Calcareous plankton biostratigraphy and age of the Middle Miocene deposits of Longano Formation (eastern Matese Mountains, southern Apennines)

The integrated calcareous plankton biostratigraphy (planktonic foraminifera and calcareous nannofossils) and an accurate fieldwork, allowed us the reconstruction of the sedimentary evolution of the Longano Formation (Orbulina Marls). In particular the correlation between the bioevents recognised in the Orbulina Marls sequence and those recorded in astronomically calibrated Middle Miocene sections, offered the possibility to date the passage from the shallow-water Cusano Formation to the deep-water deposits of the Longano Formation at about 13.21 Ma and the successive onset of terrigenous deposits of the Pietraroia Formation at 10.54 Ma. In addition, an high resolution study of the terrigenous sequence, showed that this sedimentary event is not abrupt but it is characterised by a progressive increase, bed by bed, of the siliciclastic fraction up to the deposition of the sandstones. The recognition in all the studied sections of the base of the first Acme (AB1) of Paragloborotalia siakensis dated at 13.21 Ma, just above the phosphate-rich interval (this interval marks the transition between Cusano and Longano Formations), proved that the transgression which led to the deposition of the Orbulina Marls was synchronous in all the south-eastern Matese Mountains.