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Stratigraphic features of the Maltese Archipelago: a synthesis

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Abstract

The present study gathers a large amount of both existing and unpublished biostratigraphic data, which allows a detailed and complete definition of the stratigraphic features of the late Oligocene–late Miocene Maltese Archipelago sedimentary succession, recording in turn the tectonic and eustatic history of the Central Mediterranean region. We selected five sections in the Malta Island and three in Gozo, representative of the entire sedimentary succession, affected by well-known erosional surfaces, correlated to low-stands of the sea level, often associated with phoshatic layers, linked to the subsequent high-stands. The sedimentary interval, and thus the associated hiatuses, was constrained both by the bio-chronostratigraphic attribution and by the comparison with the third-order succession of the New Jersey passive margin, which shows strict analogy with the geodynamic context in which the Maltese succession deposited. The diachroneity at the base of the formations in the different sections, and the presence of intraformational unconformity/hiatuses, highlighted the role of the tectonic, which depicted a complex sedimentary basin, characterized by more distal versus more marginal sectors. Furthermore, the possibility to compare the sedimentary succession with the oxygen isotope curve connects the sedimentation interruptions, recorded within the Maltese Archipelago deposits, to global cooling events.

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Acknowledgments

This work has been financially supported and carried out within the P.O. Italia-Malta 2007–2013 SIMIT Project “Constitution of an integrated Italy–Malta system of civil protection”, Scientific Responsible of Project Partner 3 (University of Catania): Agata Di Stefano, and within the “PRIN2012” project “The Burdigalian GSSP (Global Stratigraphic Section and Point): the missing tile to complete the Neogene interval of the Geological Time scale”, financed by the Italian MIUR and coordinated by Agata Di Stefano. The authors warmly thank two anonymous reviewers for their constructive suggestions and are indebted with Giovanni Barreca for his help in realizing the digitalization of the map shown in Fig. 1.

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Baldassini, N., Di Stefano, A. Stratigraphic features of the Maltese Archipelago: a synthesis. Nat Hazards 86 (Suppl 2), 203–231 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-016-2334-9

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