CANTALAMESSA - Uplift Sequence Stratigraphy Late Early Pleistocene Periadriatic

Sedimentary Geology 164 (2004) 283 309 www.elsevier.
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Sequence response to syndepositional regional uplift: insights from high-resolution sequence stratigraphy of late Early Pleistocene strata, Periadriatic Basin, central Italy
Gino Cantalamessa *, Claudio Di Celma
` Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Universita degli Studi di Camerino, Via Gentile III da Varano 1, 62032 Camerino (MC), Italy Received 22 May 2003; received in revised form 31 October 2003; accepted 4 November 2003
Abstract This paper deals with the depositional sequences that occur within the uppermost part of the Plio Pleistocene Periadriatic basin fill in the southern Marche region, central Italy. The succession is an Early Pleistocene, easterly dipping clastic wedge showing an overall shallowing trend from slope clays to shallow-marine and non-marine deposits comprising two major sequences, namely Qmb and Qmc. Analysis has provided new insights into: (i) the nature of sedimentary facies and facies associations occurring within the upper part of Qmb and Qmc; (ii) the gradual contact within Qmb between regressive littoral deposits (RLD) and underlying deep-marine blue clays; (iii) the composite origin of the Emilian surface, which is a widespread erosional unconformity separating Qmb from Qmc; (iv) the cyclothemic pattern of Qmc, composed of downstepping, small-scale depositional sequences; (v) the role played by synsedimentary uplift on the stacking pattern of small-scale sequences and their internal architecture. Up to three small-scale depositional sequences have been recognised within Qmc (Qmc1, Qmc2 and Qmc3). They are up to 50 m thick and defined by previously unrecorded, lower-rank, regionally extensive surfaces. Facies organization indicates that, as a rule, in ascending stratigraphic order each small-scale sequence may includes a distinctive basal unconformity surface that can be traced from incised valleys to associated interfluves, an incised-valley fill, a transgressive surface of marine erosion, a transgressive systems tract, a highstand systems tract, a regressive surface of marine erosion and an attached falling stage systems tract. In proximal positions, the small-scale sequences are dominated by transgressive and highstand systems tracts with incisedvalley fills and falling stage systems tracts absent or volumetrically much less significant. In relatively basinward locations, where the regressive surfaces of marine erosion converge with the lower sequence boundary, the falling stage systems tract may represent the entire depositional sequence. High-frequency sequences display a distinctive stacking pattern and form a tectonically induced forced regressive sequence set underlain by a composite, tectonically enhanced regressive surface of marine erosion formed by the lateral connection of lower-rank sequence boundaries. D 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Sequence stratigraphy; High-frequency sea-level changes; Cyclostratigraphy; Pleistocene
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +39-737-402624; fax.: +39-737402-644. E-mail addresses: gino.cantalamessa@unicam.it (G. Cantalamessa), claudio.dicelma@unicam.it (C. Di Celma). 0037-0738/$ - see front matter D 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.sedgeo.2003.11.003
1. Introduction Pleistocene successions of shallow-marine strata are commonly exposed along coastal strips fringing active
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plate boundaries and, owing to their importance in recording eustatic sea-level oscillations and neotectonic uplift/subsidence rates, have received growing attention (e.g., Clifton et al., 1988; Saul et al., 1999; Massari et al., 2002). Within such active tectonic settings, relative sea-level changes and variations of water depth are thought to result from the complex interplay of vertical tectonic movements (both uplift and subsidence), eustasy and sediment supply (Schlager, 1993; Kamp and Naish, 1998). Shallowmarine environments are the most sensitive settings to base level changes and, therefore, their sediments form a potential tape-recorder of relative sea-level oscillations. In order to estimate the control exerted by tectonics on accommodation and the development of syntectonic depositional sequences and their boundaries, a valuable tool and widely accepted methodology is provided by the sequence stratigraphic interpretation of these strata. Whereas early models and recent advances in sequence stratigraphy have all been derived mainly from the analysis of sedimentary successions laid down in basins where short-term sealevel changes and long-term subsidence were superimposed (Van Wagoner et al., 1988, 1990; Plint and Nummedal, 2000), studies on the response of sequence internal architecture and stacking pattern to the long-term relative sea-level lowering due to the synsedimentary uplift of the basin are still relatively rare (Jones and Milton, 1994; Gawthorpe et al., 1994, 2000). When the eustatic signal is known by independent sources such as the marine oxygen-isotope curve (e.g., Shackleton et al., 1990; Abreu and Anderson, 1998), it is possible to discriminate the eustatic from the tectonic component of the relative sea level change by comparing depositional sequences with the orbitally forced fluctuations of sea level. Despite the active tectonic settings, in sites where accurate dating of late Pliocene and Pleistocene high-frequency depositional sequences has been possible (e.g., Collier, 1990; Kamp and Turner, 1990; Ito and Katsura, 1992; Rio et al., 1996; Naish and Kamp, 1997; Kitamura et al., 2000), the sequences correlate well with the eustatic oscillations of the standard oxygen isotope record. Therefore, orbital forcing is inferred to have exerted the prime control on internal stratigraphic cyclicity of sedimentary basin fills.
1.1. Geological setting The Periadriatic Basin is part of the Plio Pleistocene Adriatic foredeep (sensu lato), a collisional marine basin located on continental crust of the subducting Adriatic plate and external to the Appennine fold-and-thrust belt (Fig. 1A). The passive westward sinking of the Adriatic plate beneath the Apennines was accompanied by active eastward- and northeastward-vergent thrusting that persisted from late Messinian to, locally, early Pleistocene time (Coward et al., 1999). The surface structural configuration of the foredeep sediments in the area is essentially one of a gentle, easterly dipping growth monocline. At depth, the structure is more complex because of the occurrence of deep-seated active thrusts developed during the final stages of structuring of the external Apenninic belt. Such structures, almost completely buried under the foredeep sediments, strongly affected basin physiography and clastic fill patterns, imposing significant control during much of the Plio Pleistocene history of this part of the Adriatic foredeep. In a west east direction, a series of asymmetric thrust sheets detached from the underlying crystalline basement along anhydrite beds at the base of a Mesozoic Paleogene multilayer, split the foredeep (sensu lato) into two discrete depositional settings: internal piggy-back basins limited on both sides by, and passively transported on, active thrust sheets and a more external and less deformed foredeep (sensu stricto) (Ori and Friend, 1984). From west to east, these structures are the Agugliano-Ortezzano-Bellante Ridge and the Coastal Ridge (Fig. 1B). In addition, the basin was affected by a series of transverse faults often superimposed on preexisting structural elements (Bigi et al., 1997). In the Marche region, these divided the basin in a north south direction into three main sectors (namely, from north to south, Ancona, Macerata and Fermo) (Centamore and Nisio, 2003 and references therein). The study area lies within the southern part of the Fermo sector, in the Appenninic foothills of the southeastern corner of the Marche region and is an 11-km wide, approximately north trending coastal strip bounded to the north by the village of Torre di Palme, to the south by the Tronto River and to the east by the Adriatic Sea (Fig. 2). Basin fill started at the beginning of Piacenzian time with mainly sandy deposits (Montefalcone member of Cantalamessa et al., 2002)
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Fig. 1. (A) Location map of the study site on the Marchean coast in central Italy. (B) Sketch map of the central and southeastern Marche area showing the general tectonic framework of the Periadriatic Basin. ANAncona, APAscoli Piceno, MCMacerata, FEFermo, PSG Porto San Giorgio, SBTSan Benedetto del Tronto.
resting unconformably on Messinian and early Pliocene formations. This member is overlain by a thick (up to 2900 m in the Fermo sector) clay-rich succession (Argille Azzurre Superiori Formation of Cantalamessa et al., 2002) that includes several coarse clastic bodies, commonly underlain by major unconformities, which occur as individual or composite wedges intercalated at various stratigraphic levels. From middle Pliocene onward, variations in basin palaeodepth were minor. A general shallowing-upward trend follows in the Early Pleistocene from slope/shelf to beach and subaerial environments. Although the main eastward propagation of the thrust front ceased at the end of the Pliocene, tectonics seems to have exerted an important control on the development of this trend. Almost simultaneously, central Italy (from the Tyrrhenian Sea to the Adriatic Sea) underwent generalized and rapid uplift that, as suggested by a staircase of middle Pleistocene to Holocene alluvial terraces within the present-day fluvial valleys along the Adriatic coast, has been ongoing to Recent times. At present, the cause of this uplift is not well understood (Pizzi, 2003 and references therein). As uplift proceeded, older sediments were tilted to dip more steeply
