SOURCELAND CONTROLS ON THE COMPOSITION OF BEACH AND FLUVIAL SAND OF THE NORTHERN TYRRHENIAN COAST OF CALABRIA, ITALY - IMPLICATIONS FOR ACTUALISTIC PETROFACIES

The northern Tyrrhenian margin of Calabria in southern Italy provides a natural laboratory for sampling sand ar different scales: small drai nages (first order), rivers draining mountain ranges (second order), a nd marine environments (beach to deep-marine; third order). Calabrian mountain ranges represent an uplifted and variable dissected thrust be lt constituted by Palaeozoic through Pleistocene plutonic, metamorphic , ophiolitic, carbonate and siliciclastic rocks. The modem setting inc ludes a mountainous coast, having high rates of fluvial discharge, and the deep-marine Paola Basin. The composition of modem fluvial and bea ch sands is useful for the interpretation of sediment transported into deeper-water environments. Modem beach and fluvial sands of the north ern Tyrrhenian margin of Calabria define three distinct petrologic pro vinces, from noah to the south: (1) the Lao Littoral Province has calc lithite sand derived from erosion of dominantly carbonates of the sout hern Apennines; (2) the Coastal Range Littoral Province has quartzolit hic sand derived from dominantly metamorphic (schist and phyllite) Coa stal Range; and (3) the Santa Eufemia Littoral Province has quarzofeld spathic sand derived from dominantly metamorphic Coastal Range and Sil a Massif and plutono-metamorphic Mount Pore provenances. Deep-marine t urbidites of the Paola Basin have basinwide quartzolithic turbidite sa nds having close compositional relations with Coastal Range littoral p etrofacies. Only at the northern boundary of the Paola Basin, calclith ite turbidite sand record deep-water dispersal of the Lao littoral san ds. Comparison of detrital modes from mainland to deep-marine environm ents contribute to the models of dispersal pathways and geographical e xtension of actualistic sand petrofacies.