Critelli, Salvatore, Mongelli, Giovanni, Perri, Francesco, Martín Algarra, Agustín, Martín-Martín, Manuel, Perrone, Vincenzo, Dominici, Rocco, Sonnino, Maurizio, Zaghloul, Mohamed Najib
Compositional and Geochemical Signatures for the Sedimentary Evolution of the Middle Triassic–Lower Jurassic Continental Redbeds from Western-Central Mediterranean Alpine Chains
CRITELLI, Salvatore, et al. “Compositional and Geochemical Signatures for the Sedimentary Evolution of the Middle Triassic–Lower Jurassic Continental Redbeds from Western-Central Mediterranean Alpine Chains”. The Journal of Geology. Vol. 116, No. 4 (July 2008). ISSN 0022-1376, pp. 375-386
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10045/27483
DOI: 10.1086/588833
ISSN: 0022-1376 (Print)
Abstract: 
Compositional and chemical analyses suggest that Middle Triassic–Lower Liassic continental redbeds (in the internal domains of the Betic, Maghrebian, and Apenninic chains) can be considered a regional lithosome marking the Triassic-Jurassic rift-valley stage of Tethyan rifting, which led to the Pangaea breakup and subsequent development of a mosaic of plates and microplates. Sandstones are quartzose to quartzolithic and represent a provenance of continental block and recycled orogen, made up mainly of Paleozoic metasedimentary rocks similar to those underlying the redbeds. Mudrocks display K enrichments; intense paleoweathering under a hot, episodically humid climate with a prolonged dry season; and sediment recycling. Redbeds experienced temperatures in the range of 100°–160°C and lithostatic/tectonic loading of more than 4 km. These redbeds represent an important stratigraphic signature to reconstruct a continental block (Mesomediterranean Microplate) that separated different realms of the western Tethys from Middle-Late Jurassic to Miocene, when it was completely involved in Alpine orogenesis.
Keywords:Redbeds, Malaguide, Geodynamic implications
The University of Chicago Press
info:eu-repo/semantics/article