The transition between the two major Permian tectono-stratigraphic cycles in the central Southern Alps: results from facies analysis and U/Pb geochronology

The Val Daone Conglomerate (VDC) is a continental clastic unit that crops out eastwards of the central Southern Alps, from the NE sector of the Collio Basin to the W as far as the Tione Basin to the E. This significant but as yet relatively unknown formation lies just above the regional unconformity that marks the boundary between the two Permian major tectono-sedimentary cycles (TSU1 and TSU2) and grades upwards paraconformably (?) to the fluvial red beds of Verrucano Lombardo/Val Gardena Sandstone, generally associated with Late Permian times. Recent palynological investigations on the VDC suggested a Guadalupian age (late Roadian–early Wordian), owing to the remarkable presence of diversified pollen associations; therefore, this sedimentary unit is to date the first one ascribed, on a palaeontological basis, to the Middle Permian in the entire Southern Alps domain. A detailed facies analysis of VDC shows deposition in amalgamated alluvial fan-braided and fluvial environments with wide channels and longitudinal bars. In its type area and Val Rendena, the VDC rests unconformably above the last volcanic episode of the TSU1. LA ICP-MS U–Pb dating on zircon from two samples of such topmost Lower Permian volcanic rocks, known as Ponte Murandin dacitic lava and Malga Plan rhyodacitic Ignimbrites (Tione Basin), provided Concordia ages of 278 ± 2 Ma (MSWD = 0.01) and 279 ± 2 Ma (MSWD = 0.16), respectively. As well as allowing us to better define the duration of the time gap between the two Permian megacycles in the central Southern Alps in almost 10 Ma, these radiometric age determinations are also significant because they enable us to regionally link the coeval volcanic bodies which crop out in the Collio Basin to the SW and in the “Athesian Volcanic Group” to the NE, respectively.