New research based on detailed facies analysis and lithostratigraphic study of the inner shelf carbonate succession outcropping in the middle-west Gargano area is reported. The outcropping succession of the inner shelf facies of the Apulian carbonate Platform corresponds, in the Apulia region, to the western part of the Gargano Promontory, to the greater part of the Murge Plateau and to the Serre Salentine area (fig. la). The whole succession is late Jurassic-Cretaceous in age and shows a wide hiatus (late Cenomanian-Turonian p.p.) marked by an erosive surface with bauxite deposits. The field analysis has allowed us to reconstruct a stratigraphic interval of inner shelf carbonates about 900 metres thick (fig. 2). On the basis of facies analysis we propose to divide the succession into three different stratigraphic intervals which are, from bottom to top, the following: Monte Calvo member: 300-350 metres thick interval made Lip of light grey micritic limestones and dark grey-black dolomites. The lower and the middle part of this stratigraphic interval shows the sedimentological features of lagoonal environments (from open to restricted) and consists of biopeloidal wackestone/packstone with abundant green algae (fig. 3a and fig. 3b) and benthic foraminifers, peloidal wackestones/packstone with abundant spongiostromata oncoids. The upper part shows more developed peritidal conditions consisting of peloidal wackstone/packstone with fecal pellets (fig. 3d) and radial ooids (fig. 3e) and microbialites (fig. 3f) with desiccation features passing upward to dolomitic limestones and dolomites locally laminated (fig. 3c) and with fenestral fabrics. Groups of beds with Clypeina jurassica (fig. 3a) and Campbelliella striata (fig. 3b) are recognized as stratigraphic markers respectively in the middle and in the upper part of this stratigraphic interval. Age: Callovian p.p.-Valanginian p.p; Borgo Celano member: 500 metres thick interval of white and light grey bioclastic wackestone/packstone with abundant green algae, mollusc floatstones with requienids and gastropods shells (fig. 4a and fig. 4b), biopeloidal packstones/grainstones with Cayeuxia sp. (fig. 4c), intercalated with laminated and graded oolitic grainstones (fig. 4d) showing keystone vugs and vadose cements. The lower part shows the sedimentological features of open lagoonal environments with low or moderate energy locally passing to high-energy peritidal lithofacies. The middle and the upper part of the succession show gradually more developed peritidal lithofacies (fig. 4e). Green clays are often intercalated with previous lithofacies and indicate intertidal/supratidal exposure (fig. 4f). Dinosaur footprints have been recently described on clay layers (GIANOLLA et alii, 2000). Age: Valanginian p.p.- early Aptian p.p; ostree and requienie member: 80 metre thick interval of light grey bioclastic and biogenic limestones with abundant ostreids and requienids (fig. 5a and fig. 5b), echinoderms, oncoids (fig. 5d) and micritic intraclasts passing upward to wackestone/packstone with orbitolinids (fig. 5e) and to microbialites (fig. 5f) with desiccation features. ostreid floatstones/rudstones developed in the lower part of the succession and orbitolinid wackestones developed in the upper part are recognized as stratigraphic markers. The latter is well-known also in the Murge area (upper part of the Palorbitolina lenticularis layer, LUPERTO SINNI, 1979) Age: Aptian p.p. The detailed facies analysis and the paleoecologic study of the benthic communities has allowed us to highlight the sedimentary evolution of the studied succession during Callovian p.p.-Aptian p.p. times. Two types of lithofacies associations have been recognized. The first type is made up of benthic communities with small requienids and gastropods associated with a micropopulation very rich in green algae (chloralgal lithofacies) and non skeletal grains. This type of community characterizes the most part of the lower and middle interval of the studied succession (Monte Calvo member and Borgo Celano member) and implies healthy platform conditions. The second lithofacies association consists of a benthic community with ostreids, requienids and gastropods associated with a micropopulation with abundant benthic foraminifers. This type of community characterizes the upper part of the studied section (ostree and requienie member) and implies conditions of an unhealthy platform. The whole studied succession has not shown strong lithologic contrasts or well-developed unconformities. Therefore, we propose to include the entire studied succession in a single lithostratigraphic unit with the rank of formation. In spite of this, we have recognized three units with different lithofacies characteristics which allow us to classify them as members. This stratigraphic framework proposed for the middle/upper Jurassic-lower Cretaceous inner platform succession can be considered as an alternative to that of the Geologic map of Italy (fig. 1b) and to that of the previous litho and biostratigraphic works (tab. 1). Moreover, the integration between new data collected on the middle-west Gargano with the critical analysis of published data in the equivalent succession (facies and age) of the Murge allow us to propose a correlation between the two compound sections reconstructed for the Gargano (fig. 2 of this study) and for the Murge (RICCHETTI, 1975) areas (fig. 6). This correlation allows us to extend the stratigraphic nomenclature of the Calcare di Bari, prior to this work used only in the Murge area, to apply also to the inner platform succession outcropping in the Gargano Promontory.

A facies analysis and preliminary palaeoclimate and biochronology investigation, are presented for the San Lorenzo lacustrine deposits, outcropping in the Pliocene to Pleistocene satellite Sant’Arcangelo Basin (Southern Apennines). Facies analysis shows that sedimentation developed in the inner zone of a terrigenous-dominated fresh water lake. The pollen record shows repeated alternations between two distinct vegetational assemblages, one dominated by steppe taxa, and the other one by forest taxa. The faunal assemblage is indicative of a late Biharian mammal age. The palaeomagnetic survey yielded three polarity intervals throughout the succession; the middle one is of reversed polarity (and is associated with a volcaniclastic layer radiometrically dated at approximately 1Ma), and thus the two normal polarity intervals are identified as the Jaramillo subchron and the base of the Brunhes chron. The detailed geological and paleontological analyses as well as the preliminary results from the palynological and magnetostratigraphical investigation, indicates that these deposits may contain a continuous record of both climatic changes and tectonic activity within the Sant’Arcangelo Basin during the early and middle Pleistocene.

