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Submarine-fan facies associations of the Upper Cretaceous and Paleocene Gottero Sandstone, Ligurian Apennines, Italy

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Abstract

The Upper Cretaceous and Paleocene Gottero Sandstone was deposited as a small deep-sea fan on ophiolitic crust in a trench-slope basin. It was thrust northeastward as an allochthonous sheet in Early and Middle Cenozoic time. The Gottero, as thick as 1500 m, was probably derived from erosion of Hercynian granites and associated metamorphic rocks in northern Corsica. Outcrops of inner-fan channel, middle-fan channel and interchannel, outer-fan lobe, fan-fringe, and basin-plain facies associations indicate that the depositional model of Mutti and Ricci Lucchi for mixed-sediment deep-sea fans can be used. The original fan had a radius of 30 to 50 km.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. U.S. Geological Survey, 345 Middlefield Road, 94025, Menlo Park, California, USA

    Tor H. Nilsen & Ernesto Abbate

  2. Istituto di Geologia, Universita di Firenze, Via Lamarmora 4, 50121, Florence, Italy

    Tor H. Nilsen & Ernesto Abbate

Authors
  1. Tor H. Nilsen
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  2. Ernesto Abbate
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Nilsen, T.H., Abbate, E. Submarine-fan facies associations of the Upper Cretaceous and Paleocene Gottero Sandstone, Ligurian Apennines, Italy. Geo-Marine Letters 3, 193–197 (1983). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02462467

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02462467

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