Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
The Tyrrhenian Sea is usually interpreted to be a Neogene back-arc basin that opened by continental rifting and oceanic spreading caused by the eastward migration of the Apennine subduction system during Miocene and Pliocene times. Rifting of the southern Tyrrhenian Sea started first along the Eastern Sardinian margin during the middle to late Miocene times, including the Messinian. The "METYSS" project aims at better constraining the relationships between crustal tectonics, salt tectonics and sedimentation from Messinian times to present-day. The "METYSS 1" cruise (2009) allowed to acquire about 1200 km of HR seismic-reflection profiles along the Eastern Sardinian margin, Western Tyrrhenian Sea. This data set clearly illustrates that this area has been highly dissected during the rifting stage by N-S trending normal faults delineating ridges and basins, as previously described. The Messinian seismic markers (UU and MU) locally display fan-shaped stratal geometries, but the mechanism responsible for such geometries, salt tectonics or rifting, has yet to be carefully deciphered. We also mapped the spatial distribution of the mobile salt. The highly variable thickness of the small confined salt basins may be related to the initial pre-Messinian basin geometry, to the fact that salt deposition was syn-rift or to salt movement. Southeastward, salt tectonics is vigorous in unconfined basins and appears to have started early during the UU deposition. More surprisingly, our data demonstrate that some of the major faults have been significantly reactivated during the post-rift period, up to late Quaternary time, as shown by bathymetric scarps and associated debris flows. Moreover, some of this post-rift deformation can be evidenced within the Plio-Quaternary sequence by a regional unconformity. The post-Miocene deformation style varies greatly between different areas of the margin, and can also be strongly influenced by the presence or absence of mobile Messinian salt.
ISSN: 0040-1951

hal-00996665
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00996665
DOI : 10.1016/j.tecto.2013.12.015

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
In order to better constrain the relationship between tectonics and sedimentation of the Eastern Sardinian Margin, from the Messinian to the present day (METYSS project), a lithostratigraphic study was carried out on the Late Neogene deposits along the Cedrino Valley (eastern Sardinia). The late Neogene evolution is documented from sedimentological and tectonic analysis, biostratigraphic dating, and by mapping and logging stratigraphic sections. Previous authors have differentiated an early Pliocene marine formation from an older continental formation, possibly Miocene, the entire system being covered by late Pliocene to Quaternary lava flows. Preliminary biostratigraphic data suggest the absence of the lowermost Pliocene, based on the absence of Globorotalia margaritae and the presence of Globorotalia puncticulata, implying a sediment age between 3.81 and 2.41 Ma. At the foot of the Fiuli cliff, some mud clasts include a coccolith microflora, Tortonian in age, suggesting reworking. The Pliocene marine deposits consist of a single filling sequence instead of a succession of superimposed sequences as we would expect during this period of time; the occurrences of terms rarely respect the usual transgressive-regressive succession. Contrasting bathymetric environments (fore-shore, pro-delta, shelf or upper slope) can be abruptly superimposed on top of the other, along few meter thick intervals. A rapidly flooded term is observed in several sites and indicates a spatial variability over only a few kilometers distance. Some deep water deposits are in the middle of the infilling Pliocene sequence, whereas shallower water deposits can be repeated along a vertical section, or even interrupted by emersion. These marked differences can express syn-, or possibly post-sedimentation tectonic uplifts. The 10–25° bed dips originated through local tectonic uplift. At Fiuli, the geometry of the bedding planes is indicative of tilting toward the west, in a direction opposite to the one observed at Onifai. These Pliocene series form a wide syncline with an approximately NNE–SSW axis. This morpho-structural behavior appears to be largely atypical of this East-Sardinian coastal area.
ISSN: 1040-6182

hal-01134707
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01134707
DOI : 10.1016/j.quaint.2014.11.022