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In the Miocene of the northern Apennines of Italy, evolutionary phases of shallow-water carbonates in wedge-top basins are coeval with methane-rich fluid expulsion episodes in the inner foredeep. We identified four main correlative events, primarily controlled by synsedimentary tectonics, sediment input and climate cooling: 1) a Burdigalian tectonic phase determined the onset of shelfal sedimentation in wedge-top areas and is correlated with an important episode of fluid expulsion in marly sediments of the inner foredeep (Croce di Moggiona seep-carbonates); 2) the decrease of shelfal carbonate production and the increase of detrital input in the Early Langhian correspond with a second important episode of seep-carbonate precipitation in the inner foredeep (Castagno d'Andrea); 3) the demise of the carbonate shelf and the coeval expulsion of methane-rich fluids in the inner foredeep (Vicchio and M. Citerna …