than younger. The vertical movements of the basin floor were accommodated by the transverse fault system and caused its eastward tilting. The Periadriatic area emerged at the end of the Emilian substage when the Coastal Ridge became the inner margin of the basin (Ori et al., 1986) and large amounts of clastic sediment were supplied from the evolving Apennine belt flanking the basin to the west. At present, only the most proximal part of this sedimentary wedge is preserved onshore. These deposits are the subject of this study. 1.2. Stratigraphic setting Ricci Lucchi (1986) and Cantalamessa et al. (1986) were the first to provide a stratigraphic subdivision into chronostratigraphic units for the middle Pliocene Pleistocene sedimentary fill of the central Apenninic foredeep (Periadriatic Basin). In the study area they recognized four main units that they defined as depositional sequences bounded by unconformities and correlative conformities (Mitchum et al., 1977; Van Wagoner et al., 1988). These stratal units were named P2, Qm, Qm1 and Qc where P and Q refer to Pliocene and Quaternary, respectively. Because of
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Fig. 2. Location of the 34 measured stratigraphic sections used for this study (some of which displayed in Figs. 8, 9 and 13) and geological sketch map of the southeastern corner of the Marche region.
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the occurrence of lower-rank (higher-frequency) unconformities, these unconformity-bounded units are low-order composite depositional sequences (Mitchum and Van Wagoner, 1991), which, in turn, can be divided into smaller depositional sequences. These are P2a, P2b and P2c in P2, and Qma and Qmb in Qm. Cycle Qm1 (markedly cyclic itself) corresponds to the sequence termed Qmc by Bigi et al. (1997) (Fig. 3). Based almost completely on the interpretation of seismic lines, Ori et al. (1991) developed a slightly different sequence-stratigraphic framework. Following Bigi et al. (1997), the Qmb Qmc bounding unconformity is placed at an erosional surface that extends throughout the whole study area and is tentatively correlated to the Emilian substage regression of Ruggieri (1980), whereas the upper boundary of sequence Qmc is a major regional unconformity that extends from the Apenninic chain to the Adriatic coast
and is the Villafranchian surface of Demangeot (1965). The latter surface is a tectonically enhanced, flat and gently seaward-dipping major sequence boundary resting with angular relationship upon either sequence Qmb or Qmc and overlain by the middle Pleistocene alluvial plain sediments of the sequence Qc. This succession of alluvial strata comprises several depositional sequences that stack into a lower-order composite sequence (Qc) (unpublished data from the authors) and represent the feeder systems of depositional sequences whose coeval marine portions are located offshore. This point of view is also supported by the prominent angular unconformity that occurs throughout the basin below the Villafranchian surface. The exact age of the strata illustrated in this paper (uppermost part of Qmb and Qmc) is still under debate (Cantalamessa et al., 1997; Amorosi et al., 1998). The controversial age attribution, at present based on the
Fig. 3. Schematic chronostratigraphic chart for the early Pleistocene of the Periadriatic Basin illustrating the main depositional sequences and sequence stratigraphic cycle hierarchy (we follow Berggren et al., 1995 in placing the early middle Pleistocene boundary at the MatuyamaBrunes reversal). Note the diachronous development of the high-frequency sequence boundaries during deposition of the FSSTs and the composite and diachronous nature of the Emilian surface.
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state of knowledge of adjacent strata, arises mainly from the difficulty to obtain useful biostratigraphic data directly from these coarse-grained deposits within which no age-diagnostic planktonic foraminiferal fauna were found. In this work, the lower two sequences of Qm, namely, Qma and Qmb, have been assigned to the Santernian Emilian substages on the basis of biostratigraphic data whereas, indirectly, the overlying Qmc has been assigned to the late Early Pleistocene (Cantalamessa et al., 1997). 1.3. Study objectives The central purposes of this paper are to: (i) document the sedimentary facies occurring within the upper part of Qmb and within Qmc; (ii) interpret this part of the basin fill within a high-resolution sequence-stratigraphic context by describing lateral stratal terminations and arrangement of sedimentary facies; (iii) reconstruct the internal architecture and stacking pattern of high-frequency sequences by means of depositional dip-oriented detailed cross sections; (iv) evaluate the control exerted by long-term synsedimentary uplift on the internal architecture of high-frequency sequences and on their final stacking pattern within Qmc.
1.4. Database and methods To develop an understanding of sequence-stratigraphic relationships, detailed logging of thirty-four vertical stratigraphic sections of different thickness (some 1300 m of total stratigraphy) was carried out throughout the study area (Fig. 2). The logs have been arranged in depositional dip-oriented cross-sections trending approximately from west (proximal) to east (distal). Sections have been measured and described on the cliff faces that occur along the Aso, Menocchia, Tesino and Tronto valleys, and laterally correlated through careful surface mapping at a scale of 1:10,000. The resulting data were worked up in seismic style with landward and seaward terminations of stratal units or beds used to reveal significant facies tract offsets associated with the presence of minor stratigraphic unconformities defining high-frequency, type1 depositional sequences (Van Wagoner et al., 1988). Depending on the occurrence, nature and conditions of exposures, down-dip spacing between successive measured stratigraphic sections ranges from about 100 m to 2.5 km, although on average they are spaced about 1.5 km apart. Fig. 4 shows the key to the symbols used throughout the paper. The key elements of the Early Pleisto-
Fig. 4. Key to Figs. 8, 9 and 13.
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cene sequence stratigraphy discussed here are illustrated on three representative two-dimensional stratigraphic cross-sections constructed with simplified stratigraphic sections and are described later in this paper.
clays. Sand beds are characterized by a gently undulating low-angle cross-lamination with the convexupward part the hummock and the concave-downward part the swale. They are up to 50 cm thick, have sharp bases and may pass upward into wave rippled silty to very fine-grained silty sands. Successive hummocks are tens of centimeters to several meters apart. 2.2.2. Interpretation The hummocky cross-stratification is interpreted to be deposited by waning oscillatory flows, and waning of combined oscillatory flow and unidirectional geostrophic currents created by periodic storm events (Dott and Bourgerois, 1982; Swift et al., 1983). The boundaries of this facies association with the underlying and the overlying deposits are generally gradual. This facies association is interpreted to have been deposited between fair-weather and storm-wave base and reflects accumulation in an offshore-transition environment under the action of waves due to sporadic storms and sediment fallout. The foraminiferal assemblages described by Cantalamessa et al. (1997) and consisting mostly of Ammonia and Elphidium are consistent with this interpretation. This facies association lies landward with respect to the offshore facies association described above. 2.3. Facies association 3: lower shoreface 2.3.1. Description This facies association consists mainly of thoroughly amalgamated and usually intensely bioturbated fine- to medium-grained sandstone with thin (up to 20 cm) horizontal and discontinuous pebbly layers composed of few centimeters of well-rounded pebbles and granules, and sub-horizontal erosional surfaces. When unbioturbated, the dominant sedimentary structures within amalgamated sand units are cross-cutting sets of 20 30 cm deep concave-upward depressions (swales) filled by gently undulating, broad concave-up laminae gradually flattening out upward (Fig. 5A). In rare instances, the swales pass laterally into hummocks and the infilling concaveupward laminae, concordantly draping the lower bounding surface, change gradually style passing into convex-upward laminae. Wave-ripple laminated sands, with ripple profile preserved under very thin and discontinuous mud
2. Description and interpretation of sedimentary facies associations The wide range of facies occurring within the uppermost part of Qmb and within Qmc are representative of inner-shelf to subaerial settings and are distinguished mainly on the basis of physical and biogenic sedimentary structures, grain size and palaeontological content. Facies have been grouped into seven major facies associations each of which characterizes one or more of the systems tracts in the studied interval. For a more detailed account of a large part of the sedimentary facies occurring within the sequence Qmc, the reader is referred to Massari and Parea (1988). 2.1. Facies association 1: offshore 2.1.1. Description This facies association consists primarily of thoroughly bioturbated and massive grey clays and silty clays with sparse shell fragments, variably interbedded with thin, fine to very fine sands. Sharp-based fine sand layers are up to about 10 cm thick and normally graded or, in more rare case, contain relict horizontal planar lamination. 2.1.2. Interpretation This facies association is interpreted to record deposition in an open marine setting, below storm wave base. Sand layers reflect the waning flow deposits of storm-generated currents, while the clayey portion resulted from fallout deposition of suspended fine material as well as storm-emplaced sediment. 2.2. Facies association 2: offshore transition zone 2.2.1. Description When not completely amalgamated by bioturbation, this facies association is characterized by fine to medium grained sand beds regularly interbedded with massive, bioturbated and sparsely fossiliferous silty
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drapes, thin layers of clay chips, and sporadic lenticular gravel layers with pronounced concave-up erosional base and crude normal grading are a minor
component. Individual lenticular layers are 3 6 m wide, up to 1 m in depth and have longshore-oriented axis (Fig. 5B).
