Volcaniclastic key beds and megaturbidites in an early-Miocene turbidite system, Mt. Cervarola Fm. (northern Apennines)

Stratigraphy, correlation patterns, facies and discriminant compositional features of several submarine resedimented ash layers interbedded into the Mt. Cervarola Fm., a thick turbidite succession deposited in the early Miocene foredeep of the northern Apennines, are reported. Twelve Aquitanian-Burdigalian sections are described across a 75 km long belt, in the NW outcropping area of the Mt. Cervarola Fm. Using conglomerate megabeds as key beds, a physical correlation among almost all Cervarola ash layers is proposed. Mechanisms of deposition and soft-sediment deformation of these ash layers are discussed.