Papers by Raimondo Catalano
Zusammenfassung Die mesozoischen Laven und kleineren Intrusionen innerhalb der Schuppen von West... more Zusammenfassung Die mesozoischen Laven und kleineren Intrusionen innerhalb der Schuppen von Westsizilien besitzen folgende Charakteristika:1. Die Laven innerhalb der triassischen Mufara-Formation im Norden sind zerbrochen zu Fragmenten, die unabhängig voneinander innerhalb der umgebenden inkompetenten Schichten rotiert wurden. Dieses ist für die magmatischen Gesteine der inneren (nördlicheren) Überschiebungseinheiten typisch. 2. Die jurassischen Laven der externeren (südlicheren) Einheiten besitzen übereinstimmende Richtungen, die mit denen der Ammonitico-Rosso-Kalke derselben Zone übereinstimmen. Diese liegen um etwa 30° im Uhrzeigersinn verdreht gegenüber den Richtungen der gleich alten autochthonen Formation in Tunesien. Die vonSchult angenommenen kretazischen Richtungen von Custonaci an der Nordküste (ähnlich denen aus der kretazischen Scaglia Rossa von Terrasini) im Osten (beschrieben vonChannel et al., 1980) sind noch weiter rotiert (140°), bezogen auf die der autochthonen ...
Bulletin de la Société Géologique de France, 2015
Prière de citer l'article de la façon suivante / Please cite this article as: GASPARO MORTICELLI ... more Prière de citer l'article de la façon suivante / Please cite this article as: GASPARO MORTICELLI M. et al. (2015). -Deep controls on foreland basin system evolution along the Sicilian fold and thrust belt. In : SERANNE M. et al., Eds, Lithosphere!dynamics!and!sedimentary! basins:!The!circum5 Mediteranean!basins!and!analogues -Bull. Soc. géol. Fr. 186, sp issue (sous presse)
Three multichannel seismic reflection profiles across the North Sicily continental mar- gin have ... more Three multichannel seismic reflection profiles across the North Sicily continental mar- gin have been reprocessed and interpreted. Data consist of an unpublished high pene- tration seismic profile (deep crust Italian CROP Project) and a high-resolution seismic line. These lines run in the NNE-SSW direction, from the Sicilian continental shelf to the Tyrrhenian abyssal plain (Marsili area), and are tied by
Geophysical Journal International, 144, 49-64., 2001
New seismic reflection profiles of the Italian deep crust project CROP provide new insights on th... more New seismic reflection profiles of the Italian deep crust project CROP provide new insights on the structure of the Ionian sea. In spite of the Apennines and Hellenides Neogene subduction zones, two conjugate passive continental margins are preserved at the margins of the Ionian sea, along the Malta escarpment to the southwest and the Apulian escarpment to the northeast. The Ionian sea is likely to be a remnant of the Mesozoic Tethys Ocean, confined by these two conjugate passive continental margins. The transition from continental to oceanic crust appears sharper to the northeast than to the southwest. The basin between southeast Sicily and southwest Puglia was about 330 km wide and suggests a low spreading rate. The inferred oceanic ridge should have been flattened by thermal cooling and buried by later sediments. Based on stratigraphic and structural constraints to the north in the Apennines belt, the ocean continued to the northwest. This palaeogeography is supported by the seismicity of the Apennines slab underneath the southern Tyrrhenian sea, which implies downgoing oceanic lithosphere. The adjacent absence or paucity of deep seismicity does not imply absence of subduction, but rather it can be interpreted as due to the more ductile behaviour of the subducted continental lithosphere. Surprisingly, we note that where the oceanic inherited basin is subducting underneath the Apennines, in the hangingwall of the subduction hinge there are outcropping slices of continental crystalline basement previously deformed by the Alpine orogen.
The crust under central Sicily, from the Tyrrhenian margin to the coastline of the Sicily Channel... more The crust under central Sicily, from the Tyrrhenian margin to the coastline of the Sicily Channel, has been investigated by the multidisciplinary (SI.RI.PRO.) research project. The SI.RI.PRO. transect confirmed that the NNW-dipping, autochthonous Iblean platform of SE Sicily and its basement extends all the way into central Sicily. Further NW, towards the NNW end of the transect, a large uplift involves the Iblean platform and its underlying basement. The associated gravity anomaly is interpreted as the southern wedge edge of the Tyrrhenian mantle that splits the subducting Iblean-Pelagian (African) continental slab from an overlying synformal stack of allochthonous thrust sheets. Among the several considerations: a) SIRIPRO confirms, following earlier paleomagnetic studies on the contrasting thrust sheets rotations, that overall the higher, more northern allochthonous thrust sheets of Sicily were emplaced prior to the lower units; b) the palinspastic restorations remain approximate, because the allochthonous units that underwent varying clockwise rotations in Sicily need a semi-quantitative balanced 3D reconstruction. Integrating them with analogous reconstruction required for all major counter-clockwise rotated units of southern Apennines will probably lead to the understanding of the paleogeographical reconstruction problems.
