Evolution of karst in Messinian gypsum (Monferrato, Northern Italy)

In the Tertiary Basin of Piedmont (Northern Italy) a 100-150 m thick Messinian sedimentary succession crops out, composed of pre-evaporitic clays, gypsum beds and post-evaporitic lacustrine-marine fine-grained sediments. In the Monferrato area the thickness of the evaporite sequence is highly variable (0-140 m) due to an important erosion surface formed at the end of the evaporite cycle and carved in the gypsum beds. Epigenic caves probably formed during this short intra-Messinian phase of emersion. Cave sediments contain benthonic and planctonic foraminiferal associations ranging in age from Burdigalian to Upper Pliocene. These sediments have probably been deposited in recent times, although it cannot be completely ruled out that they accumulated in caves developed in Upper Messinian times. The formation of the most important caves of this area probably started at the end of the Messinian under epigenic conditions. Possibly, those inherited caves enlarged slowly during the Quaternary in an intrastratal and confined hypogene karst system.