Global versus regional influence on the carbonate factories of Oligo-Miocene carbonate platforms in the Mediterranean area

The Oligocene-Miocene is a key interval that was characterized by a cooling trend associated with a progressive decrease of atmospheric CO₂ concentrations that ends in the Present days.In the Central Mediterranean area, during this interval, three main carbonate platform domains developed in the foreland zone of the Apennines: the Latium-Abruzzi-Campana and Apulia domain in the central and south-eastern sectors of the chain and the Hyblea and Pelagian carbonate platforms in the south and south-western sectors. This work analyzes the impact and interplay of global and regional factors controlling the development of different carbonate factories and facies associations over the Chattian and the early Messinian time interval. Three well-studied examples of the central Mediterranean will be used: the Chattian ramp of Malta, the Latium-Abruzzi ramp, and the Bolognano ramp within the northern portion of the Apulian carbonate platform (outcropping on Majella Mountain).The Malta ramp represents the reference model for the heterozoan Oligo-Miocene carbonate factory, since it developed far from terrigenous input, in persistent oligotrophic conditions, and within a tropical climate. In contrast, the evolution of the central Apennine ramps is strictly related to the geodynamic evolution of the Apennines and simultaneously to global oceanographic changes.The Chattian Apennine ramps are affected by a basin conformation that favored the development of dominant currents and related dune fields. Successively, these ramps were exposed to strong Aquitanian volcanism that induced a shift towards an aphotic-dominated carbonate factory. Since the Burdigalian the development of the Apennines has affected the evolution of the investigated ramps through the eastward migration of foredeep systems and related nutrient input. This influence becomes more evident between the Tortonian and Messinian, during which reef-rimmed platforms developed in the rest of the Mediterranean while red algae still dominated in the Apennine ramps. Amongst the global events, the C-cycle perturbation, occurring between the late Burdigalian and Serravallian (Monterey event), leaves a clear sign on the two Apennine ramps.     

Evolution of Late Oligocene - Early Miocene attached and isolated carbonate platforms in a volcanic ridge context (Maldives type), Yadana field,offshore Myanmar

This study investigates the stratigraphic evolution of the Late Oligocene - Early Miocene carbonate platforms of the Yadana area (offshore Myanmar). Well data, regional 2D and local 3D seismic surveys allow the identification of three shallow-water carbonate platforms (Yadana, 3DF and 3DE) showing various morphologic and stratigraphic patterns influenced by the presence of a paleohigh. The identification of seven seismic sequences in the Yadana area constrains the stratigraphic evolution in three stages: (1) development of aggrading attached and isolated platforms during the Chattian; (2) a period of platform emersion during the Oligocene - Miocene transition; (3) drowning of the smaller buildup (3DE) associated with km-scale backstepping on the large platforms (3DF and Yadana) during the Aquitanian. The Aquitanian marks the onset of renewed volcanic activity associated with the development of fringing carbonate reefs during the Burdigalian. The rapid (∼6 My) development of these wide (∼5–70 km) and thick (∼300–850 m) carbonate platforms has been mainly controlled by the subsidence. However, the results highlight a strong overprint of eustatic fluctuations on the rates of change in accommodation, and hence on the stratigraphic architecture of the carbonate platforms. Based on an alternative model for the Cenozoic geodynamic evolution of the Yadana area, our results suggest that the platforms developed on a volcanic ridge of hotspot origin located in the Indian Ocean and not on a volcanic arc. Subduction jump processes are interpreted to have played a key role in the demise of all platforms by drastically changing the paleoenvironmental conditions during the Early Miocene, and led to the present-day location of the Yadana Ridge in a back-arc setting. The carbonate platforms from the Yadana area are thus a representative example of the interplay between global mechanisms and local paleoenvironmental parameters on carbonate platform initiation, growth and demise.     

