Abstract The Tyrrhenian Sea was formed through rifting due to back-arc extension above the subducting Ionian oceanic slab. Within the basin and the surrounding regions, extensional processes were diachronous, first affecting the Sardinian margin and then migrating southeastward toward the Sicilian margin and the Calabrian margin and the western side of the Italian peninsula. Thus, at the Sardinia passive margin, tectonic activity has been quiescent since the Early Pliocene, whereas extensional processes are ongoing at the Sicilian margin. As a result, the different geological setting of the associated hinterland areas has had a large impact on the present-day depositional systems along the two margins. At the Sardinian margin, a relatively large spacing of river entry points results in widely spaced submarine slope canyons that feed isolated submarine fans in the intraslope basins. At the Sicilian margin, as a consequence of smaller river drainage basins, canyons are very close together along the slope and feed base-of-slope coalescing sedimentary bodies, creating an apron consisting of channel–levee deposits and channel-mouth lobes. Hinterland local tectonic regime also influences the nature of the deep-sea depositional systems along each of the margins. Generally, the small, radial fans of the Sardinian margin lie basinward of narrow shelf regions, where a direct fluvial input of coarse-grained sediments to the canyon heads can be inferred. The large elongated Caprera fan, in contrast, forms in an area where the shelf is wider and can efficiently trap much of the coarse-grained fraction of throughput sediments. At the Sicilian apron, in the areas facing the depressed regions, with smaller continental uplift rates, the Gioia basin channel–levee system is actively aggrading. On the other hand, destructive processes, resulting in widespread masswasting deposits, are affecting the Sicilian apron, where high uplift rates are affecting the adjacent land areas.

Abstract The Sicilian gateway is a narrow, deep, interconnected series of basins, sill valleys and passageways that cuts across the broad, shallow Sicilian–Tunisian Platform in the Central Mediterranean. This deep connection allows dense Levantine Intermediate Water (LIW) formed in the Eastern Mediterranean to flow in a westerly direction through the gateway and exit into the Tyrrhenian and Balearic basins of the Western Mediterranean. LIW is replaced by a strong surface flow of Modified Atlantic Water (MAW). A complex and still active tectonic regime has been an important control on the development of physiography and on the style and distribution of sediments across the Platform. Within the deep gateway basins, turbidites, debrites and megabeds are intercalated with a background of predominantly muddy and calcareous, hemipelagic and contourite sediments. Evidence for the influence of bottom currents on sedimentation is seen in the construction of small mounded drifts and irregular patch drifts, in zones of scouring and non-deposition, in local photographic evidence of a current-smoothed or rippled seafloor, and as a subtle combination of features present in the background sediments. These include: extensively reworked microfossil assemblages, rare diffuse lamination, coarse lenses of mixed composition within a pervasively bioturbated sediment, and relatively high rates of accumulation.

Abstract The Gioia Basin is a small trough located in the southeastern Tyrrhenian Sea between the Aeolian island arc and Sicily and Calabria. It is experiencing a post-rift margin evolution, while tectonic deformation and high rates of vertical movement are still affecting the Sicilian and Calabrian mainland. The analysis of the evolution of the post-rift depositional systems along the various sectors of the Gioia Basin margin has been carried out through the combined interpretation of multibeam bathymetry and seismic reflection data. Two seismic units have been identified and their component geomorphological elements ascertained through the analysis of seismic facies distribution. In general, the depositional architecture of the margin, the sedimentary environments and facies and related geomorphological elements that are active in the shaping of the margin appear to be mainly controlled by the physiography of the basin itself and by the geology of the hinterland that results from the structural evolution of the adjacent land areas. An evolution from a generalized slope bypass setting to a prograding offlapping slope architecture is recognized and explained as due to the transition from an out-of-grade to a graded profile progressing from the early post-rift stage to the later margin growth stage. Along the Sicilian margin, a constructional apron, mainly consisting of channel levee deposits, makes up much of the studied sedimentary package and reflects a high sediment supply related to the large size of river catchments on land. In contrast, the northeastern Sicilian basin sector is a destructional margin that flanks a region where small river drainage systems result in a low sediment supply to the basin and a continued high uplift rate promotes slope instability; as a consequence, the basin infill is here almost completely made up of mass-wasting deposits. In the Calabrian margin, a first phase of low sediment supply probably coinciding with the filling of the further inland Gioia Tauro half-graben was followed by the establishment of the Gioia–Mesima channel–canyon system that, furnishing an effective sediment flux to the margin, allows the formation of an intraslope depositional body consisting of channelized turbidite lobes.

Abstract A c. 50 m thick section located in the Crotone Basin (southern Italy) was investigated using oxygen isotopes, pollen and planktonic foraminifera. The section records two complete transgressive-regressive cycles mainly driven by glacio-eustasy. Biostratigraphy and oxygen isotope chronology indicate that the section spans from Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 22 ( c. 0.87 Ma) to MIS 18.3 ( c. 0.73 Ma), thus straddling the Matuyama-Brunhes (M-B) boundary which occurs in the middle of MIS 19. The rich pollen assemblages provide a unique record of the vegetation in the central Mediterranean during the Early-Middle Pleistocene climatic transition. Interglacials are characterized by a mesothermic vegetation similar to the present day, whereas a rain-demanding conifer forest dominates the glacials of MIS 20 and MIS 18. This is unexpected because it is generally considered that during the Pleistocene, glacials in central Mediterranean were characterized by steppe (arid) conditions. By contrast, arid conditions occur during the deglaciations. These results are inconsistent with the widespread practice of linking glacials with arid conditions in the central Mediterranean during Pliocene and Early Pleistocene times. This study emphasizes the need to establish more accurate land-sea correlation.