The crust under central Sicily, from the Tyrrhenian margin to the coastline of the Sicily Channel... more The crust under central Sicily, from the Tyrrhenian margin to the coastline of the Sicily Channel, has been investigated by the multidisciplinary (SI.RI.PRO.) research project. The SI.RI.PRO. transect confirmed that the NNW-dipping, autochthonous Iblean platform of SE Sicily and its basement extends all the way into central Sicily. Further NW, towards the NNW end of the transect, a large uplift involves the Iblean platform and its underlying basement. The associated gravity anomaly is interpreted as the southern wedge edge of the Tyrrhenian mantle that splits the subducting Iblean-Pelagian (African) continental slab from an overlying synformal stack of allochthonous thrust sheets. Among the several considerations: a) SIRIPRO confirms, following earlier paleomagnetic studies on the contrasting thrust sheets rotations, that overall the higher, more northern allochthonous thrust sheets of Sicily were emplaced prior to the lower units; b) the palinspastic restorations remain approximate, because the allochthonous units that underwent varying clockwise rotations in Sicily need a semi-quantitative balanced 3D reconstruction. Integrating them with analogous reconstruction required for all major counter-clockwise rotated units of southern Apennines will probably lead to the understanding of the paleogeographical reconstruction problems.
ABSTRACT X – ExPlanatory notes. ABSTRACT The 594-585 ”Partinico-Mondello” Map Sheet 1:50.000 incl... more ABSTRACT X – ExPlanatory notes. ABSTRACT The 594-585 ”Partinico-Mondello” Map Sheet 1:50.000 includes marine and land areas of the topographic map sheet “Partinico” and “Mondello”. The map sheet “Partinico-Mondello” (Palermo Province) covers a part of the Sicily Fold and Thrust Belt (FTB) which has developed along the plate boundary between Africa and Europe in the Central Mediterranean. The Sicily FTB links the African Maghrebides to the Calabrian arc and the Southern Apennines. The FTB and its submerged western and northern extensions are partly located between the Sardinia block and the Pelagian-Ionian sector, and partly beneath the central southern Tyrrhenian Sea. In this sector of the Mediterranean area, the main compressional movements, after the Paleogene Alpine orogeny, began with the latest Oligocene-Early Miocene counterclockwise rotation of Corsica-Sardinia, believed to represent a volcanic arc, and its collision with the African continental margin. Thrusting occurred in connection with the westward subduction of the Adriatic and Ionian lithosphere beneath the Corsica-Sardinia block. Today, a westward subduction is indicated by a North-dipping Benioff zone, as deep as 400 km, west of Calabria and the Apennines, and the related calcalkaline volcanism in the Eolian Islands. Subduction and thrusting are contemporaneous with a back arc-type extension in the Tyrrhenian Sea. 237 LAND AREAS Geomorphology The geomorphological evolution of the studied area has been controlled by strong down-cutting and dismantling processes that have produced both the erosion of thick volumes of very recent terrigenous deposits and the exhumation of older rocks. Due to tectonic uplifting, these deepening processes are developed intensively on “soft rocks” (Numidian flysch clayey deposits), producing large river valleys whose slopes are affected by water erosion and surficial landslides (Nocella and Oreto rivers); erosion has slowed down considerably along the more resistant Mesozoic-Tertiary carbonate rock units of the wide ranges of the Palermo Mountains. In the present-day, relicted planation surfaces and abandoned valleys, fault/fault-line scarps and karst “dolines” and “poljes” occur in the mountainous areas. On the other hand, the geomorphological setting of the coastal areas has been influenced by important Quaternary extensional tectonics that were at the origin of the lowering of the northern sectors of the Sicilian chain submerged by the Tyrrhenian Sea and invaded by coastal marine depositions (Marsala synthem). Uplifting, involving also the subsided blocks, together with sea level variations, has led to the progressive withdrawal of the sea that originated a succession of marine terraces, Tarantian-Latest Pleistocene in age, followed by the emersion of the present-day coastal depressions (Partinico, Carini and Palermo plains). During the Upper Pleistocene to Holocene, the uplifting rates reach values between about 0.08 and 0,15 m/kyr. Stratigraphy The carbonate and terrigenous rock facies analysis and stratigraphy has led to the reconaissance of large Paleozoic to Miocene sedimentary units pertaining to different crustal paleogeographic domains; the former developed along the Pelagian (African) passive continental margin and the adjacent Tethyan Ocean. The “Tethyan” successions correspond to the deep sea, clayey carbonate and volcanoclastic rocks known to have been deposited in the Sicilide Domain. The passive continental margin, rock units are Meso-Cenozoic shallow water carbonates, deep water carbonates and siliceous rocks that were deposited in some domains, locally known as Panormide, Trapanese and Imerese. The terrigenous evaporitic and clastic-carbonate rocks, Miocene to Pleistocene in age, formed during the foredeep evolution of the Sicilian FTB. A detailed stratigraphy of the rock-successions is summarized in the next paragraph (see map Legend of the sheet). 238 Quaternary continental (mostly) and marine deposits have been mapped as unconformity-bounded, stratigraphic units limited by lower and upper unconformity surfaces, locally marked by palaeosols, due to erosion/depositional phenomena, marine/sub-aerial processes or non depositional events. In place, the upper boundary is the present-day topographic surface. The detection of some unconformity surfaces of regional extent allowed us to define several synthems here described from the older ones. The Marsala synthem is a Lower Pleistocene rock unit of marine/coastal deposits, with abundant fossils; its lower boundary is a marine erosion surface cut into pre-Quaternary rocks. The Piana di Partinico synthem is made up of marine/coastal deposits located above a number of marine terrace surfaces, related to sea-high, stand phases of the Middle Pleistocene (Oxygen Isotope Stages – OISs - 17-7); its lower boundary is a wave cut platform carved into the Marsala synthem or some pre-Quaternary rocks. The Polisano synthem is made up of aeolian sandstones and…
