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Glacio-Eustatic Control of Continental–Shallow Marine Cyclicity from Late Quaternary Deposits of the Southeastern Po Plain, Northern Italy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Alessandro Amorosi
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra e Geologico-Ambientali, Università di Bologna, Via Zamboni 67, 40127, Bologna, Italy
Maria Luisa Colalongo
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra e Geologico-Ambientali, Università di Bologna, Via Zamboni 67, 40127, Bologna, Italy
Fabio Fusco
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra e Geologico-Ambientali, Università di Bologna, Via Zamboni 67, 40127, Bologna, Italy
Giancarlo Pasini
Affiliation:
Istituto di Geologia Marina, C.N.R. Via Gobetti 101, 40129, Bologna, Italy
Flavia Fiorini
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra e Geologico-Ambientali, Università di Bologna, Via Zamboni 67, 40127, Bologna, Italy

Abstract

Integrated sedimentological and micropaleontological (foraminifera, ostracods, pollens) investigations of a 173-m-long continuous core in the subsurface of the SE Po Plain reveal a cyclic facies distribution of continental to shallow-marine deposits. Radiometric and pollen data enable an age attribution of the study units to the late Middle Pleistocene–Holocene. Glacioeustasy appears to have exerted a major control on facies development, as documented by the close relationships between cyclic lithofacies patterns and the curves of eustatic fluctuation. Particularly, relative sea-level falls and lowstand phases were characterized by the development of alluvial sedimentation, whereas major transgressive pulses and subsequent highstands are reflected by abrupt shifts to paralic and shallow-marine deposits. This facies architecture is paralleled by a distinctive pollen distribution, reflecting the alternation of a glacial type of vegetation, dominated by Pinus and nonarboreal pollen types, with interglacial mixed deciduous broad-leaved forests.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
University of Washington

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