Formation of Somalia exhibit striking matches with the assemblages from the time-equivalent Tarbur Formation of Iran and other, but less well studied lithostratigraphic units in SE Turkey (e.g., Garzan Fm.). Some taxa, among also new ones, described from Somalia need taxonomic updates (revision, synonymy, re-instatement). Dukhania? cherchii Luger is considered a junior synonym of Acordiella? tarburensis Schlagintweit & Rashidi, and Pseudorbitolina schroederi Luger is re-instated and considered a valid taxon, different from the Campanian P. marthae Douvillé of the western Tethyan domain. The genus Cyclopsinella Galloway is reported for the first time from the upper Maastrichtian of Iran.
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