Terra Nova, 1995
The geology of the Sicilian mainland is summarized by N–S geological sections. A continuous late ... more The geology of the Sicilian mainland is summarized by N–S geological sections. A continuous late Cenozoic orogenic belt through central and western Sicily resulted from a complex deformative history, recorded by several tectonic events. The deformation mainly involved the sedimentary cover of the old African continental margin, formed in a large basinal area, bordered at its southern margin by a shallow-water carbonate environment attached to Gondwana. The orogenic belt involves a complex architecture of thrust systems, of different size, geometry and palaeogeographical origin. Deformation, which mainly developed in the earlier stages of thrusting in the basinal rock assemblages, mainly gave rise to a stack of three different duplex structures, respectively, composed of Palaeozoic, Mesozoic–Palaeogene and Neogene strata. Large-scale clockwise rotation of the thrusts predated transpressional movements in the hinterland during the latest Miocene to Pliocene. High- angle reverse faults, with lateral components, modified earlier tectonic contacts within the allochthons. Contemporaneous southwards- directed imbrications affected the external southern areas, progressively incorporating foreland and piggyback basirts. The stratigraphic relationships of basin-fills to the tectonic structures reveals that reactivation processes have been active during the last Plio-Pleistocene.
Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 2014
Journal of the Geological Society, 2014
Tectonophysics, 2010
A crustal reflection seismic profile, more than 100 km long, was recorded across central Sicily, ... more A crustal reflection seismic profile, more than 100 km long, was recorded across central Sicily, from the Tyrrhenian shore to the Sicily Channel, to understand the deep structures and the collision mechanisms between Europe and Africa and the subsequent geodynamic evolution. The profile was acquired using explosive sources and 240 active channels recorded by a Sercel 408-XL, 24 bits A/D converter, with a 12 km spread and a 24-fold coverage. The data were processed following a non-conventional procedure in order to preserve the relative amplitudes of the reflections and to better investigate the Sicily deep structures down to the Moho. The main highlighted structures are the dramatic flexure of the Iblean crust, the huge, deeper than expected, trough of Caltanissetta consisting of deep seated thrusts and nappes, and the imbricate thrust system of rigid bodies characterizing the northern Maghrebian chain. We designed an ad hoc acquisition and processing in order to highlight these main geological features in the seismic stacked section. Moreover, the deepest parts of the Caltanissetta trough are imaged for the first time, and its bottom is now fixed at more than 7 s TWT. The giant crustal wedge flexuring the Iblean foreland and the Moho geometries are examinated.
Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology …, 1991
... Platy limestones and marls (middle Carnian); 4 = Bedded cherts, nodular limestones and marls ... more ... Platy limestones and marls (middle Carnian); 4 = Bedded cherts, nodular limestones and marls (Ladinian-early Carnian); 5= Undifferentiated Olistostrome Unit, Red Clay Unit and siliciclastic deposits (Permian); 6 = Sosio limestone blocks (a = Rupe di San Calogero; b = Pietra ...
The continental shelf and the upper slope of the Gulf of Palermo (Southern Tyrrhenian Sea) in the... more The continental shelf and the upper slope of the Gulf of Palermo (Southern Tyrrhenian Sea) in the depth interval ranging from 50 to 1,500 m were mapped for the first time with Multi Beam echosounder and high resolution seismic. Seven submarine canyons are confined to the upper slope or indent the shelf-edge and enter the Palermo intraslope basin at a depth of around 1,300 m. The canyons evolved through concurrent top-down turbiditic processes and bottom-up retrogressive mass failures. Most of the mass failure features of the area are related to canyonshaping processes and only few of them are not confined to the upper slope. In general, these features probably do not represent a significant tsunami hazard along the coast. The geological element that controls the evolution of the canyons and induces sediment instability corresponds to the steep slope gradient, especially in the western sector of the Gulf, where the steepest canyons are located. The structural features mapped in the Palermo offshore contributed to the regulation of mass failure processes in the area, with direct faults and antiform structures coinciding with some of the canyon heads. Furthermore, the occurrence of pockmarks and highs that probably consist of authigenic carbonates above faulted and folded strata suggests a local relationship between structural control, fluid escape processes and mass failure. This paper presents a valuable high-resolution morphologic dataset of the Gulf of Palermo, which constitutes a reliable base for evaluating the geo-hazard potential related to slope failure in the area.
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Papers by Raimondo Catalano