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2.3.2. Interpretation Through analogy with outcrop study (Leckie and Walker, 1982) the sandy facies characterized by swalefilling concave-up laminae associated with rare hummocks is interpreted to represent swaley cross-stratification (SCS) that is commonly thought as having been storm-produced in slightly shallower water than HCS. Occasionally, fair-weather waves reworked the tops of the storm deposits and formed wave ripples. The layers of clasts indicate amalgamation surfaces that record the superposition of discrete storm beds, without the preservation of fairweather deposits (Reynolds, 1994) whereas the lenticular gravel beds are interpreted as the infilling of longshore troughs. This suite of sedimentary structures, the intense bioturbation and the limited amounts of mud and silt grade layers formed by the fallout of material put into suspension during storms, reflect sedimentation in the lower shoreface of a storm-dominated shoreline, just above the fairweather wave base. 2.4. Facies association 4: upper shoreface 2.4.1. Description Interfingering of sand and gravel layers is a characteristic feature of this facies association. Each gravel-sand couplet tends to wedge-out landward and dip gently seaward (Fig. 5C). Gravel layers are usually sharp based, up to few decimeters thick, almost lacking of any preferred fabric and usually composed of highsphericity clasts of different size. Sand layers are typically well sorted, well winnowed and mediumor coarse-grained. They may be trough cross-bedded with mainly longshore palaeocurrents, or planar crossstratified with onshore dipping foresets. In the latter case, they may climb part of the beachface deposits and be associated with evidence of small oscillation
ripples produced by oscillatory flow with a predominating onshore component (Fig. 5D). Flat lamination is present locally but is rare with respect to other physical structures. 2.4.2. Interpretation We agree with Massari and Parea (1988), who regarded each sharp-based gravel-sand couplet as the record of, respectively, storm and post-storm recovery stages in the upper shoreface setting. 2.5. Facies association 5: beachface 2.5.1. Description This complex facies association is represented by clinostratified, matrix-poor, wave-reworked gravels having polymictic composition and largely prevailing, carbonate and chert clasts. On the basis of different types of stratification, textural features and dip angle of the beds, this facies association can be subdivided into two distinct units (Massari and Parea, 1988). In the upper unit, the angle of dip increases gently down-dip and strata are composed primarily of disc-shaped, seaward-dipping, imbricated clasts (Fig. 5E). Beds are bundled into erosionally based sets and are characterized by high segregation and sorting of clasts by shape and size. Stratification is well defined with alternating centimeter- to decimeter-thick layers of sand-, granule- and pebble-grade materials (Fig. 5F). Each bed offlaps landward and interfingers downslope with the lower unit gravel beds. Unlike the upper unit, poorly distinct stratification is common in the lower unit. Strata are steeper than in the upper unit and down-dip they wedge-out with angular or tangential contact on a markedly erosional surface whereas up-dip they pinch out, interfingering with beds of the upper part. Gravel grain-size is coarser than in the
Fig. 5. Outcrop photographs showing the sedimentological characteristics of facies and facies assemblages within the studied units. (A) Swaley cross-stratified sandstone in the lower shoreface facies association. Note the hummock with convex-upward laminae (arrow on the left) and the swale with onlapping laminae (on the right). (B) Channel-form lens of pebbles which show crude normal grading and longshore-oriented axis. The channel is encased in lower shoreface sands. (C) Depositional dip section through an upper shoreface facies association showing seaward dipping, wedge shaped gravel layers interfingering with planar cross-stratified sands. Sands have onshore dipping foresets. Person for scale. (D) Detail of coarse-grained, wave-rippled sands interbedded with well-rounded, pebble conglomerates. Section normal to depositional dip. (E) Close up photograph of the beachface gravels. Note seaward-dipping imbrication of the disc-shaped clasts. (F) Wave-worked gravels of the upper part of the beachface characterized by high segregation and sorting of clasts by shape and size. Stratification is well defined with alternating centimeter- to decimeter-thick layers of sand-, granule- and pebble-grade materials. (G) Lagoonal/swamp silty clay interbedded with thin beds of sand. (H) Distant view of massive, poorly sorted, matrix-supported gravels alternated with minor strata of thinly laminated or massive silts (arrows). Person for scale (in brackets).
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upper unit and, mostly in the lowermost part, composed of sub-spherical clasts. Sorting by shape and size is less pronounced and clasts are randomly orientated or exhibit either seaward or landward imbrications. 2.5.2. Interpretation Massari and Parea (1988) defined the upper unit as the part of the beach that extends from the foreshore to the highest berm (upper beachface). Whereas the accretion of upper beachface with seaward dipping strata reflects the activity of waves during recovery stages, the seaward-dipping erosional surfaces that commonly underlie concordant bedsets of these deposits are inferred to be triggered by storm-wave planation of the beachface. Such internal architecture is directly comparable with that of ancient and modern deposits of prograding gravelly shorelines (Maejima, 1982; Bluck, 1999; Neal et al., 2002). Landward wedging out of beds may be a primary feature or result from the erosional nature of the bounding surface. The lower unit has been defined by Massari and Parea (1988) as the submarine lower beachface. The overall size and shape zonation showed by the beachface facies association resemble those described in ancient settings by Bourgeois and Leithold (1984) from southwest Oregon and by Bluck (1967) from South Wales and reflect clearly the processes responsible for their deposition. The beach profile exerts an important control on sorting of particles with almost planar beds of well-segregated, imbricated, small and disc-shaped pebbles being stable in the upper beachface, whereas less well-sorted, larger and more spherical pebbles tend to roll downslope into the lower beachface. 2.6. Facies association 6: lagoon/swamp 2.6.1. Description This facies association is heterolithic and laterally discontinuous. It may consist of unbioturbated and thinly parallel-laminated green or grey clays and silty clays with brackish to fresh-water gastropods, within which brown plant debris occurs as an important component or, more commonly, of sharp-based sand beds, up to 50 cm thick, interbedded with discontinuous one-clast-thick gravel beds and massive silty clay layers up to 50 cm thick (Fig. 5G). Sedimentary structures in sands include subhorizontal to very low
angle, tangential, landward-dipping lamination (i.e., west directed flows) with intercalated sets of highangle planar cross-beds with erosional upper contacts. 2.6.2. Interpretation Facies characteristics as well as the presence of brackish to fresh-water fauna indicate that this association represents sedimentation within sheltered, lowenergy settings (lagoons/coastal swamps) separated from the open-marine environment by narrow, sandy barrier islands which commonly form along wavedominated, microtidal shorelines when relative sea level is rising. Such sheltered environments are characterized by suspension settling of silts and clays possibly introduced mainly from rivers and subject to periodic introduction of sand from the barrier side when wind-generated storm surges cut through and spill over the barrier island, creating washover fans (Schwartz, 1982). 2.7. Facies association 7: fluvial 2.7.1. Description This facies association is characterized by multiple lenticular bodies, which comprises massive or horizontal crudely bedded, clast-supported and poorly sorted gravels in abundant sand matrix interbedded with minor strata of thinly laminated or massive silts (Fig. 5H). The bulk of the gravels is composed of wellrounded pebble- to cobble-size carbonate and chert clasts, locally imbricated and normally graded, whereas marl and sandstone clasts, as well as large clay intraclasts represent a minor component. Beds are up to 2 m thick and contacts are mainly sharp and planar or obscured because of the lack of well-defined bedding. Silt layers are usually tabular or broadly lenticular, horizontally laminated or massive, well sorted, rooted and up to 70 cm thick. 2.7.2. Interpretation The gravel-rich lithofacies corresponds to the Gh facies of Miall (1996). It is interpreted as the product of longitudinal bars developed, by means of vertical and lateral growth of horizontally stratified gravel sheets, by high-energy streamflow processes within coarsegrained, shallow and low-sinuosity braided multiple channels. These channels are the result of continual
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switching of the position of the active channel within a broad channel belt. Additional evidence providing indications that gravel deposition was laterally extensive and not restricted to a single main channel is the absence of well-defined large channels and the occurrence of tabular bedding. Silt layers represent the Fsm facies of Miall (1996) and are attributed to minor deposition from suspension fallout during periods of fluvial overbank and flooding of floodplain areas. Overall, the features described above are consistent with deposition in a continental setting and support a braided-stream fluvial system origin for these deposits.
