Print this pageLower and Middle Miocene Carbonate Platforms in the Central
Mediterranean: 
Sequence
Stratigraphy and Paleoceanography
MUTTI, MARIA, DANIEL BERNOULLI, SILVIA SPEZZAFERRI, and PETER STILLE
A fundamental control on sequence stratigraphic packaging is the relationship
between accommodation and rates of sediment supply. Rates of shallow water
carbonate production are de-pendant on a number of factors and change through
time. Environment-related factors such as changes in oceanic circulation
patterns and temperature of shallow water masses leave their record in shallow
and deep water carbonates and need to be better understood.
We evaluate the impact that paleoceanographic factors have on rates of
shallow water carbonate sediment production using two case studies of
Early-Middle Miocene age, the Malella in the Southern Apennines and the Hyblean
region in Sicily. We use a sequence stratigraphic approach, integrated with
detailed biostratigraphy and r-isotope stratigraphy. Both settings are
characterized at the second order scale (late Aquitanian to late Serravallian)
by ramps with a lower onlapping wedge of plankton-rich marls, and up-dip
transgressive open-marine carbonate, and a late highstand succession of
rhodalgal and coral buildups. Sr-isotopes were used to date hardgrounds
developed regionally at the base of the on lapping wedges, giving an age of
20-21 Ma. This age corresponds to the closure of the marine connection with the
Indo-Pacific area and the consequent drastic changes in circulation in the
Mediterranean. Stable isotope time-series on benthic and planktic foraminifera
indicate relatively cool water temperatures at the base of the onlapping wedges
warming up relatively quickly immediately before the deposition of the late
highstand successions.
Our data indicate how variations in water temperatures, coupled with drastic
changes in water circulation, severely affected rates of carbonate production
during the deposition of a second order sequence
and had the effect of
accentuating the transgressive trend within the sequences.