The cliff bordering the northwestern margin of the Mesima Basin (Southern Calabria) is of pleistocene age

Abstract

In Calabria (near the town of Vibo Valentia) marine deposits at the toe of a cliff, made up of granulitic gneiss, indicate the beginning of a strong uplift of faulted slope. This event involves the tectonic opening and morphological widening of fractures and voids by carbonate sediments (early Pleistocene). The scenario suggests the geomorphic evolution of a high rocky coast that is experiencing strong seismo-tectonic activity. Landslides and megabreccias also characterize the deposit together with many large sediment veins, made up of fossils, which cross cut both the basement gneiss and cliff gneiss. On the cliff front along ledges created by tectonic activity, there are occasional outcrops of small sandbanks or coarse fossil-rich carbonate banks.