Abstract: From High Resolution Stratigraphy to Sequence Stratigraphy the Case of the Cretaceous Carbonate Platform of Southern Italy

B. D'Argenio, V. Ferreri, A. Raspini, F. Ardillo, F.P. Buonocunto

Over 700 m of well bedded carbonate platform deposits, biostratigraphically well constrained and covering a timespan from Hauterivian to Coniacian, have been analyzed at cm-scale and the data were subjected to spectral analysis. Depositional and diagenetic facies of the studied sequences show a cyclic repetition in the vertical profile with cm to m scale cycles being hierarchically organized from higher to lower frequencies. The cycles are aggradationally stacked, shallowing upwards and often they are capped by ephemeral emersion related features. Environmental changes expressed by lithofacies variations plotted at cm-scale on the aggradation axis show a hierarchy of 3 to 4 orders of cycles. Cycle duration was calculated by comparing Relative Ratio Sets (RRS) of the recurrence of sedi entary features (expressed in cm) with RRS of orbital parameters (precession, obliquity, eccentricity) calculated for the Cretaceous (RRS, expressed in years). The two ratio sets show a very good linear correlation (R=0.990) suggesting that Cretaceous carbonate platform strata of Southern Italy are of Milankovic-scale allocyclic organization. In addition, sequence stratigraphic interpretation of the environmental signature of lithofacies and their associations resulted in the recognition of equivalents of system tracts and sequence boundaries, the latter generally occurring at 400, 800 or 1200 Ky intervals.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90986©1994 AAPG Annual Convention, Denver, Colorado, June 12-15, 1994