3.2. Upper part of sequence Qmb (RLD) The studied interval of Qmb includes the uppermost part of the Argille Azzurre Superiori Formation and an overall upward coarsening and shallowing succession of shallow-marine facies assemblages indicated in this paper as regressive littoral deposits (RLD). Generally, the sediments of RLD are not widespread across the study area. The RLD best-developed facies tract occurs only in the most proximal (landward) parts of the basin (e.g., sections 7, 13, 17, 18 and 25). It is up to 30 m thick and comprises a coarsening upward succession of offshore clays passing gradually up into lower shoreface sands, and through a wave-cut erosion surface, to gravel-rich beachface clinoforms. On the basis of the facies succession and the erosional surface that separates lower shoreface sands from upper shoreface/beachface strata, this overall shoaling upward sequence of facies associations can be partitioned into the two component depositional systems tracts described below. 3.2.1. Highstand systems tract The lower part of RLD consists of a conformable shallowing and coarsening upward facies succession passing gradationally from offshore to lower shoreface assemblages (Fig. 6). This part of the stratigraphic record is well-developed along the western margin of the basin where it is thickest (up to about 25 m), while it is only partially preserved elsewhere beneath the overlying erosion surface. In the shelf setting, gradationally based shoreface successions are usually regarded as marking a gradual shift in depositional conditions and are interpreted as a record of storm-dominated shelves that progressively shallowed due to shoreface advance. This process is one of normal, sediment-driven regression during a slow relative sea-level rise consistent with HST. 3.2.2. Attached falling stage systems tract The uppermost part of RLD comprises a sharpbased facies succession of upper shoreface pebbly sands that grade upward into clinostratified beachface gravels. The amount of seaward translation of sedimentary facies and magnitude of erosion across the underlying surface is such that no underlying offshore transition-to-lower shoreface deposits were preserved and seaward moving beachface or shoreface layers
3. Sequence stratigraphy 3.1. Terminology The studied succession (uppermost part of Qmb and Qmc) has been subdivided into component depositional sequences and these, in turn, into component systems tracts. Facies-based systems tracts (Swift et al., 1991) have been defined on the basis of the nature and geometry of their bounding surfaces and the architecture of the component facies associations. These criteria allowed the subdivision of individual sequences into incised-valley fill (IVF), transgressive (TST), highstand (HST) and falling stage systems tract (FSST). In this paper, following the approach of Plint and Nummedal (2000), the sequence boundaries are placed above the sharp based FSSTs. Sequences occurring within Qmc have been named Qmcn, where n is a number from 1 to 3 passing from the older to the younger. Abbreviations of component systems tracts have a subscript referring to the sequence (e.g., HSTb and FSST2 are the highstand systems tract and falling stage systems tract of sequence Qmb and Qmc2, respectively). Similarly, all the minor sequence boundaries occurring within Qmc have been named on the basis of the high-frequency sequence that overlies the boundary itself and indicated with the addition of a numeric subscript to the abbreviation (e.g., SB1 is that underlying sequence Qmc1 and so on). Finally, the two major unconformities interposed between the cycles Qmb and Qmc and between cycles Qmc and Qc have been named Emilian and Villafranchian, respectively.
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Fig. 6. Measured Section 13. Offshore silty clay of the Argille Azzurre Superiori Formation (Qmb) gradually passing upward into lower shoreface sands (RLD).
were able to prograde and rest sharply on underlying offshore clays (Fig. 7A). In addition, because of the increasing thickness of sediment eroded down-dip, in this direction the beachface clinoforms overlie progressively older strata that have been rotated eastward to more steeply dips by the synsedimentary uplift (Fig. 7B). Accordingly, the amount of angular discordance across the erosional surface varies along depositional dip and this discontinuity passes basinward from a simple erosional disconformity to a gentle intraformational angular unconformity. This geometry suggests that the basinward transition from a gradational to a sharp-based contact between offshore clays and the overlying littoral sediments as well as the significant seaward thinning of RLD were both triggered by a marked drop of the prograding gravels relative to the stratigraphic position of the underlying gradationalbased shoreface. Between sections 17 31 and 25 30, the prograding conglomerate package at the top of the RLD may be walked out from the western part of the basin until its abrupt down-dip pinch-out (Figs. 8 and 9). Just beyond the seaward pinch-out of the beachface gravels, the underlying Qmb clays are sharply overlain by sandy strata showing plane-parallel stratification and landward onlap termination. Landward, these sands progressively climb onto and truncate the sharp-based seaward-dipping beachface package (Fig. 7B).
Where outcrops are sufficiently extensive to expose the down-dip architecture of the prograding beachface gravels at the top of RLD, the clinoforms exhibit a downward stepping geometry (Fig. 10). Moreover, when beachface strata are capped by paleosols rather than being truncated by the subsequent ravinement or fluvial erosion surface, their upper terminal edges wedge back towards the land, clearly demonstrating offlap. The above characteristics satisfy the criteria for accretionary forced regression (Plint, 1988; Hunt and Tucker, 1992; Posamentier et al., 1992; Helland-Hansen and Gjelberg, 1994; Helland-Hansen and Martinsen, 1996; Plint, 1996). As pointed out by Plint (1988) and Nummedal et al. (1993), during rapid relative sealevel lowering the downward shift of baselevel forces depositional systems to migrate basinward. In these circumstances the accommodation available in front of an advancing shoreline is greatly reduced and relative sea-level drop triggers the erosion of formerly aggrading inner shelf areas as fair-weather wave base intersects the sea-floor. In this way, the bathymetric space close to the fair-weather wave base, formerly occupied by the lower-shoreface and offshore transition zone, is destroyed by erosion during falling sea level, and upper shoreface and beachface sediments (falling stage systems tract, FSST) are able to prograde directly onto an erosional surface cut in the underlying offshore clays (regressive surface of marine erosion, RSME). The
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Fig. 7. (A) Close up of the sharp surface at the base of the seaward dipping beachface gravels of RLD interpreted as a regressive surface of marine erosion. Person for scale. (B) Panoramic view of Measured Section 27. The base of the clinostratified beachface gravels is a sharp erosion surface truncating offshore clays. Note the angular unconformity across this surface and the onlapping stratal termination of the lower shoreface sands overlying the gravels.
FSST is physically attached up-dip to the underlying HST sandy deposits and, therefore, it can be defined as an attached FSST (attached LST of Ainsworth and Pattison, 1994; attached FSST of Plint, 1996). A previous interpretation of these deposits (Ori et al., 1993) as incised-valley fills is rejected due to welldeterminated offlapping geometries and downward trajectory. Incised-valley fills usually exhibit an onlapping geometry. 3.3. Sequence Qmc This composite depositional sequence shows wedge-shaped geometry with remarkable stratigraphic expansion in a proximal to distal direction. This is mostly created by the progressive angular unconformity related to synsedimentary tilting (Figs. 8 and 9). In
this section, we describe and interpret previously unrecognized, regionally extensive surfaces of allostratigraphic significance that bound three high-order depositional sequences (namely, Qmc1, Qmc2 and Qmc3) and component systems tracts. 3.3.1. Lowstand systems tracts Individual Qmc high-frequency depositional sequences were formed landward of the lowstand shoreline and comprise incised-valley fill, TST, HST, and FSST. Landward of the lowstand shoreline the intervening glacial periods are represented by erosional surfaces that mark the sequence boundaries. Lowstand deposits, representing the late bypass phase in the valleys, are well preserved just offshore of the study area (Unit 2 of Ori et al., 1986). The Unit 2, which may be considered the result of the stacking of lowstand systems tracts of
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Fig. 8. Depositional dip-oriented stratigraphic cross section showing facies and sequence architecture of the upper part of cycle Qmb (RLD) and Qmc between Ripatransone and Cupra Marittima. Note that in up-dip proximal position the FSST at the top of RLD splits into two prograding paracycles when traced down-dip. Note also the composite nature of the Emilian unconformity surface discussed later and that all the FSSTs are physically attached up-dip to underlying HST sands.
Fig. 9. Depositional dip-oriented stratigraphic cross-section reconstructed along the southern flank of the Tesino River.
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Fig. 10. Measured Section 14. Note the seaward (to the left) and downward migration of the beachface gravel body occurring at the top of RLD and interpreted as falling stage systems tract. The upward sequence of facies associations is interpreted to reflect an overall foresteppingbackstepping of depositional environments due to a relative fall and successive rise of sea level.
Pleistocene depositional sequences, is an 800 1000-m thick wedge of Pleistocene, eastward dipping clinoform-type reflectors forming a coarse deltaic and slope system that thins both eastward and westward and is separated from the high-frequency sequences of Qmc by a wide zone of (apparent) sediment bypass (the basinal part of the Emilian unconformity). According to Chiocci et al. (1997), comparable deposits of middle late Pleistocene age are widely developed along the western Mediterranean area where they form during fourth-order sea-level lowstands. 3.3.2. Incised-valley fills Landward of the lowstand shoreline, incised-valley fills consist of laterally confined multi-storey fluvial gravels encased within marine deposits. They are bounded by a basal broadly concave-up erosional surface scoured into the sediments of the underlying sequence and an upper transgressive surface of marine erosion (TSME or ravinement surface) (Nummedal and Swift, 1987) that truncates their top. Thus, incised-valley fills lie on a basal sequence boundary that, depending on whether the lagoonal deposits laid down during the succeeding transgression at the landward side of the shoreline are preserved or not, passes on the interfluves into a hiatal (paleosol) or erosional (TSME) surface, respectively.
