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Upper Cretaceous to Eocene pelagic limestones of the Scaglia Rossa are not Miocene turbidites

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Abstract

The Scaglia Rossa is a pink limestone composed of 1–20% forams and ∼5% clay in a coccolith matrix that outcrops extensively in the Umbria–Marches Apennines of northern peninsular Italy. It has universally been considered to be a pelagic sedimentary rock deposited during the late Cretaceous to middle Eocene. The Scaglia Rossa has been studied intensively as a record of micropalaeontological1–7, palaeomagnetic8–30, sedimentological31–34, and geochemical33,35–39 events. Recently, Wezel40 reported that the limestones are not of pelagic origin but are entirely turbiditic, and were deposited in the Miocene. He also criticized magnetic polarity stratigraphy investigations done on the Scaglia Rossa, concluding that the polarity is a function of sedimentation rate, not of geomagnetic field polarity. His evidence has cast doubt on previous stratigraphie information from the Scaglia Rossa41 and compels us to respond. Although the observation by Coccioni42 and Wezel40 of the presence of fossils of anomalously young ages in clay seams between the limestone beds is of interest, we show here that the proposed redating of the Scaglia is wrong for several palaeontological, sedimentological and palaeomagnetic reasons.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of California, Berkeley, California, 94720, USA

    Walter Alvarez

  2. Institut für Geophysik, ETH-Hönggerberg, CH-8093, Zürich, Switzerland

    William Lowrie

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  1. Walter Alvarez
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  2. William Lowrie
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Alvarez, W., Lowrie, W. Upper Cretaceous to Eocene pelagic limestones of the Scaglia Rossa are not Miocene turbidites. Nature 294, 246–248 (1981). https://doi.org/10.1038/294246a0

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