Frequency analysis across the drowning of a Lower Jurassic carbonate platform: The Calcare Massiccio Formation (Apennines,Italy)

This work illustrates the evolution the Lower Jurassic shallow-water carbonates known as the Calcare Massiccio Formation in the Central Apennines (Italy). The Calcare Massiccio is characterized by lateral and vertical variability in the facies associations, related to an articulated physiography of the Triassic to Lower Jurassic carbonate platform and to its tectonic evolution. This work documents the depositional environment changes during the platform evolution. Quantitative analysis on samples collected from three stratigraphic sections were performed through the Calcare Massiccio succession allowed up to the overlying Pliensbachian pelagites. Two type of carbonate sedimentation have been recognized: in the peritidal and shallow subtidal environments (Calcare Massiccio A) the carbonate production is dominated by microbial activity, while the carbonate sedimentation in a deeper environment of middle to outer ramp (Calcare Massiccio B), is dominated by a bioclastic sedimentation.The evolution from the Calcare Massiccio A to the B can be interpreted as the product of increase of accommodation that in turn produced a backstepping of carbonate facies belt, the photic microbial dominated peritidal facies developed on the persistent Latium-Abruzzi Platform while the bioclastic carbonate production factory settled on the structural highs resulting from the dismembering of the platform by syn-sedimentary tectonic.The bioclastic carbonate factory was not efficient in filling the available accommodation space produced by Sinemurian extensional tectonic. This inefficiency was amplified by the restricted area available for this factory in the small structural highs. These conditions were sufficient to predispose the platform to the drowning without invoke change in the trophic resource or change in the palaeoceanography.     

西沙海区新近纪碳酸盐岩台地地震响应特征和控制因素

利用西沙海域最新采集的高分辨率二维地震资料及钻井资料,结合前人研究成果,建立了西沙海区高精度层序地层格架;并在西沙海区新近纪识别出点礁、塔礁、台地边缘礁和环礁这4种不同类型生物礁,总结了不同生物礁的地震反射特征.早中新世时,西沙碳酸盐岩台地开始发育,台地数量较少且规模有限;中中新世,随着海平面的持续上升,海平面上升速率...     

An extensional syn-sedimentary structure in the Early Jurassic Trento Platform (Southern Alps,Italy) as analogue of potential hydrocarbon reservoirs developing in rifting-affected carbonate platforms

This work focuses on the 3D modeling and structural analysis of the Monte Testo syn-sedimentary structure, developed in the Early Jurassic Calcari Grigi Group of the Trento carbonate platform (Southern Alps, Italy). Significant changes in the facies architecture of the platform sedimentary units, occurred across a global perturbation of the Carbon cycle at the Sinemurian-Pliensbachian boundary, are associated with evidences of syn-sedimentary tectonics. In particular, an early cemented oolitic sedimentary body with a high initial porosity (Loppio Oolitic Limestone) was broken-up and tilted by a pulse of rifting and overlain by tight marls and marly limestones (lower Rotzo Formation) that display sharp changes in thickness across the syn-sedimentary faults. This complex setting creates conditions potentially favorable to hydrocarbon accumulation. In this work, the Monte Testo structure is presented as a conceptual analogue of a hydrocarbon reservoir that may develop thanks to the overlap of the effects of extensional tectonics and climate change-induced modifications in the carbonate platform facies. A 3D geo-model was realized to obtain information about the genesis and tectonic evolution of the structure. Hence, a potential porosity distribution in the 3D model was evaluated showing that such extensional structure, which has a vertical extent of 500 m and covers an area of 15 km², could have been associated to a total pore volume of 2.24 × 10⁷ m³ at the time of its formation. Results suggest that in rifting contexts the combined effect of syn-sedimentary faulting and facies variations related to perturbations in the global carbon cycle could generate potential reservoirs in carbonate platforms.     

