View article

Several pelitic intervals are intercalated at various levels within the marly-arenaceous turbiditic successions of the middle Miocene northern Apennine foredeep. They range in thickness from 30 to 200 m, and represent sedimentation on top of ephemeral structural highs related to blind faults. Sediments are made up of hemipelagites and fine-grained turbidites, and include ¹³C-depleted carbonates, related to the rising of methane-rich fluids (hydrocarbon seep-carbonates). Large portions of pelitic intervals are involved in chaotic masses by soft sediment deformation (slumps, slides, intraformational breccias), revealing an intense sediment instability during middle Miocene. A stratigraphic, mineralogic and geochemical study was conducted on two of these pelitic intervals (Castagno d'Andrea, Mt Citerna) in order to reconstruct carbonate development, the composition of fluids, and to document the connections …