I CONGLOMERATI MESSINIANI DELL'AREA TRA BENEVENTO E IL FIUME SABATO (APPENNINO MERIDIONALE)

Abstract

The Messinian-Early Pliocene p.p. succession outcrop­ping in the area between Benevento and the River Sabato on the eastem edge of the carbonate Jurassic - Cretaceous units of the Apennine Platform, is costitute'd, from the bottom, by the Gessoso - solfifera Formation and the Tufo - Altavilla Unit consisting of four members. The substratum of the Messinian succession is formed by the Argille Varicolori of the Lagone­grese - Molisano Basin located to the east of the Apennine Platform. In the northem area (Stretto di Barba) the succession consists of a lower arenaceous member (about 80 m thick), a conglomerate member (with a thickness ranging between 200 m and a little more than 100 m) and an upper arenaceous mem­ber (a few tens ofmetres thick), that form a coarsening upward sequence followed by a thinning upward sequence. In the southem area (Tufo - Altavilla) outcrop a lower arenaceous member (about 50 m thick) and a muddy - arenaceous member (about 200 m thick) heteropic of the conglomerate member with intercalations of five lenticular bodies of conglomerates.