Prerift and synrift sedimentation during early fault segmentation of a Tertiary carbonate platform, Indonesia

Eocene carbonate deposits of the Barru area, Sulawesi, Indonesia, provide a rare insight into sedimentation prior to and during propagation of normal faults to the surface. Three main successions; late prerift, latest prerift/earliest synrift and synrift, are characterised by distinctive facies associations and sequence development. Shallow water foraminiferal shoals and intervening lower energy depositional environments occurred during the late prerift in areas which latter formed footwall highs and hangingwall depocentres, respectively. During the latest prerift/earliest synrift, shallow water shelves deepened laterally into slope environments in developing hangingwall depocentres. In both these sequences, sections in developing hangingwall areas are thickest, deepen up-section and thin laterally towards growing footwall highs. Active faulting resulted in rapid drowning of hangingwall depocentres and massive reworking of material derived from collapse of the platform margin and adjacent shallow water/emergent footwall highs.Differential subsidence, controlling water depths and accommodation space, types of carbonate producers and active faulting were the main factors affecting depositional environments and facies distributions. Carbonate producers are extremely sensitive indicators of depositional water depth and energy, hence rapid lateral and vertical facies variations in the Barru area provide quantifiable insight into environmental changes prior to and during active faulting.     

Facies heterogeneity at interwell-scale in a carbonate ramp,Upper Jurassic,NE Spain

The well-exposed upper Kimmeridgian carbonate ramp near Arroyo Cerezo, Iberian Basin, Eastern Spain, provides an excellent analog to stratigraphically equivalent subsurface reservoirs, such as the carbonate ramps of the Arab-D of the Middle East and the Smackover of the Gulf of Mexico. Critical questions regarding interwell-scale heterogeneity and correlation motifs for low-angle ramp systems can be addressed using continuous exposures that encompass a full range of inner to outer ramp facies. Outcrops in this area provide a complete exposure of the ramp succession in depositional dip direction.At Arroyo Cerezo, a 40-m thick and 1.3-km long, dip-oriented, continuous outcrop has been studied. Lithofacies and bounding surfaces have been mapped on a continuous photomosaic to build a detailed 2D cross-section, complemented by five stratigraphic sections (∼300 m apart) and petrographic analysis. The reconstructed section shows the facies transition from relative proximal- to distal carbonate ramp settings. Carbonate facies associations are grouped according to the dominant carbonate types: buildup-dominated systems and coated-grain dominated systems. Detailed mapping of facies and bounding surfaces documents distinct ramp depositional units with downdip facies changes occurring within the 1.3 km length of the outcrop. The Arroyo Cerezo outcrop indicates that the ramp-facies continuity, when based on a 5–10 km distance well-log correlation, is mostly apparent. Use of detailed spatial and temporal analysis of high-quality outcrop analogs promotes more realistic models for understanding the interwell, meter-scale heterogeneity. And the scale of these depositional heterogeneities, although being below resolution of subsurface tools, governs in fact (along with diagenetic modifications) the fluid flows within a reservoir. The scale of these stratigraphic heterogeneities needs to be considered in order to optimize and enhance hydrocarbon production and last recovery.     

台西南盆地的构造演化与油气藏组合分析

本文根据台西南盆地的地质、地球物理资料，对台西南盆地的地壳结构、基底特征、沉积厚度、断裂构造等基本地质构造特征＾［１］作了研究，探讨了台西南盆地的构造发展演化及及油气藏组合。认为该盆地的构造演化为幕式拉张。幕式拉张可分为三大张裂幕，相应的热沉降作用使盆地在不同的张裂幕时期发展为断陷，裂陷，裂拗－拗陷。它们分别与板块作用下的区域构造运动阶段相对应，说明区域构造运动不但控制了盆地的发展演化，同时也制约     

