Updated stratigraphy from Mesozoic and Cenozoic Apulia carbonates (southern Italy): new constraints to interpret well and seismic data in the South Adriatic area

Luigi Spalluto, Vincenzo Festa, Luisa Sabato, Gianvito Teofilo, and Marcello Tropeano

During the last 10 years, the stratigraphy of outcropping Mesozoic and Cenozoic Apulia carbonates (southern Italy) has been deeply revised by researchers of the University of Bari (Italy) thanks to studies performed during the new geological mapping of Italy at the scale 1:50.000 (CARG project) and to several PhD projects. The updated stratigraphic dataset allowed us to: a) identify previously undetermined biozones, deleting different chronostratigraphic attributions for the same units (mostly Cretaceous and Miocene in age); b) measure, considering also updated structural data, the correct thickness of lithostratigraphic units by means of the identification of tectonically repeated stratigraphic intervals; c) reconstruct detailed facies models for the interpretation of carbonate depositional systems; d) apply the sequence stratigraphic method to the aggrading small-scale and large-scale carbonate platform sequences, identifying sequence boundaries and vertical facies trends; this allowed us to better understand the internal architecture of shallow-water carbonate successions; finally, e) to propose an unique lithostratigraphic nomenclature for similar coeval units cropping out in the whole Apulia region.

The new stratigraphic dataset coming from these studies, besides proposing for the mid-Cretaceous platform succession a valuable sequence-chronostratigraphic reconstruction, offers new constraints, which might be usefully used for the interpretation and the correlation of well and seismic data in the South Adriatic area.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90161©2013 AAPG European Regional Conference, Barcelona, Spain, 8-10 April 2013