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Matera is an ancient city located at the top of Italy's high heel that has been anointed the European Capital of Culture 2019 and which, since 1993, has been included in the UNESCO World Heritage list. The close relationship between the urban development of the old town and its geology offers the unique opportunity to discover, in one shot, the cultural and geological history of a wonderful city that is often left out of the spotlight. As a corollary to this, the rupestrian old town of Matera and nearby areas are known also for having been the location of several movies (e.g. Bond 25 'No time to die'). Accordingly, media and tourists alike are showing a growing interest in Matera. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several recent hydrocarbon discoveries were detected in extensional areas located around fault-bounded tectonic highs. These tectonically-controlled mini-basins are diffusely characterised by terrestrial and shallow-marine successions with complex geometrical relationships. The degree of seismic resolution and the punctual well-log lithostratigraphic data do not allow suitable reconstructions of these plays and, thus, the use of good outcrop analogues is crucial in their reservoir characterisations. In this paper, we present the results of a sedimentological study carried on continental deposits filling a segment of the Oligo-Miocene south-eastern basin margin of the Sardinia Graben System, in the central-western Mediterranean. This well-exposed terrestrial succession results from the erosion of Palaeozoic metamorphic and magmatic basement rocks exposed along the basin margin. Continental, coarse-grained eluvio-colluvial, alluvial and fluvial sediments exhibit changes both in thickness and lateral extensions due to the existence of several endorheic depocentres, which were aligned along major normal faults. Based on the stratigraphic and sedimentological analysis of a number of exposed stratigraphic sections, the main depositional processes are identified for each specific facies association. Due to the grain-size of the dominant deposits, porosity is estimated by using an image analysis software on high-resolution digital photographs from a number of outcrop samples. The results show how porosity changes dramatically across the reconstructed sections due to the complexity of the reciprocal geometrical passages among all these lithofacies. The dominance of colluvial/alluvial fans or river braidplain systems and the different nature of sediment occupying each depositional areas are interpreted as the response to the interplay between the capacity generated by the vertical tectonic displacement of major normal-faults and the interception of the base-level with the topography of these mini-basins. Our observations suggest six possible depositional scenarios that resume as many reservoir types in fault-controlled half-grabens with dominant continental lithofacies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A non-invasive and low-cost geophysical method for the H/V spectral ratio (HVSR) of microtremors was employed for the first time in the Metaponto coastal plain (Basilicata region, southern Italy) in order to draw 3D unconformities within the subsurface. Through the stratigraphical analysis of several boreholes, the occurrence of two irregular erosional surfaces, bounding three main sedimentary units, was inferred. The upper unit fills and covers some paleovalleys that were incised during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). Filling was induced by a sea level rise and a high stand that followed the LGM. According to the stratigraphy of some boreholes, a 4- layer model of the Metaponto coastal plain subsurface was used in the geophysical investigation. The inversion of the HVSR data has been performed using the velocities of the shear waves calculated by some down-hole tests, and the main geophysical unconformity was recorded below the uppermost unit, corresponding to the topmost two layers of the 4-layer model. A 3D view of this main geophysical unconformity shows a surface with the occurrence of some deeper, narrow, and sinuous zones running roughly perpendicular to the present-day coastline and at depths of up to 90 m below the present-day sea level. These narrows likely correspond to the paleovalleys that developed in the region during the LGM and are buried below the Metaponto coastal plain. The satisfactory fit obtained by the comparison of geophysical sections with geological ones highlights the reliability of the HVSR method for reconstructing the geometry of buried paleomorphologies characterized by an appreciable contrast of seismic impedance between "bedrock" and "cover". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Soft-sediment deformation structures are exposed in sea cliffs in the lower part of the Calcarenite di Gravina Formation (late Pliocene–early Pleistocene) in the Cala Corvino area N of Monopoli (Adriatic sector of the Apulian Foreland, southern Italy). Deformation affects a thickness of about 5m involving a lower calcareous–terrigenous sand and gravel unit and an upper heavily bioturbated grainstone and packstone unit. Deformation is absent from the overlying part of the succession. Large-scale soft-sediment deformation structures are collapse features comprising irregularly elongated conical zones of sinking. In vertical section, narrow “drop” zones occur in the lower sandy–gravelly facies and large gentle folds in the upper grainstone–packstone beds. The degree of deformation decreases upwards. Small-scale soft-sediment deformation structures adjacent to the large-scale conical collapse structures are narrow, vertically elongated load structures about 2m high and 30–50cm wide that involve only the basal terrigenous facies. The distribution of small- and large-scale soft-sediment deformation structures corresponds closely to zones of fracturing in the underlying Cretaceous limestones, and the elongation directions of soft-sediment deformation structures correspond to the orientation of major fractures in the limestones. The soft-sediment deformation occurred due to collapse associated with karstic sinkhole formation along fractures in the bedrock. Geometrical relationships between deformed and undeformed sedimentary units show that deformation occurred in a shallow marine environment. The structures at Cala Corvino provide a rare outcrop-scale record of sinkhole-induced soft-sediment deformation occurring in a shallow marine environment. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The Matera Horst (“Murgia materana”) is included in the Apulian plateau, basically formed by Mesozoic shallow-water carbonates. The zone is located in a present-day temperate belt and form a flat-topped morphostructural large element inside the foreland area of the southern Apennines. This horst is bordered by high-angle faults and surrounded by downthrown blocks covered by Plio-Quaternary marine and alluvial sediments. The structural high experienced several morphological cycles from Miocene to Quaternary. In particular, three evolutionary stages can be recognized at least. The first stage is currently represented by relics of a flat erosional landscape at the top of the relieves. The second one is testified by gentle slopes with wide glacis at the foothills, locally covered by coarse waste deposits. During the third stage a series of marine terraces formed and a drainage system developed creating both bland valleys and well-defined channels and gorges. The latter streams deeply carve the Cretaceous limestone of the Matera Horst for they represent the morphological response to the tectonic uplift of the area and clearly post-date the former features. Since the fluvial net took place on Pleistocene covers, later widely eroded, it is possible to conclude that the major part of the Matera Horst drainage system represents a good example of superimposition. However, low order streams and segments of major rivers appear to be structurally controlled, as suggested by comparison with the fracture system. Further, also open synclines and gently steeped flexures may locally exert a driving control on minor streams. These apparently conflicting genetic hypotheses can be explained by the role of exhumation of inherited structures of the bedrock in add to a constant interplay between tectonics, erosion and drainage evolution during Quaternary times. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]