下刚果盆地北部海域海相碳酸盐岩沉积储层特征

西非下刚果盆地为一典型被动大陆边缘含盐盆地,下刚果盆地北部海域在白垩系海相碳酸盐岩层系获得丰富油气发现。研究区海相碳酸盐岩领域油气勘探面临的核心瓶颈问题,即白垩系碳酸盐岩的沉积模式、演化规律、储层特征以及沉积储层发育控制因素。综合钻井、地震、区域地质等资料,分析认为自下向上相对海平面的上升控制了沉积演化,沉积体系演化模式为浅海碳酸盐岩台地→浅海混积陆棚→半深海-海底扇。下刚果盆地碳酸盐岩储层展布在纵向及平面上均可以划分为内中外3个储层发育带,碳酸盐岩储层最主要发育于下白垩统Albian阶下Sendji组。该时期研究区整体发育浅海碳酸盐岩混积缓坡台地沉积体系,沉积亚相可进一步划分为混积滨岸、后缓坡、浅水缓坡以及深水缓坡4种类型,其中浅水缓坡亚相颗粒滩微相与后缓坡亚相台内浅滩、砂质浅滩微相储层最为发育。碳酸盐岩储层岩性组合主要包括颗粒灰岩、砂岩、砂质灰岩、白云岩4种类型;储层发育主要受沉积相带的控制,并受成岩作用的影响。     

Fracture distribution along an Upper Jurassic carbonate ramp,NE Spain

Understanding the distribution of natural fractures in sedimentary systems is of high relevance for the exploration and production of fluids in the subsurface. This study focuses on a Kimmeridgian mixed siliciclastic-carbonate ramp system, which is part of the Jurassic limestones outcropping in the northeastern Iberian Chain. The study area is located north of the Ricla village, fifty kilometers southwest of Zaragoza. The outcrop stretches over six kilometers in length, it allows for recording detailed fracture patterns and facies variations. A GIS-based software-package 'DigiFract' is used to measure and digitize fractures in vertical outcrops. Fracture orientation measurements obtained from vertical and horizontal outcrops are used to create a conceptual three-dimensional image of the fracture distribution of the mixed ramp system. The fracture data are processed by integrating outcrop logs and sample-data obtained from thin-sections and rock property analysis. The continuous facies belts of the shallow low-angle ramp system show limited lateral variations. The studied sediments are subdivided in four main facies tracts (FT's): (FT-1) Bioclastic siltstones, (FT-2) alternating sandy limestones and marls, (FT-3) cross-bedded and channelled oolitic-bioclastic sand- and grainstones and (FT-4) coralgal float-to mudstones with eventites. Measured fracture orientations of the vertical and horizontal outcrops are identical throughout the entire exposure. Two main fracture sets are identified, the first set (Set 1) has a N–S direction and the second set (Set 2) has a NE–SW direction. The lateral homogeneity of the sedimentary system, thus facies, layer thickness and slope angle, can be translated to the observed fracture patterns. Within one single facies belt, fractures tend to behave the same in the proximal, middle and distal part of the ramp system. However, vertical facies variations are an important factor for the measured vertical fracture-heterogeneity. Fine-grained mud-supported facies correspond to periods of a sea-level highstand; coarse-grained cemented facies on the other hand are related to a sea-level lowstand. The physical contrast of the sediments caused by sea-level fluctuations forces fractures to solely concentrate in the brittle layers. Fracture density and termination patterns observed on this ramp stand in contrast to fracture geometries observed in flat-topped carbonate platforms. Lateral facies heterogeneity and platform anatomy of flat-topped carbonate platforms are key parameters for the eventual fracture distribution. For the studied mixed ramp-type system the vertical facies variations are key parameter.     

Facies analysis of the Callovian–Oxfordian carbonates in the northeastern Amu Darya Basin,southeastern Turkmenistan

The Callovian–Oxfordian carbonates in the northeastern Amu Darya Basin of southeastern Turkmenistan, are composed of medium-to thick-bedded, mostly grainy limestones with various skeletal (bivalves, brachiopods, echinoderms, foraminifera, corals, and sponge) and non-skeletal grains (intraclasts, ooids, and peloids). The 6 microfacies types recognized in the Callovianand and 18 microfacies types in Oxfordian carbonates are grouped into two depositional phases, ramp and platform. The Callovian carbonates were deposited on a carbonate ramp, which evolved into a depositional platform in the Oxfordian. The main components of the Oxfordian platform margin complex are reefs and shoals. The principal reef builders are corals, algae and sponges. Regional tectonic movements, eustatic sea-level changes and sedimentation rates were the primary controlling factors of facies evolution during the Callovian–Oxfordian time in the northeastern Amu Darya Basin.     

