Synsedimentary-tectonic, soft-sediment deformation and volcanism in the rifted Tethyan margin from the Upper Triassic–Middle Jurassic deep-water carbonates in Central Sicily

The Pizzo Lupo section (Sicanian Mts, central Sicily) is an Upper Triassic–Lower Jurassic condensed deep-water succession, where the relationships among synsedimentary tectonic, soft-sediment deformations, volcanism and lithological changes reflect the evolution of a rift-basin.The morphostructural setting of the studied basin appears as a gently dipping slopewhere a fault-delimited area (graben to halfgraben) was developed. The instability of the sea floor, related to the seismic shocks, was the cause of the gravity-driven deformational sedimentary structures (slumping, breccia channelized bodies). The partly stratified basaltic rocks,with disorganized and chaotic stratification, suggest the occurrence of a volcanic complex located in neighbouring areas.A regional comparison with the tectono-sedimentary evolution of the pelagic drowning platform succession(i.e. Trapanese domain Auct.), outcropping in adjacent areas, suggests that these different domains were close to each other during the studied period forming a stepped margin platform-to-basin system.The environmental changes, synsedimentary tectonic activity and gravity-driven phenomena were the result of repeated events occurred during a long time interval, spanning from Late Triassic to Early Jurassic.