This work, mainly based on a synthesis of published data, talks about both modern and ancient (Plio- Pleistocene) temperate-water shallow-marine carbonate systems developed in wave-dominated settings in Puglia (southern Italy), and their response to relative sea-level changes. Temperate-water carbonate factories and their open- shelf/ramp systems, are subjected to many of the same physical processes (i.e. hydrodynamic) that affect sediments in siliciclastic shelf systems (James, 1990; Tucker and Wright, 1990) as temperate-water carbonate systems are not bordered by protective shallow-water barrier reefs or shoal-rims.

Late Pleistocene soft-sediment deformation structures are found in lagoonal and eolian sediments exposed in the city of Bari (Murge, Apulian foreland, southern Italy). Deformation structures are represented by load casts, ball-and-pillow, and flame structures. The mechanism of deformation is related with liquefaction and/or fluidization processes. After considering alternative explanations, we conclude that liquefaction and/or fluidization was most probably triggered by a paleoseismic event originating along the south Gargano fault, an active strike-slip zone about 50 km. offshore from Bari.

Abstract The Bradanic Trough (southern Italy) is the Pliocene-present-day south Apennines foredeep. It is a foreland basin as subsidence due to westward subduction of the Adria Plate involves the continental crust of the Apulian domain. The infill succession of the Bradanic Trough is characterised by the presence of a long thrust sheet system (the so called ‘allochthon’) that occupied part of the accommodation space created on the foreland by subduction. The upper part of the infilling succession crops out along numerous sections. About 600 m of the 3–4 km basin-fill succession is exposed as the Bradanic Trough has experienced uplift during Quaternary times. Outcropping successions are mainly characterized by shallow-marine deposits comprising carbonates of the Calcarenite di Gravina Formation, silty clay hemipelagites of the Argille subappennine Formation and coarse-grained bodies of the ‘Regressive coastal deposits’. The Calcarenite di Gravina Formation (Middle-Late Pliocene-Early Pleistocene in age) crops out in a backstepping configuration onto the flanks of the Apulian Foreland highs. It displays evidence of strong transgression onto a karstic region previously dissected in a complex horst and graben system. The Argille subappennine Formation (Late Pliocene-Middle Pleistocene in age) succeeds the carbonate sedimentation on the foreland side of the basin and represents the shallowing of the basin in the other sectors of the Bradanic Trough. Toward the Apennines chain, in the wedge-top area of the foredeep, the Argille subappennine Formation covers the allochthon, while in the depocentre (in the foredeep sensu stricto) the same formation overlays turbidite deposits. The latter characterize the deeper part of the successions, and are mainly buried below the allochthon. The Regressive coastal deposits (Early-Late Pleistocene in age) represent the upper part of the succession. They consist of coarse-grained wedges that lie on the hemipelagites of the Argille subappennine Formation in, alternatively, conformable or erosional contact. The wedges of the Regressive coastal deposits stack in a downward-shifting configuration, which indicates deposition during uplift. The Quaternary development of the Bradanic Trough differs from that of the central and northern Appennines foredeep. The latter is characterized by aggradation of shallow-marine and alluvial sediments in a subsiding remnant basin, whose filling records a basin-scale depositional regression. In contrast, the Bradanic Trough is characterized by a basin-scale erosional regression and the last evolutive phase of this sector of the Apennines foredeep is best defined as a cannibalization phase rather than a filling or overfilling phase.

The discovery of recent co-seismic sedimentary structures and the detection of low energy seismic activity in the Murgian plateau (Apulia - Southern Italy) motivated a more detailed examination of the tectonics in this part of the Apulian plate commonly believed to be aseismic. In particular, we examined the north-western zone where a seismic sequence with maximum magnitude 3.2 and tensional focal mechanism occurred in 1991. The analysis of the existing gravimetric data, integrated by three new profiles carried out across the epicentral area, disclosed an anomaly possibly due to an old tensional tectonic structure located within the upper crust. Even though the depth and the age hypothesised for the anomaly source would exclude a direct causal connection with the observed seismicity, this structure could be a shallower expression of a tectonic structure extending down to the crystalline basement: it could represent a zone of relative «weakness» where the regional stress, due to the interactions between Apennines and Apulian plate, encounters conditions facilitating the release of seismic energy.

Three major technological advances have occurred in recent years in the use of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) for the study of geophysical processes. The first is the launch and excellent performance of ERS satellites, which permits the study of global-scale dynamic processes. The second is the development of airborne polarimeter SARs, which provides a far more complete picture of the scattering properties of the Earth's surface than the “simple” systems flown in space. The third is the inception of interferometric SAR, which allows high resolution topographic data to be generated from spaceborne and airborne SAR systems, and can detect centimetric changes in the Earth's surface. Going hand in hand with these advances, there have been major achievements in backscatter modeling, developing viable statistical models of the data and in image understanding techniques. In this work we study the applications of the above concepts in characterizing “crushed” soils in terms of accuracy assessment in images of part of Puglia Region in Italy