Jurassic to Early Cretaceous basin configuration(s) in the Fingerdjupet Subbasin,SW Barents Sea

The Fingerdjupet Subbasin in the southwestern Barents Sea sits in a key tectonic location between deep rifts in the west and more stable platform areas in the east. Its evolution is characterized by extensional reactivation of N-S and NNE-SSW faults with an older history of Late Permian and likely Carboniferous activity superimposed on Caledonian fabrics. Reactivations in the listric NNE-SSW Terningen Fault Complex accommodated a semi-regional rollover structure where the Fingerdjupet Subbasin developed in the hangingwall. In parallel, the Randi Fault Set developed from outer-arc extension and collapse of the rollover anticline.N-S to NNE-SSW faults and the presence of other fault trends indicate changes in the stress regime relating to tectonic activity in the North Atlantic and Arctic regions. A latest Triassic to Middle Jurassic extensional faulting event with E-W striking faults is linked to activity in the Hammerfest Basin. Cessation of extensional tectonics before the Late Jurassic in the Fingerdjupet Subbasin, however, suggests rifting became localized to the Hammerfest Basin. The Late Jurassic was a period of tectonic quiescence in the Fingerdjupet Subbasin before latest Jurassic to Hauterivian extensional faulting, which reactivated N-S and NNE-SSW faults. Barremian SE-prograding clinoforms filled the relief generated during this event before reaching the Bjarmeland Platform. High-angle NW-prograding clinoforms on the western Bjarmeland Platform are linked to Early Barremian uplift of the Loppa High. The Terningen Fault Complex and Randi Fault Set were again reactivated in the Aptian along with other major fault complexes in the SW Barents Sea, leading to subaerial exposure of local highs. This activity ceased by early Albian. Post-upper Albian strata were removed by late Cenozoic uplift and erosion, but later tectonic activity has both reactivated E-W and N-S/NNE-SSW faults and also established a NW-SE trend.     

Early diagenetic formation of carbonates in a clastic-dominated ramp environment impacted by synsedimentary faulting-induced fluid seepage – Evidence from the Late Jurassic Boulonnais Basin (N France)

The Late Jurassic deposits of the Boulonnais area (N-France) represents the proximal lateral-equivalent of the Kimmeridge Clay Formation; they accumulated on a clastic-dominated ramp subject to synsedimentary faulting in relation with the northward propagation of the Atlantic rifting. Within the terrigenous accumulations, some carbonate objects are visible at various conspicuous levels: oyster patch reefs and fine-grained carbonate beds, either continuous, or more or less nodular. Preliminary studies demonstrated that the carbonate beds of the Bancs Jumeaux Formation as well as the carbonate matrix of the oyster patch reefs are of diagenetic origin. In this paper, we extend the study to many other limestone beds of the Boulonnais with mud- or wackestone texture, examining facies and microfacies through various techniques as well as geochemical data (O, C and S stable isotopes, major and trace elements). We conclude that all examined carbonate bodies are of early diagenetic origin and that they precipitated at, or close to, the sea bed, from seawater mixing with ascending fluids containing isotopically light carbon of organic origin. Fluid circulation was probably induced by the extensional block-faulting segmentation of the northern margin of the Boulonnais Basin in Late Jurassic times. Fluid seepages were either channelized along fault planes or more diffuse, as illustrated by the model we propose.     

