Anatomy of a submerged archipelago in the Sicilian Channel (central Mediterranean Sea)
2016
The Sicilian Channel is a broad and shallow shelf which is geologically part of the
African Plate. Its NW sector (the Adventure Plateau), where water depths rarely exceed 100
m, is punctuated by several kilometre-sized morphological highs. These elevations, formed
by both sedimentary and volcanic rocks, emerged around middle Holocene time or earlier
when they constituted a large archipelago. High-resolution single-channel and multichannel
seismic reflection profiles, along with stratigraphic and lithological information derived
from exploration wells and rock samplings, are analysed to derive the shallow and deep
structural setting of these banks and identify their geological nature. The sedimentary
banks (Talbot, Ante-Talbot, Panope, Nereo and Pantelleria Vecchia), presently located at
water depths 8–40 m, are composed of Miocene rocks severely deformed by a late Miocene
compressional phase which produced the external sector of the Sicilian–Maghrebian thrust
belt. Tortonian-aged rock samples from the Pantelleria Vecchia Bank represent patch reefs
that have mostly formed on structural highs. Sedimentary analogies suggest that other
sedimentary banks of the Adventure Plateau may have the same origin. Galatea, Anfitrite
and Tetide represent submarine volcanic edifices emplaced on major extensional faults
formed during early Pliocene – Quaternary continental rifting of the Sicilian Channel. The
present-day morphology of the banks is the result of repeated phases of subaerial exposure
and drowning, especially since the Last Glacial Maximum.
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