Petrostratigraphic analysis of a Late Miocene mixed siliciclastic–carbonate depositional system (Calabria, Southern Italy): Implications for Mediterranean paleogeography

Mixed siliciclastic–carbonate sediments are common in shallow water environments in which clastic deposition and carbonate production coexist. In the Mediterranean Basin, the Tortonian–Messinian sedimentary successions are commonly comprised of marls, alternations of marls with diatomites, sands and sandstones, limestones (especially algal and coral reefs), and evaporites. Most of the studies in the Mediterranean Basin have been focused on carbonate facies analysis, whereas the siliciclastic portions are poorly described. Similarly to the other marginal settings of the Mediterranean Basin, the Capo Vaticano area (southern Calabria, southern Italy), experienced mixed sedimentation at that time. Petrological analysis was performed on 56 weakly cemented sandstones linking compositional signatures to stratigraphic data with the aim of investigating sedimentary response to the Tortonian–Messinian transgression and its influence on the carbonate production. The information obtained is used to refine the regional sediment dispersal pathways and paleogeography. By means of (bio-)stratigraphic evidence, the studied succession to coeval mixed deposits dislocated in the Mediterranean Basin is correlated.