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    Tectonic and environmental evolution of Quaternary intramontane basins in Southern Apennines (Italy): insights from paleomagnetic and rock magnetic investigations

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    Southern Apennines is characterized by active extensional tectonics with NE–SW stretching direction. The seismicity of the region is very well understood and continuously monitored. In contrast, the onset of extensional tectonics is chronologically poorly constrained. The aim of this study is that to give important constraints on the development of extensional regime and the onset of the continental deposition during Quaternary in Southern Apennines. We report the results of palaeomagnetic and rock magnetic analyses from four Quaternary small intramontane basins in the PicentiniMountains (Southern Apennines). The sedimentary sequences are located at different altitudes, from 600 to 1200 m a.s.l., and were deposited in fluvial-lacustrine environments. We sampled 29 sites in clays and lacustrine limestones from Tizzano, Piano del Gaudo and Acerno basins and in red palaeosoils and matrix-supported conglomerates from the Iumaiano basins. In the clay and limestones samples magnetite, titano-magnetite, hematite and iron-sulphide have been recognized as the main magnetic carriers, whereas magnetite and hematite characterize the Iumaiano conglomerates and red soils. Palaeomagnetic results have been integrated with published radiometric data in order to constrain the age of each sedimentary basins. Sites from the Iumaiano basin, which represents the substrate of the Tizzano and Piano del Gaudo basins, show a reverse polarity and therefore have been attributed to the lower Matuyama chron. In contrast, palaeomagnetic data from Tizzano basin show a transition from reversed to normal polarity along the exposed section, which has been interpreted as the Matuyama/Brunhes transition. Sites from Acerno and Piano del Gaudo basins show a normal polarity, which, according to radiometric and pollen data, have been correlated to the Brunhes epoch. On the base of such results we discuss the tectonostratigraphic evolution of the basins and the role of extensional tectonics in this portion of the Southern Apennine during the Quaternary

    The sedimentary substrate of the Colli Albani volcano

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    The structure, age and facies distribution of the sedimentary substrate of the Colli Albani volcano has been investigated by analysing sedimentary xenoliths enclosed in pyroclastic and phreatomagmatic deposits from different eruptive centres of the volcano, for comparison with the stratigraphies of deep wells drilled in the area and the known surface geology of the areas surrounding the volcano. Thin-section analysis has been carried out on the same xenolith samples collected and discussed by Funiciello and Parotto (1978. Il substrato sedimentario nell’area dei Colli Albani: considerazioni geodinamiche e paleogeografiche sul margine tirrenico dell’Appennino Centrale. Geologica Romana, 17, 233–287.) and Amato and Valensise (1986. Il basamento sedimentario dei Colli Albani: risultato di uno studio degli ejecta dei crateri idromagmatici di Albano e Nemi. Memorie Societa` Geologica Italiana, 35, 761–767.), largely from the maars deposits of the most recent Via dei Laghi period of activity of the volcano. The pre-orogen marine stratigraphic sequences range from Late Triassic?–Lower Lias to Middle Miocene, with carbonate platformto- basin facies. These sequences are very similar to those cropping out in the Sabina area to the north and NE of the volcano. Upper Cretaceous carbonate platform units, similar to those cropping out in the Lepini Mts, to the east of the volcano, have been recognized only in the xenoliths from the Nemi maar. Similar to that observed in the outcropping geology of the Sabina region, no evidence of siliciclastic xenoliths related to the Upper Miocene foredeep units have been found. The Upper Miocene?–Lower Pliocene to Upper Pliocene post-orogen marine sedimentary cycle has been recognized in almost all the eruptive centres, and has similarities with the sedimentary units present in the Rome area. The absence of marine Quaternary sediments among the xenolith types suggests that the Colli Albani area was continental before the onset of volcanism
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