According to sequence stratigraphy concepts, the incised valleys are excavated in response to periods of fluvial entrenchment due to baselevel fall and lowstand, become filled when sea-level rise resumes slowly, and are transgressively overrun as the rate of accommodation generated at the shoreline progressively outpaces the rate of sediment supply. These fluvial deposits were previously undocumented within the Qmc cycle, which was retained to be composed completely by shallow-marine strata (Cantalamessa et al., 1997; Bigi et al., 1997) and represents the first record of continental sedimentation within the basin. 3.3.3. Transgressive systems tracts During the transgression, sediments are deposited in two separate depositional systems: a back-barrier wedge between the sequence boundary and the TSME and a backstepping shelf wedge above the TSME (Thorne and Swift, 1991). The former consists of lagoonal and swamp deposits laid down landward of a retrogradational barrier island system that migrated westward (landward) in response to sea-level rise. The latter, composed of erosively based, sandprone retrogradational strata that fines upward gradationally and shale-out in the seaward direction (eastward), is a typical shoreface-to-offshore transgressive facies assemblage.
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The transgressive nature of the back-barrier wedge is further indicated by its juxtaposition, in some location, on the interfluve paleosols. Among the several factors on which depends the occurrence and thickness of the back-barrier wedge, sediment supply, rate of sealevel rise and shelf gradient all play a fundamental role (e.g., Storms and Swift, 2003). In the study area, when these deposits are present, their thickness at the most basinward positions usually ranges from few decimeters to about 3 m at most but reach about 7 m at the farthest landward location (Section 26 of Fig. 8) of the sequence Qmc1. At this place, inferred as the most landward position reached by the coastline during the Qmc1 transgression, these strata form the record of a retrogradational, late transgressive lagoon and wavedominated barrier island system similar to those described by OByrne and Flint (1995) in the Cretaceous of North America. The TSMEs reflect shoreface retreat processes and are partially veneered by erosionally based coarse layers of pebbly cobbly sand whose grain sizes and thickness, ranging from one clast to about 50 cm, usually vary down-dip and laterally (Fig. 11). In particular, as the thickness and grain size of transgressive lag deposits are controlled by the grain size of the transgressed substrate (Hwang and Heller, 2002), both tend gradually to increase as the surface truncates the coarse, valley-fill deposits or the beachface facies association of the underlying sequence. When this
surface rests on offshore silty clays, the TSME may be an erosional unconformity with or without thin lag deposits. In this case, its erosional nature is further evidenced by the presence in the underlying sediments of vertical, sharp-walled, unlined and passively sandfilled Skolithos of the Glossifungites suite crosscutting the older softground ichnofauna and piping sand into the offshore silty clays from the overlying shoreface deposits. In siliciclastic settings, this firmground trace fossil assemblage is commonly associated with erosionally exhumed (dewatered and compacted) clayey substrates and, hence, corresponds to an erosional discontinuity (e.g., Pemberton and MacEachern, 1995; Buatois et al., 2002; Di Celma et al., 2002). According to MacEachern et al. (1992), the occurrence of such structures demonstrates that sediments did not immediately cover the exhumed substrate as colonization predates the depositional cover (omission suite of Bromley, 1996). Within the TSTs, wave-dominated shoreface and offshore transition strata comprise the majority of deposits and SCS is by far the most common sedimentary structure. Sands form vertically stacked shoreface bodies up to 3 m thick that overlie, and are interbedded with, relatively thin and finer-grained strata comprising marine clays and thin interbedded fine-sandy silts containing wave-ripple laminae. When traced landward in outcrop, these finer grained layers wedge out into amalgamated sand beds or onlap
Fig. 11. Bioturbated silty clay of the sequence Qmb sharply capped by lower shoreface transgressive sands of the high-frequency sequence Qmc1. The pebble lag occurring along the TSME1/SB reflect winnowing out of finer-grained material during transgression.
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directly onto the ravinement surface (Fig. 12). Unfortunately, quality of exposures do not allow long distance tracing of these fine-grained strata in a seaward direction but it is possible to see that lower shoreface SCS sands grade basinward into offshore transition zone HCS (Fig. 13). Hettinger et al. (1993) illustrated a strikingly similar facies architecture. According to them, the physical characteristics of these strata suggest that the top of each SCS sandbody is a marine flooding surface and each couple made by one fine-grained layer and the overlying SCS sandbody reflects a progradational event, which is referred to as a parasequence (Van Wagoner et al., 1988). 3.3.4. Highstand systems tracts As the farthest landward exposures of each highfrequency sequence consist of deposits representing late transgressive and early highstand phases, the shoaling upward sediments of the HST rest directly on the sandy deposits of the preceding TST resulting in sand-on-sand contact and the superposition of similar facies below and above the surface marking the turnaround of the shoreline (maximum flooding surface, MFS). On the other hand, in more distal places,
strata display an evident fining-to-coarsening upward trend of sedimentary facies with lower shoreface deposits underlying and overlying gradually those emplaced in offshore setting. In this case the deepest bathymetry recorded reflects, at most, deposition in inner shelf setting that means that this part of the transgressed shelf never experienced significative conditions of siliciclastic sediment starvation typical of strata candidate for condensed section. Consequently, though in cycle Qmc both the first two small-scale sequences can be interpreted in terms of deepening and shoaling upward facies tracts, the difficulty to pinpoint the physical surface necessary to discriminate deposits laid down during late transgression from those emplaced during the early phase of normal regression, prevent an unambiguous attribution of sediments that occupy a mid-cycle position within depositional sequences. 3.3.5. Attached falling stage systems tracts At their most landward exposures, the shoaling upward portions of sequences Qmc1 and Qmc2 are composed of upper shoreface pebbly sands that grade upward into prograding beachface gravels and are, in
Fig. 12. Enlargement of Fig. 14 showing detail of Section 2. Vertically stacked shoreface parasequences onlapping fluvial gravels. Each sandbody is up to about 3 m thick and overlies thin (up to 30 cm) and finer grained strata. Fine-grained facies were easily recognized because of faintly recessive intervals in the cliff-face (put in evidence by bushes). When traced landward (westward), finer strata wedge out into amalgamated sand beds or onlap directly onto the TSME1. The transition from coarser to finer-grained lithology is picked as a very planar marine flooding surface (marked by vertical black arrow) and each couple made by one fine grained layer and the overlying SCS sandbody reflects a progradational event which is referred to as a parasequence. Within this section, at least three marine flooding surfaces bounding four parasequences that stack to form a retrogradational parasequence set developed during a punctuated sea-level rise can be distinguished along the outcrop face.
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Fig. 13. Depositional dip-oriented stratigraphic cross section along the northern flank of the Fosso del Molinetto (Torre di Palme).
turn, underlain by bioturbated or SCS lower shoreface sands. The contact between lower- and upper-shoreface is characterized by abundant small-scale scours, by the scattered presence of a 30-cm thick bed of rounded, fine grained intraclasts as much as 5 cm in diameter, and by gutter cast-like features that, overall, are interpreted to reflect significant erosion of the underlying sediments. The gutter cast-like features, typically up to 15 cm wide and 6 cm deep, are oriented parallel to each other and normal to the paleoshoreline. They are filled by massive fine-grained sand and mud intraclasts and,
owing to preferential removal of the less-cemented surrounding sand by weathering processes, they stand out from the weathered surface of the cliff faces. Within Qmc1, that is the most completely developed sequence, the shoreline migration path resulting from the seaward movement of the prograding upper shoreface and beachface deposits displays a gentle downstepping trajectory relative to the marine flooding surfaces bounding the underlying TST parasequences (Figs. 13 and 14). This geometry provides a powerful tool in interpreting the internal architecture of the
Fig. 14. Dip-oriented panoramic view of the Qmb Qmc Qc succession exposed along the northern flank of the Fosso del Molinetto (Torre di Palme) and its architectural interpretation (see also Fig. 13). Note the angular unconformity between sequences Qc and Qmc and the FSST attached to the underlying HST sands. Encircled numbers indicate location of measured sections.
