Provenance and deposition of a lithified volcanic-rich layer (VRL-5.5) at 5.5 Ma from Central Apennines (Italy)

Two slightly lithified volcanic rich layers (VRL) (former tephra) SVT-2 (San Vittorino) and CAC (Castiglione a Casauria) were sampled from two distinct post-evaporitic Messinian stratigraphic sections (Abruzzo, Central Italy). They crop only few tens of km apart and are predominantly massive, although some specimens show sedimentary structures. Both VRLs were investigated for the first time by field, mesoscopic, X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD), transmission optical microscopy (TOM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), bulk composition, electron-microprobe analysis (EMPA) and quantitative textural attributes by image analysis. The XRPD analysis detects the presence of a glass phase, plus few (< 2 area %) magmatic-like feldspars, clinopyroxene and biotite and stratigraphically variable sedimentary minerals such as calcite, dolomite, illite and montmorillonite (from 0 to 40 area %). The 2D image analysis performed on SEM microphotographs reveals that both sections are composed of very fine glass shards, magmatic minerals are never isolated, whilst the carbonate crystals mainly fill voids among volcanic particles. Both these VRLs have identical rhyolitic glass compositions that closely overlap with those of previously-studied coeval and stratigraphically related sections occurring in the northern Apennine region and dated as 5.5 Ma. The 2D textural features of glassy particles (length, width, aspect ratio, grain-size distribution, M(Z) , σ(i), SK(i), K(G) and roundness) in both SVT-2 and CAC sections are very similar and also close to the northern section of Camporotondo (Marche region). The outcomes provided here indicate that SVT-2 and CAC sections represent the southernmost distal deposits of the same large eruption that occurred about 5.5 Ma (VRL-5.5). They result from distal fallout of tephra through seawater, occasionally remobilised under low energy and localised conditions, especially in the uppermost part of the CAC section. All the VRL-5.5 rocks are probably related to a very large eruption that occurred in the Carpathian-Pannonian magmatic district. The analytical protocols used in this study can be useful to investigate other ancient volcanic-rich layers, corresponding to lithified tephra.