Structural and sedimentary origin of the Gargano - Pelagosa gateway and impact on sedimentary evolution during the Messinian Salinity Crisis
Introduction
The paleocurrents, and therefore the evolution of the paleoclimate but also of the dispersal of sediments and their deposition, is strongly linked to the presence and evolution of straits which can act as open passages (oceanic gateways) or barriers (Straume et al., 2020). In the Mediterranean Sea, the present-day physiographic map shows a strong segmentation with several major oceanic gateways (i.e. the Gibraltar, Sicilian, Aegean straits) and secondary oceanic gateways (Fig. 1). As circulation of water masses, sediment, and biotope between the sub-basins of the Mediterranean Sea strongly depends on these morphological oceanic-gateways, their evolution is of primary importance to understand the morphological and sedimentary evolution of the different basins (e.g. Leever et al., 2010; Flecker et al., 2015; Palcu et al., 2017; Suc et al., 2015; Balázs et al., 2017; Pellen et al., 2017; Amadori et al., 2018; Camerlenghi et al., 2020). This is particulary critical in the case of large relative sea-level variations, such as during the MSC (5.97–5.33 Ma) (Manzi et al., 2013) when huge amount of gypsum was only deposited along the Apennine Foreland (Manzi et al., 2020), and a understanding approach of the Mediterranean Sea needs very detailled local studies, such as for the Betic, Rifain, Balkan or Iron Gate gateways (Fig. 1; Betzler et al., 2006; Krijgsman et al., 2006; Suc et al., 2011, Suc et al., 2015; Do Couto et al., 2016).
The Gargano-Pelagosa gateway, located on the Adria plate and separating the central and the south Adriatic basins, perfectly displays the relationship between the inherited sedimentary structure (e.g. Argnani, 2013), vertical tectonic motion and sea-level variation, and their impacts on water mass exchange during the Neogene. To understand the relationship between each process, we focus on the connection between the Adriatic foredeep, the South Adriatic Basin (SAB) and the deep Ionian Sea (through the former Lagonegro Basin) during the Messinian Salinity Crisis (MSC: 5.97–5.33 Ma) taking account of the pre-MSC inherited sedimentary and/or tectonic features.
In this study, we describe the segmentation and tectonic history of each domain surrounding the Gargano-Pelagosa gateway by compiling the onshore and offshore structural and sedimentary features. These observations are completed by the compilation of borehole data and seismic profiles between the Central Adriatic Basin (CAB) and the South Adriatic Basin (SAB). This set of data allowed us to re-evaluate the relationships of MSC environment history with the structural heritage and to present palinspastic and environmental reconstructions for the Messinian period.
Section snippets
Early history of the Adria plate
The present-day structure of the central Mediterranean area and the Adria plate results from the interaction between the African, European, Iberic and Adria plates since the breakup of the mega-continent Pangea (for a review, see Cavazza et al., 2004).
Mesozoic palaeogeographic reconstructions suggest two main sub-orthogonal extensional directions associated with the development of Neotethysian oceanic domains: NW-SE and NE-SW (Ciarapica and Passeri, 2002; in Vezzani et al., 2010; Stampfli and
Data and methodology
To characterize the development of Cenozoic and MSC units along the Central Adriatic Basin (CAB) and South Adriatic Basin (SAB), we merged seismic reflection profiles studied during the academia-industry program GRI Méditerranée (Groupement Recherche-Industrie) and vintage industrial profiles obtained from the VIDEPI website (https://www.videpi.com/videpi/videpi.asp) and reprocessed. Fig. 5 present the distribution of the seismic lines used in this study and highlight the line drawings
Post-Mesozoic sedimentary evolution between the CAB and SAB from borehole observation
The Gargano Peninsula and Palagruža Island (see location in Fig. 2) mark the boundary between the south (SAB) and central (CAB) Adriatic basins. The depth of the top of the Mesozoic series reached in boreholes varies markedly between 2400 and 2900 m in the SAB and 1700-2000 m in the CAB (Figs. 6a, and 6b). The transition between the two basins is influenced by several structural features of different wavelengths.
The Gargano Peninsula is the most elevated portion of the Apulian foreland and is
Evolution of marine corridors across the Adria plate during the Messinian (7.2–5.33 Ma)
The identification of the Gargano-Pelagosa strait and its impact on the distribution of MSC deposits makes it possible to draw detailed palaeotectonic-paleoenvironmental reconstructions of the study area of the Pelagosa Strait during Messinian times (Fig. 10, Fig. 11, Fig. 12, Fig. 13, Fig. 14, Fig. 15). For each stage, two maps show the palinspatic reconstruction and palaeoenvironmental information of the area. The kinematic motion of the Calabria block, the Adria plate, and the north Apulian
Conclusions
The Gargano-Pelagosa gateway is here first recognized as an influential element of the palaeogeographic/environmental evolution of the central-southern Apenninic foredeep and wedge-top domains during the Messinian, as shown by the integration of (i) seismic lines, (ii) well information from the Adriatic Sea, and (iii) a review of both onshore and offshore structural data and Messinian depositional environments. Several processes concur to explain the isolation of the Apennine foredeep during
Declaration of Competing Interest
We confirm that we have no conflicts of interest related to this research, this work is original to its form and has not been published elsewhere, nor is under consideration for publication elsewhere.
Acknowledgment
We acknowledge the “Visibilità dei dati afferenti all’ atticità du esplorazione petrolifera in Italia (VIDEPI)” for the public release of borehole and seismic data and their easy access. This work was supported by Action Marge project, Labex MER and the ISblue Theme 2 project, co-funded by a post-doctoral grant awarded to R. Pellen by IFREMER and UBO. We are also grateful to Alison Chalm for English proofreading.
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