Depositional environment and biofacies characterisation of the Triassic (Carnian to Rhaetian) carbonate succession of Punta Bassano (Marettimo Island, Sicily)

The aims of this study are to reconstruct the geological setting of the Punta Bassano series (Marettimo Island, Egadi Archipelago, western Sicily) and its palaeogeographic evolution. The reference section for the Upper Triassic of Marettimo shows an alternation of marl and limestone beds together with brecciated levels. The limestones are both homogeneous mudstones with evaporite pseudomorphs and laminated with fenestrae. Foraminiferal, palynomorph, and ostracod associations constrain the Punta Bassano sequence to the Carnian-Rhaetian interval. The Punta Bassano succession represents a shallow inner ramp, ranging from open-marine environment with good water circulation to lagoonal and peritidal protected environments. Freshwater input from rivers or groundwater on the carbonate ramp is indicated by the ostracod microfauna. The comparison of facies and microfauna with those from other sequences of the Mediterranean Upper Triassic (Pyrenees, Corsica, Sardinia, and Tunisia) allows us to confine the Punta Bassano sedimentation to the northern margin of the Tethys, between the Corsican and the Pyrenean depositional setting. These new results indicate that Marettimo Island, which is considered a single structural element being formed by four tectonic units, is a piece of the southern margin of the European Plate, displaced over a longer distance to become part of the other Egadi Islands, when the Corso-Sarde block made its rotation and successive collision with the North African Margin.[PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]