Interpreting provenance relations from sandstone detrital modes, southern Italy foreland region: Stratigraphic record of the Miocene tectonic evolution

The Southern Italy orogen preserves deep-marine turbitic clastic wedges that record the key tectonicevents during structural growing over the Adria margin. The regional tectonic transition from thickskinnedCalabrian accretion and deformation (during Late Paleogene-to-middle Miocene) to thinskinnedSouthern Apennines thrusting (since early-middle Miocene) is recorded by diverse contrastingpetrofacies in uppermost Paleogene and Miocene sandstones of dominantly turbiditie deposits. Mostof these sandstones reflect in time quartzolithic and quartzofeldspathic and arkosic petrofacies derivedfrom growing and unroofing Calabrian terranes. Quartzose petrofacies mainly indicate provenance fromcratonal African margin, during Langhian, and/or from lowland internal domains before its deformation,during the Cretaceous to Paleogene. Volcaniclastic sandstone petrofacies also testify active volcanismduring the Late Paleogene to early Miocene. These variable compositions indicate strong palaeogeographicconstraints for the central-western Mediterranean, during the Neogene, reflecting provenancerelationships from differentiate source rocks. These include interplays between ophiolitiferous, upliftedcontinental shallow to deep crust terranes, volcanic and sedimentary (mostly carbonate) source rocks.Sandstone detrital modes provide an example of the close relations between clastic compositions andgrowing orogen in southern Italy and may contribute to unravel the geodynamic history of other majororogens.