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regressive portion of this depositional sequence and in resolving its systems tracts. Although regressive sediments may also develop in areas of high sediment supply during sea-level rise (HST) and the occurrence of upper-shoreface and beachface facies over lower shoreface do not necessarily represent a significant seaward shift of sedimentary facies, the downward stepping shoreline trajectory combined with evidence of discrete erosion along the base of upper shoreface deposits, leads to the conclusion that in this case they represent forced regression triggered by the onset of a relative sea-level fall (attached FSST). Furthermore, they rest on a downward-cutting erosion surface across which, when traced basinward, a significant and abrupt seaward shift of sedimentary facies occurs (RSME). In fact, when this surface is traced seaward, it cuts downsection into the underlying shoaling-up HST1 and deepening-up TST1 deposits (Figs. 8 and 9) until it reaches and cuts the Qmc1 lower sequence boundary. Down-dip with respect to the termination of beachface facies, the SB2 corresponds to an apparent sediment bypass zone which separates the attached FSST from the LST. This surface, modified during the ensuing transgression (SB2/TSME2), is excavated into the silty clay deposits of the underlying Qmb sequence. As discussed by Ainsworth et al. (2000), the development of an attached FSST (attached LST according to the terminology used by these authors) entirely detached from the early lowstand system is a likely feature during tectonic uplift. Furthermore, because of the continual sediment supply to the shoreline during sea-level fall, the sediment bypass zone that separates the detached LST from the attached FSST is more likely to be an apparent feature formed as a consequence of wave ravinement during the subsequent transgression than be a real feature generated by the cut-off of sediment supply during forced regression. It is evident from Fig. 14 that the abrupt increase in grain size that characterizes the forced regressive wedges with respect to the underlying normal, sediment-driven regressive wedges coincide with the formation of a downward-cutting erosion surface in advance of the prograding beachface gravels. This probably reflects the sedimentological response to early periods of significant base-level drop when the coarse-grained sediments stored within previous coastal sediment-trapping environments were eroded and bypassed to the shoreline through the fluvial system.
3.4. The Emilian (Qmb/Qmc) unconformity The Emilian surface, the lowermost of the two major unconformities in the study area, is a regionally extensive erosional surface recording an abrupt seaward translation of sedimentary facies (i.e., evidence of subaerial exposure on marine strata or marine strata incised by fluvial valleys). In addition, it is also a significantly diachronous surface which results from the amalgamation of higher-frequency sequence boundaries that formed during the long-term fall of relative sea level (Figs. 3 and 15). In the western and central part of the basin, where FSSTb is fully preserved, a rooted, thin, poorly developed grayish paleosol associated with coarse sands and clays has been observed interposed between the beachface and the overlying lagoon/swamp facies association of the back-barrier wedge (Fig. 16A). This paleosol testifies to pedogenic processes during periods of lowstand subaerial exposure and weathering of the continental shelf. Since paleosols are inferred to be produced on low-relief interfluve areas during periods of baselevel fall and landscape stability (Aitken and Flint, 1996; OByrne and Flint, 1996; McCarthy and Plint, 1998), it represents a non-depositional hiatus in the sedimentary record and is interpreted as the interfluve sequence boundary (IFSB1) separating Qmb from Qmc. Where FSSTb is unconformably overlain by fluvial gravels (Fig. 16B) or by shoreface sands (Fig. 16C), there is no clear physical evidence of subaerial exposure along the contact. This indicates that the uppermost part of the forced regressive wedge has been partially eroded by fluvial or wave processes. Fitzsimmons and Johnson (2000) pointed out that in these cases the subaerial unconformity can be traced laterally inside incised valleys where it is marked by an erosional surface carved by fluvial erosion during lowstand valley incision (FESB) and protected underneath lenticular bodies of fluvial gravels. Alternatively, it may be partly replaced by a TSME, which, during the ensuing transgression, removes all the evidence of subaerial exposure on the interfluves and merges with the underlying sequence boundary. As such, the ravinement surface serves both as a sequence boundary and as the base of the TST (SB/ TSME). Just seaward with respect to the basinal pinch out of FSSTb, across the SB1/TSME1, shal-
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Fig. 15. Sketch illustrating the composite nature of the Emilian surface, sequence stacking pattern and systems tract architecture within RLD-Qmc. Each high-frequency sequence, composed by late LST, TST, HST and attached FSST, is detached from the early LST (Unit 2 of Ori et al., 1986) by an apparent sediment bypass zone generated by wave erosion during the ensuing transgression. Note that TST and HST dominate the more landward sites (e.g., position A), whereas in relatively basinward sites (e.g., position B) the FSST can represent the entire depositional sequence.
low-water sandy marine sediments overlie deeperwater marine clays of the preceding Qmb (Fig. 16D). In more basinal areas, where the FSST1 move
downward up to reach the lower sequence boundary of the first sequence, the SB1/TSME1 is inferred to have been removed by wave erosion in response to
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Fig. 16. Outcrop photographs of different stratal expressions of the Emilian unconformity. When present, a 30-cm long hammer is used for scale. (A) Measured Section 5. Seaward-dipping (toward the right) beachface deposits and interfluve surface of subaerial exposure (IFSB1) succeeded by horizontal green clays and silty clays of the swamp facies association. Person for scale. (B) Measured Section 1. Prograding beachface gravels at the top of RLD overlain by an erosively based, lenticular and non-marine gravel-body, which is clearly incised into the underlying deposits. This contact is a basinward shift in facies marking a sequence boundary. Since the erosive surface separating fluvial deposits (FESB1) from the underlying beachface gravels is a regionally correlatable unconformity, fluvial gravels cannot be interpreted as distributary-channel deposits and, therefore, are not genetically related to them. Encircled person for scale. (C) Measured Section 15. Clinostratified beachface gravels within RLD truncated and abruptly overlain by onlapping marine sands. Shoreface erosion during landward movement of the shoreconnected sedimentary prism stripped off the evidence of subaerial exposure and resulted in the superposition of TSME1 upon the sequence boundary and the development of the composite surface SB1/TSME1. (D) Measured Section 28. Seaward respect to the down-dip pinch-out of the RLD beachface gravels, the composite Emilian unconformity is represented by the ravinement surface occurring at the base of sequence Qmc1 (TSME1) that is carved directly on the Qmb offshore clays. Although this basal unconformity results regionally planar, local irregularities with up to 4 m of topographic relief can be observed.
the ensuing sea-level lowering and the RSME1 is superposed and coincides to the Emilian surface (SB1/RSME1) (Fig. 8, west of the Measured Section 24). The lateral connection of all these surfaces gives rise to a composite unconformity separating, on the whole, sediments deposited during highstand and forced regression of Qmb from those laid down during lowstand, transgression and forced regression of Qmc1. Over a large part of the study area, the Emilian surface corresponds with SB1. However, in some of the more basinal locations (Fig. 8), seaward of the FSST1 pinch out, the Qmc1 lower sequence boundary is replaced by the ravinement surface occurring at the base of Qmc2 and the high-frequency
sequence boundaries SB1 and SB2 coalesce to form the Emilian unconformity.
4. Discussion The present data have led to a better understanding of the internal architecture of the uppermost part of cycle Qmb and that of Qmc and demonstrate that the history of the late Early Pleistocene sedimentation in the Periadriatic Basin is far more complex and dynamic than hitherto thought. Interesting facets of this study are (1) that it provides one of the first outcrop-derived description of erosively based, attached FSST strata
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from the Pleistocene record, and (2) that it shows that although the long-term upward coarsening succession of the Qmb, Qmc and Qc interval as a whole represents a major relative sea-level fall, it is punctuated by minor, higher-order relative changes of sea level reflected in the stratigraphic record by the cyclic recurrence of similar depositional facies patterns. Although Quaternary sediments laid down during periods of continuously falling sea-level are widely recognized from high-resolution seismic reflection profiles of continental shelves (e.g., Chiocci, 2000; Hernandez-Molina et al., 2000; Trincardi and Correggiari, 2000), few examples of erosively based FSSTs have been described so far within outcrop-based studies of roughly contemporaneous glacio-eustatic sequences (Massari, 1997; Massari et al., 1999; Haywick, 2000; Tropeano and Sabato, 2000). Plio Pleistocene shallow-marine sediments accumulated during sea-level fall were also recognized by Naish and Kamp (1997) and Pomar and Tropeano (2001) in outcropbased case studies from the Wanganui Basin (New Zealand) and the Apulian foreland in southern Italy, respectively. However, in these cases regressive deposits lack a sharp RSME at the base resulting, therefore, in a gradational rather than erosive contact with the underlying HST. The detailed lithofacies and sequence stratigraphic analysis of the RLD-Qmc stratigraphic record, indicates that during the late Early Pleistocene the western margin of the Periadriatic Basin was filled by a cyclothemic succession of interbedded shallow-marine and non-marine deposits and provides insights into the relationship between synsedimentary deformation and glacio-eustatically driven sea-level changes. Yet, the presence of syndepositional angular unconformities provides strong evidence that uplift and progressive eastward tilting was active at least from the Emilian substage. Given the late Emilian age of the unit RLD (about 1200 ka) and the topographic heights at which it is preserved near Ripatransone (about 500 m asl), an average uplift rate on the order of 0.4 m ka 1 can be estimated for this part of the basin since late Early Pleistocene. Two aspects of the influence of uplift in controlling small-scale sequence development deserve further discussion: firstly, its effects on the volumetric development of individual systems tracts and, secondly, the control exercised on the sequence arrangement.
