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Geological Society, London, Special Publications; 2007; v. 285; p. 169-178;
DOI: 10.1144/SP285.10
© 2007 Geological Society of London

Post-depositional evolution of sediments

Messinian halite and residual facies in the Crotone basin (Calabria, Italy)

S. Lugli1, R. Dominici2, M. Barone2, E. Costa3 & C. Cavozzi3

1 Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Largo S. Eufemia 19, 41100 Modena, Italy (e-mail: lugli.stefano{at}unimore.it)
2 Università degli Studi della Calabria, Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, 87036 Arcavacata di Rende (Cosenza), Italy
3 Dipartimento di Scienze Geologiche, Università di Parma, Parco Area delle Scienze 157/A, 43100, Parma, Italy

The Neogene Crotone basin in eastern Calabria contains extensive Messinian evaporite deposits, including thick gypsarenite and halite. The halite deposit reaches a maximum thickness of c. 300 m and in some areas forms relatively small diapirs piercing late Messinian and Pliocene sediments. Halite is strongly modified by folding and recrystallization, but a few primary features are preserved. Four primary halite facies have been recognized: (a) banded halite consisting of folded white and dark bands deposited in a salt pan and/or saline mudflat; (b) white facies, massive halite containing anhydrite nodules, probably formed in a variably desiccating saline lake; (c) clear facies made up of a mosaic of large blocky halite crystals separated by mud, possibly the product of displacive halite growth in a saline mudflat; and (d) breccia facies, a product of dissolution of halite/mudstone/siltstone layers. Residual facies formed from halite dissolution are present as both weld and cap rocks. Weld rocks are thick, undeformed, and composed only of insoluble phases originally included in the salt, whereas cap rocks are thin, strongly sheared and include clasts from the cover rocks.