Formation and evolution of the tertiary carbonate reefs in the Madura Strait Basin of Indonesia

Analysis of 2 D seismic data over 4 500 km in length from the Madura Strait Basin in the East Java Sea reveals seismic re?ection characteristics of reefs and associated sedimentary bodies, including asymmetrical or symmetrical dome re?ections, slope progradational re?ections, chaotic re?ections and discontinuous strong re?ections inside the reef, which onlap the ?ank of the reef. It is concluded that the developmental paleo-environment of most reefs is mainly conducive to shallow marine carbonate platform facies and platform margin facies, based on well core data, variations in seismic facies and strata thickness.The formation and evolution of all reefs are primarily in?uenced by the tectonic framework of the Madura Strait Basin. Platform margin reefs are principally controlled by two types of structures: one is a series of E-W trending Paleogene normal faults, and the other is an E-W trending Neogene inversion structures. In addition, wave actions, tidal currents and other ocean currents play an accelerated role in sorting, rounding and redeposition for the accumulation and evolution of reefs. Tertiary reefs in the MSB can be divided into four types: 1) an open platform coral reef of Late Oligocene to Early Miocene, 2) a platform margin coral reef controlled by normal faults in Late Oligocene to Early Miocene, 3) a platform margin Globigerina moundreef controlled by a "hidden" inversion structure in Early Pliocene, and 4) a platform margin Globigerina mound-reef controlled by thrust faults in the early Pliocene. Patterns of the formation and evolution of reefs are also suggested.     

Does compaction-induced subsidence control accommodation space at the top of prograding carbonate platforms? Constraints from the numerical modelling of the Triassic Esino Limestone (Southern Alps,Italy)

The demise of the high-relief, steep-slope, prograding Ladinian-Early Carnian carbonate platforms of the Esino Limestone (Central Southern Alps of Italy) is marked by subaerial exposure of the platform top associated with different erosional (mainly karst-related), depositional and diagenetic processes (Calcare Rosso). The exposure-related deposits consist of three major facies associations: 1) residual soils with thin lenses of conglomerates with black pebbles, and, locally, weathered vulcanites; 2) chaotic breccia lenses irregularly distributed in the uppermost part of the Esino Limestone carbonate platform, interpreted as collapse breccias in karstic setting: 3) inter-supratidal carbonate cycles with dissolution and development of paleosols and tepee structures.Facies distribution follows the sub-environments of the underlying Esino Limestone. Facies 1 and 2 typically characterize the core of the platform, covering the underlying inner platform facies. Facies 3 instead develops toward the edge of the platform, above reef-upper slope facies of the prograding facies of the Esino Limestone. The thickness of facies 3 decreases toward the core of the platform. Facies distribution reflects differences in the accommodation space and sedimentary processes from the rim (highest accommodation, favouring the deposition of peritidal-supratidal carbonates) to the core (reduced accommodation, causing pedogenesis and karstification) of the carbonate system.The observed thickness changes may be controlled by different factors: 1) syndepositional tectonics, 2) subsidence induced by magmatic activity or 3) differential subsidence controlled by the stratigraphic architecture of the Esino Limestone platform and adjoining basins. As evidence of tectonics was not observed and the presence of volcanic bodies is only documented tens of km away from the study area, the scenario involving the creation of accommodation space by compaction of the basinal sediments (resedimented, fine-grained calciturbidites) during the progradation of the carbonate platform is here investigated. Numerical modelling was performed to verify the compatibility of compaction-induced subsidence with the observed depositional architecture. The models were built to simulate the architectural evolution of the platform by progressively adding layers from deepest to shallowest, while compacting the underlying sediments, in order to evaluate compaction-induced subsidence (and accommodation space for the Calcare Rosso) after the deposition of the youngest platform strata. Modelling results allow us to conclude that the wedge geometry of the Calcare Rosso, deposited on top of the extinct Esino carbonate platform, can be explained by subsidence controlled by compaction of the basinal sediments present below the early-cemented, fast prograding platform slope deposits.     