4.1. Systems tracts development The volumetric partitioning between systems tracts seems to be strikingly dependent firstly from the paleobasinal position of the particular outcrop examined. Facies organization within the high-frequency sequences indicates that close to the basinal nearshore at highstands, transgressive and highstand systems tracts are best developed and compose the bulk of the RLD and of the Qmc high-frequency sequences (Fig. 15, position A), while incised-valley fills and attached falling stage systems tracts are volumetrically much less significant. Inversely, in relatively basinward sites, the depositional sequences can result to be entirely composed by the attached FSST, with the RSME superposed on, and coincident with, the lower sequence boundary (Fig. 15, position B). Several factors influence the thickness and other characteristics of individual systems tracts. Controls include sediment influx, rate of eustatic sea-level change, synsedimentary tectonics and shape of the relative sea-level curve. Among these controls, the shape of the relative sea-level curve is the primary factor in controlling depositional patterns of individual systems tracts. For example, in the case of relative sea-level curves characterized by rapid rises and very slow falls, depositional sequences with poorly developed TSTs and HSTs, and significantly thicker FSSTs can form (Trincardi and Correggiari, 2000). Unlike middle and late Pleistocene eccentricitydriven cycles (100 ka), characterized by a distinct asymmetry between the rising (average rate of ca. 10 m ka 1) and falling (average rate of ca. 1.5 m ka 1) limbs with about 80% of time spent in eustatic fall, late Pliocene and early Pleistocene obliquity-driven cycles are quite symmetric and rates of sea-level change on the order of ca. 4 5 m ka 1 are likely. Therefore, as the rate of Pleistocene eustatic sea-level changes always outpaces the rate of tectonic uplift recorded in the study area, late Early Pleistocene high-frequency sequences are assumed to be of glacio-eustatic origin. This is the most likely mechanism for recurring shortterm sea level changes within successions of such age and their development is considered to be primarily controlled by the orbitally driven cycles in the Milankovitch frequency band that dominated the Pleistocene
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oxygen isotope stratigraphy (e.g., Shackleton et al., 1990). In the study area, the combination of a late Early Pleistocene eustatic sea-level curve and constant uplift rate results in a more asymmetric shape of relative sealevel curve. It is characterized by lower rates and reduced amplitude of sea-level rise and in acceleration of relative sea-level fall. Such an asymmetric pattern of relative sea-level change is conducive to significant variations in the volumetric importance of the individual systems tracts. Owing to the lower rates of relative sea-level rise, less accommodation space is created in non-marine environments during transgression and a higher amount of sediment may be supplied to the transgressive shorelines, resulting in thick marine TSTs comprising retrogradationally staked parasequences. Inversely, faster drops of relative sea level and seaward shift of the shorelines may result in very thin, attached FSSTs. If relative sea-level falls are fast enough, the site of deposition will shift rapidly basinward and cause the attached FSST and the LST components to become detached (Plint, 1996). Further, the presence of factors increasing the amount of erosion during the ensuing transgression as low rates of shoreline migration, reduces significantly the preservation potential of FSSTs (Trincardi and Correggiari, 2000). 4.2. Sequence stacking pattern Long-term effects on Qmb Qmc deposition of tectonically driven relative sea-level lowering superimposed on repeated episodes of glacio-eustatic sealevel oscillations, may be evaluated by examining the arrangement of the high-frequency depositional sequences in a downstepping sequence set reflecting the progressively farther basinward shift of successive coastlines and basin depocentres through time (Figs. 3 and 15). Each sequence marks a successive basinward step in the overall progradational pattern of RLD-Qmc and, with respect to the position reached by the previous one, its FSST moves farther into the basin. Moreover, when it is possible to observe individual high-frequency sequences in their overall basinal extension, as in the case of Qmc1, they have a roughly sigmoidal shape. This feature reflects the progressive uplift and related reduction of accommodation during a given eustatic sea-level cycle that
allows the forced regressive shorelines to be moved at a lower height than they were, in the same place, during the previous transgression and causes their deposits to overlie unconformably sediments of the lower depositional sequence. Similar tectonically enhanced forced regressive sequence sets have been described by several authors both in siliciclastic (e.g., Jones and Milton, 1994; Gawthorpe et al., 2000; McMurray and Gawthorpe, 2000) and carbonate settings (e.g., Mutti et al., 1996), and seem to be a prominent feature in depositional regimes in which deposition occurs under the influence of sea-level cycles of different origin, frequency and amplitude overprinted upon one other.
5. Conclusions Owing to its particular structural and inversion history, the Periadriatic Basin offers rather unusual shore-normal sections, which allow to observe bedding patterns, facies architecture and key surfaces in more basinward positions. Based on detailed analysis of facies and a high-resolution sequence-stratigraphic interpretation of outcrop data, this study provides new insights for controls on stratal accumulations during high-frequency sea-level changes superimposed on long-term, syndepositional uplift and, particularly, a stratigraphic model on the depositional scenario of down-dip merging unconformities. The following represent the major conclusions derived from this study. (1) Because of the difference in rates between highfrequency glacio-eustatic sea level changes and long-term tectonic uplift, these processes influence sediment accumulation in different ways, with the former playing a fundamental role in the generation of high-frequency depositional sequences, component systems tracts, and key surfaces. However, facies organization within the highfrequency sequences indicates that, under the control of syndepositional uplift, the volumetric development of individual systems tracts change in sympathy with the shape of relative sea-level curve and position in the basin. Transgressive and highstand systems tracts are, on the whole, the most conspicuous and best-developed deposits in more proximal sites and compose the bulk of the
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high-frequency sequences while incised-valley fills and falling stage systems tracts are much less pronounced. By contrast, in more basinal locations, the falling stage systems tract may represent the entire depositional sequence, with the regressive surface of marine erosion superposed on, and coincident with, the lower sequence boundary. (2) The major influence of regional uplift on stratal accumulation is on longer term, at sequence set scale and is responsible for sequence stacking pattern. Because of the progressive, tectonically driven reduction of accommodation space, highfrequency sequences are nested within a forced regressive sequence set, where each successively younger sequence is displaced basinward and downward respect to the last. (3) The tectonically induced forced regressive sequence set is underlain by a major tectonically enhanced regressive surface of marine erosion. This is a widespread erosional, composite surface that develops diachronously across the paleo shelf in response to long-term falling sea level and results from the down-dip merging of successive sequence boundaries. Component sequence boundaries show systematic proximal to distal variations. In up-dip locations, when they have not been modified by ravinement erosion during the ensuing transgression, sequence boundaries are characterized by subaerial exposure (interfluve sequence boundaries) and minor fluvial incision (fluvial erosion sequence boundaries). Down-dip, the boundaries lack any evidence of subaerial exposure and fluvial erosion, are roughly planar and dip seaward (transgressive and regressive surfaces of marine erosion). (4) Owing to the down-dip convergence of sequence boundaries, each high-frequency sequence is entirely detached from its lowstand systems tract by an apparent sediment bypass zone. Although the topmost units of the Periadriatic Basin fill were deposited in a piggy-back basin setting, many of the results of this study can be readily translated to analogous siliciclastic depositional systems in other tectonic settings characterized by rates of regional tectonic uplift substantially less than rates of glacioeustatic sea-level change.
Acknowledgements The authors gratefully acknowledge Steve Flint (StratGroup, University of Liverpool) and Francesco ` Massari (Universita di Padova) for their constructive and valuable comments on various stages of this paper, which improved the manuscript substantially. The paper has also benefited from additional comments and suggestions of journal reviewers A. Amorosi and P.J.J. Kamp and the editor A.D. Miall. The financial support for this study was provided by the Ministero ` dellUniversita, grant 60% (G. Cantalamessa).
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Sedimentary Geology 164 (2004) 283 309 www.elsevier.

