Morpho-sedimentary setting and evolution of Marettimo Valley (Egadi Islands, Sicily) during middle-late Quaternary: interaction between sea level changes and oceanographic circulation

Abstract

We present morphological and stratigraphic results coming from surveys acquired in a NNW-SSE trending submarine depression (Marettimo Valley) located in the Egadi Islands (western Sicily offshore). In this area the seafloor is characterized by both depositional and erosional features generated under a variety of sedimentary processes. We identified two seismic facies units that are correlatable to: A) the progradation of shallow water (coastal to offshore) deposits during forced-regression sedimentary process, and B) contourite drifts emplaced by geostrophic currents through the Marettimo Valley. This unusual association of very shallow water contourites and shelf margin deposits originates, during middle-late Pleistocene glacio-eustatic cycles, from enhanced sedimentary dynamics establishing mutual interaction between progradational growth of the margin and bottom current deposition.