TURBIDITE DEPOSITION FROM MULTIPLE SOURCES - QUATERNARY PAOLA BASIN (EASTERN TYRRHENIAN SEA)

The western margin of the Calabrian Are is underlain by a thick (as mu ch as 5 km) post-Miocene sedimentary succession, The uppermost part of this margin sequence is referred to as the Paola Basin System (Quater nary in age) and partially fills a present-day physiographic slope bas in, Seismic and high-resolution reflection profiles reveal that a prom inent unconformity marks the base of the Paola Basin System (PBS), The unconformity connects upslope to an area of recurrent shelf edge inst ability and is overlain by large mass-failure deposits over much of th e basin area, Basin-wide sedimentary drape deposits form stratigraphic markers that subdivide the Paola Basin System into three stages, each with unique patterns of slope erosion, including mass wasting, and lo wer slope to basin-floor turbidite deposition, Three major sediment pa thways elongated perpendicular to the margin developed between the unc onformity and the first basin wide drape, Upsection, sediment input fo r turbidite sedimentation in Paola Basin has involved many, commonly e phemeral, point sources, Most of the turbidite deposits do not form co mplete submarine fan sequences but consist of only a few turbidite ele ments, Changes in the size and type of turbidite elements through time suggest a decrease in the size and/or duration of individual sediment sources in the latest Pleistocene. The Paola Basin System is an examp le of a complex fill of a tectonically controlled basin where the effe cts of cyclic eustatic changes in sea level modify the effects of long er-term changes in sedimentation driven by tectonic activity in the so urce region and structural deformation in the depositional area.