G. Cantalamessa, C. Di Celma / Sedimentary Geology 164 (2004) 283309

G. Cantalamessa, C. Di Celma / Sedimentary Geology 164 (2004) 283309

G. Cantalamessa, C. Di Celma / Sedimentary Geology 164 (2004) 283309

G. Cantalamessa, C. Di Celma / Sedimentary Geology 164 (2004) 283309

G. Cantalamessa, C. Di Celma / Sedimentary Geology 164 (2004) 283309

Fig. 4. Key to Figs. 8, 9 and 13.

G. Cantalamessa, C. Di Celma / Sedimentary Geology 164 (2004) 283309

G. Cantalamessa, C. Di Celma / Sedimentary Geology 164 (2004) 283309

G. Cantalamessa, C. Di Celma / Sedimentary Geology 164 (2004) 283309

G. Cantalamessa, C. Di Celma / Sedimentary Geology 164 (2004) 283309

G. Cantalamessa, C. Di Celma / Sedimentary Geology 164 (2004) 283309

G. Cantalamessa, C. Di Celma / Sedimentary Geology 164 (2004) 283309

G. Cantalamessa, C. Di Celma / Sedimentary Geology 164 (2004) 283309

G. Cantalamessa, C. Di Celma / Sedimentary Geology 164 (2004) 283309

G. Cantalamessa, C. Di Celma / Sedimentary Geology 164 (2004) 283309

G. Cantalamessa, C. Di Celma / Sedimentary Geology 164 (2004) 283309

G. Cantalamessa, C. Di Celma / Sedimentary Geology 164 (2004) 283309

G. Cantalamessa, C. Di Celma / Sedimentary Geology 164 (2004) 283309

G. Cantalamessa, C. Di Celma / Sedimentary Geology 164 (2004) 283309

G. Cantalamessa, C. Di Celma / Sedimentary Geology 164 (2004) 283309

G. Cantalamessa, C. Di Celma / Sedimentary Geology 164 (2004) 283309

G. Cantalamessa, C. Di Celma / Sedimentary Geology 164 (2004) 283309

G. Cantalamessa, C. Di Celma / Sedimentary Geology 164 (2004) 283309

G. Cantalamessa, C. Di Celma / Sedimentary Geology 164 (2004) 283309

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