礼乐盆地碳酸盐岩时空分布特征及构造意义

对碳酸盐岩(台地与生物礁)的研究具有重要的油气地质意义和科学价值。渐新世以来, 礼乐盆地及周缘开始了大规模的碳酸盐建造, 至今还有一定规模生物礁持续发育。文章通过拖网约束、井震对比和地震相类比方法对礼乐盆地周缘碳酸盐岩的发育特征、构造背景和时空分布规律进行系统研究。结果表明, 礼乐盆地主要发育孤立、前隆、掀斜断块型台地及生物礁。碳酸盐岩时空发育特征为: 1) 渐新世—早中新世以构造前隆和掀斜断块控制的开阔台地为主, 生物礁零星发育; 2) 早中新世—中中新世表现为大量孤立台地和生物礁; 3) 中中新世之后, 发生台地和礁的淹没, 盆地内主要发育点礁。结合构造背景和重磁特征分析表明, 古隆起、掀斜断块、前隆迁移和岩浆活动为控制礼乐盆地不同时期碳酸盐岩发育的主要构造要素。现今礼乐盆地及周缘大量生长的珊瑚礁, 主要发育在上新世—更新世岩浆活动形成的海山之上。     

Growth and demise of the Jurassic carbonate platform in the intracratonic Paris Basin (France): Interplay of climate change,eustasy and tectonics

It is usually very difficult to identify and quantify the relative influence of tectonics, eustasy and climate on carbonate system evolution from sedimentary records. In order to improve our understanding of these mechanisms, we have traced for the first time, the evolution of the eastern Paris Basin platform throughout the entire Jurassic period. This carbonate platform underwent eight successive growth and demise phases, with different depositional profiles ranging from ramps to flat-topped geometries. The eight carbonate growth periods are compared with the standard sea-level curves, local tectonic regimes and recently published oxygen-isotope and/or clay mineralogy databases. Prograding heterozoan facies along ramp profiles mark periods dominated by second-order eustatic sea-level rise, relatively cool sea surface temperatures, and mesotrophic and humid conditions (Hettangian, Pliensbachian, late Oxfordian, Tithonian). During these periods, variable detrital contents in the sedimentary succession hampered the efficiency of shallow-marine carbonate factories. Higher sea surface temperatures, oligotrophic and humid conditions associated with either eustatic sea-level rise or very high local subsidence occurred during the early Bajocian and the mid-Oxfordian. These seawater properties seem to have favoured the aggradation of scleractinian corals forming dome-shaped bioherm buildups. An oolitic and lime-mud carbonate system, deposited during the Bathonian second-order eustatic sea-level fall, is characterised by miliolid-rich micritic facies on a rimmed-ramp under stable, cooler and drier conditions. The second-order maximum flooding associated with a sea surface temperature decline and/or a seawater eutrophication caused at least five carbonate demise periods (i.e. Toarcian, earliest late Bajocian, Callovian/Oxfordian transition, earliest late Oxfordian and Kimmeridgian).     

Normal faulting vs regional subsidence and sedimentation rate

Normal faults occur in a variety of geodynamic environments, both in areas of subsidence and uplift. Normal faults may have slip rates faster or slower than regional subsidence or uplift rates. The total subsidence may be defined as the sum of the hangingwall subsidence generated by the normal fault and the regional subsidence or uplift rate. Positive total subsidence obviously increases the accommodation space (e.g., passive margins and back-arc basins), in contrast with negative total subsidence (e.g., orogens). Where the hangingwall subsidence rate is faster than the sedimentation rate in cases of both positive and negative total subsidence, the facies and thickness of the syntectonic stratigraphic package may vary from the hangingwall to the footwall. A hangingwall subsidence rate slower than sedimentation rate only results in a larger thickness of the strata growing in the hangingwall, with no facies changes and no morphological step at the surface. The isostatic footwall uplift is also proportional to the amount and density of the sediments filling the half-graben and therefore it should be more significant when the hangingwall subsidence rate is higher than sedimentation rate.     

