Stratigraphy and sedimentology of fault-controlled backstepping shorefaces, middle Pliocene of Crotone Basin, Southern Italy

The middle Pliocene sedimentary succession of the Crotone Basin in the Calabria-Peloritani terrane, southern Italy, was deposited during extensional tectonism dominated by a system of horst and half-grabens. The studied succession (Spartizzo lagoonal clays and Scandale shallow-marine deposits) is up to 250 m thick and represents a barrier-lagoon system that spans a tectonically controlled transgressive phase. The succession is internally organised into six higher-frequency cycles, 20–80 m thick. Most of these cycles are formed by transgressive lagoonal deposits separated from the overlying regressive shoreface units by a wave ravinement surface. Lowstand fluvial deposits were recognized locally at the base of the last cycle. The shoreface units are up to 50 m thick, and typically consist of a coarsening-upward succession of isolated to amalgamated hummocky cross-strata that merge upwards into swaley and trough cross-strata. NE-trending synsedimentary normal faults strongly controlled the deposition and enhanced subsidence and thickness expansion within the half-graben basins.