Field Trip T1 – Messina Strait

Description

During the Early Pleistocene, the Messina Strait between Sicily and Calabria was a ca. 10-15-km-wide and 40-km-long, tide-dominated marine passageway, with a sedimentary dynamics analogous to its modern and narrower counterpart. Today, 250-m-thick strait-fill strata crop out on the two opposite margins of the modern strait, preserving the sedimentary record of a variety of processes and environments and their feedback with a dominant tidal dynamics.

During this 3-days-long field trip, attendances will be introduced to the complex tidal dynamics of tidal straits and the erosional/depositional phenomena resulting from tidal flow convergence/divergence and consequent tidal amplification. Participants will be familiarized with typical strait-center, strait-end and strait-margin facies and on the architectures of strait-axis tidal cross-strata complexes, well exposed in a number of easily-accessible sections.

During the visit at the various stops, direct linkages between the observed sedimentary facies and the modern tidal dynamics of the present-day Messina Strait will be constantly considered, aiming at promoting open-minded, critical discussions on the sedimentary dynamics of the ancient Messina passage.

Logistics

Participants are advised to spend the night of 29 April 2022 in one of the hotels around the Lamezia Terme Airport, so as to attend the meeting for the field trip kick-off  the early morning of the day after (30 April 2022). The Lamezia terme Airport offers advantageous domestic and international flights with some of the major Italian and European cities. Return on 2 May 2022 will be by car to Matera.

All outcrops are located around Villa S. Giovanni and Reggio Calabria, in hinterland areas linked by roads and connected with the A1 motorway. Stops are easily accessible in 5-10 minutes (walking), constantly close to populated zones and under constant phone coverage.

Number of participants

min 12 – max 25

Cost

400 Euros (inclusive of transport, accommodation, meals and material)5