Middle-Late Jurassic syndepositional tectonics recorded in the Ligurian Briançonnais succession (Marguareis–Mongioie area, Ligurian Alps, NW Italy)

Abstract

The Middle–Upper Jurassic succession of the Marguareis–Mongioie area (Ligurian Briançonnais Domain), developed in a protected shelf environment evolving into a pelagic plateau, bears clear evidence of synsedimentary tectonics such as: growth fault-related structures; neptunian dykes; marked lateral variations in stratigraphic thicknesses testifying to the juxtaposition of sectors characterized by different sedimentation and subsidence rates; discordant, anomalous stratigraphic contacts corresponding to paleoescarpments; nodular beds showing evidence of fluidification interpreted as seismites; and the occurrence of sand-sized quartz grains pointing to denudation of Permo-Triassic quartz-rich rocks. Such evidence documents an important Middle-Late Jurassic post-breakup tectonic activity, which was more effective in controlling the basin topography than the Early Jurassic syn-rift tectonic phase. Two main tectono-sedimentary stages, one occurring during the Bathonian, the other falling within the Callovian–Kimmeridgian interval, were reconstructed. The first stage can be referred to a fault-related activity occurring shortly after the initial stages of oceanic spreading of the Ligurian Tethys; the second can be genetically related to the far effects of the first rifting stage of the Bay of Biscay and the Valais basin.