The continental margin of the Mesozoic Tethys in the Western Alps

Most of the structural units of the Western Alps were derived from the European Continental margin of the Ligurian Ocean, a segment of the Mesozoic Tethys ocean. Their Mesozoic palaeotectonic and stratigraphic evolution bears witness of the following main stages: (1) Deposition of the Triassic platform carbonates, essentially prerift but nevertheless bearing the imprint of some extensional movements. (2) The Liassic-Middle Jurassic rifting corresponds to the creation of a horst-and-graben system with especially tilted blocks and hence a shoal-and-basin palaeogeography, but without a preliminary doming event. (3) The late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous opening and spreading of the Ligurian ocean began with a general collapse of the continental margin (‘thermal’ subsidence, latest Middle Jurassic and Earliest Late Jurassic).In this paper, emphasis is given to the refting-derived structures, more especially to the major tilted crustal blocks, a few tens of kilometres wide, which can be either reconstructed or directly observed. The rifting stage lasted roughly 40 m.y., with the alternation of extensional tectonic phases and of relatively ‘quiet’ periods. During the extensional phases, movements along fault-planes and related episodes of tilting were followed by sudden and rapid episodes of subsidence: the latter may be interpreted as resulting from the isostatic and thermal readjustment that follows a phase of stretching of the crust and of the lithosphere. The tectonic evolution of the margin continued, but decreased, during the late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous oceanspreading stage. Tectonic activity resumed in the late Cretaceous: this probably resulting from the beginning of contraction of both the ocean and the continental margin, leading progressively to the continental collision in the Tertiary.     

Sedimentology and depositional architecture of tidal compound dunes on a carbonate ramp: The lower Miocene deposits of the central Apennine (Latium,Italy)

The sedimentology and sequence stratigraphy of the central Apennine lower Miocene carbonate deposits (Guadagnolo Formation) are the goal of this paper. The Guadagnolo carbonate ramp deposits consist of a thick succession of three main lithofacies: marls, marly limestones and cross-bedded limestones. The lateral and vertical facies distribution, as well as the biota assemblages, suggests a deposition of these sediments along the middle-outer ramp sector of the Latium-Abruzzi carbonate platform. All the data suggest sedimentation under the influence of tidal currents that were responsible of bedforms generation as simple and compound dunes. These bodies are developed on metric and decametric scale, and are stacked one to other to form complex sedimentary bodies extending both in strike and dip section for several tens to hundred meters. The dune system developed in a semiclosed basin (the Paleoadriatic sea), open in the southern and closed in the northern sector respectively. Within this basin a probably amphidromic system developed. The flow sediment transport was dominantly westward, and was conditioned by the ramp paleotopography. From a sequence stratigraphic point of view several high and low rank depositional sequences that were differentiated basing on their relative physical scale (thickness of each unit) and on the lateral extension of the unconformities and the correlative conformities bounding them were recognized. The hierarchy of recognized sequence-stratigraphic units include, from the smallest to the largest: simple depositional sequences, low-rank composite depositional sequences and high-rank composite depositional sequences. In the Guadagnolo succession four high-rank composite depositional sequences having a duration variable from 0.9 to 1.6 Ma, and named Guadagnolo 1, 2, 3, and 4, were recognized. These high-rank composite sequences are internally constituted by a stacking of simple and low-rank composite depositional sequences, having a duration ranging from 40 ka to 200 ka. All these units constitute part of a higher-rank composite sequence developing between 21 and 14.80 Ma that we name “The Guadagnolo Depositional Sequence”. The wedge-shaped geometry, the thickness variation and the stacking pattern of the Guadagnolo succession are the response to eustasy and tectonic subsidence. The glacial eustasy mostly controlled the formation of the high-frequency depositional sequences, tectonic subsidence, related to the roll-back of the hinge west-directed subduction in turn connected to the advancement of the Apennine thrust modulated the accommodation space.