Turbidite facies and facies associations of Cretaceous and Paleocene Gottero sandstone, northern Italy
Turbidites of the Gottero Sandstone were deposited as a small deep-sea fan in a trench-slope basin. The Gottero is as thick as 1500 m (4900 ft), had an original radius of 30-50 km (19-30 mi), and in the early and middle Cenozoic was thrust northeastward onto the Italian peninsula. The Gottero, which contains foraminifers ranging in age from Albian to Paleocene that indicate deposition at bathyal depths, consists chiefly of feldspathic sandstone thought to be derived from the largely plutonic Corsican-Sardinian continental block to the southwest. The Gottero rests on tectonically disrupted shale that contains intercalated olistostromes. To the northwest, northeast, and southeast, it pinches out into and is overlain by basin-plain turbidites. An outward-radiating paleocurrent pattern suggests northeastward transport of sand through a single major inner-fan-channel complex, succeeded by radial downfan dispersal to smaller middle-fan-channels, outer-fan lobes, and fan-fringe deposits. Sandstone-to-shale ratios are 99:1 in inner-fan-channel deposits, 10:1 in middle-fan-channel deposits, 2.5:1 in middle-fan-levee deposits, 1.3:1 in middle-fan-interchannel deposits, 11:1 in outer-fan-lobe deposits, 2.6:1 in fan-fringe deposits, and 0.25:1 in basin-plain deposits. Orderly and progressive downfan changes in most sedimentary parameters, such as maximum clast size, thicknesses of fining- or coarsening-upward cycles, facies, and facies associations permit the growth history of the fan to be determined. The Gottero Sandstone provides a useful model for petroleum exploration in small deep-sea fans characterized by a mixture of grain sizes and deposited adjacent to tectonically active, convergent continental margins.
- Research Organization:
- Geological Survey, Menlo Park, CA
- OSTI ID:
- 6386887
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-8405216-
- Journal Information:
- Am. Assoc. Pet. Geol., Bull.; (United States), Journal Name: Am. Assoc. Pet. Geol., Bull.; (United States) Vol. 68:4; ISSN AAPGB
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Upper Campanian and lower Maestrichtian depositional systems and gas production, southern Sacramento basin, California
Paleogeography and sedimentology of Upper Cretaceous turbidites, San Diego, California
Related Subjects
020200* -- Petroleum-- Reserves
Geology
& Exploration
CENOZOIC ERA
CONTINENTAL MARGIN
CRETACEOUS PERIOD
DEPOSITION
EUROPE
EXPLORATION
GEOLOGIC AGES
GEOLOGIC DEPOSITS
GEOLOGIC FORMATIONS
GEOLOGIC MODELS
GEOLOGIC STRUCTURES
ITALY
LITHOLOGY
MESOZOIC ERA
MINERAL RESOURCES
PETROLEUM DEPOSITS
RESOURCES
ROCKS
SANDSTONES
SEDIMENTARY BASINS
SEDIMENTARY ROCKS
SHALES
TECTONICS
TERTIARY PERIOD
WESTERN EUROPE