Ancient oceans and continental margins of the Alpine-Mediterranean Tethys: deciphering clues from...

Ancient oceans and continental margins of the Alpine-Mediterranean Tethys: deciphering clues from Mesozoic pelagicsediments and ophiolites

DANIEL BERNOULLI* and HUGH C. JENKYNS�*Geology Institute, University of Basel, Bernoullistrasse 32, CH-4056 Basel, Switzerland(E-mail: [email protected])�Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PR, UK

ABSTRACT

In contrast to Northern Europe where, in the 19th Century, a coherent

lithostratigraphy and biostratigraphy was established, many of the ‘odd rocks

of mountain belts’ (as christened by Alfred G. Fischer) of the Alpine-

Mediterranean region defied an easy interpretation in terms of the simple

English layer-cake stratigraphy mapped by William Smith. However, as early

as 1862, Eduard Suess recognized close affinities between Mesozoic faunas of

the Alps and those of the Himalaya. Suess also described many such Alpine

sedimentary rocks as pelagic (a term discussed by Antoine Lavoisier in the

context of sea-level change), and the results of the Challenger Expedition (1872

to 1876) convinced the Viennese school of geologists of their deep-water

nature. Based on the composition of Jurassic–Cretaceous faunas, Melchior

Neumayr postulated the existence of an equatorial ocean, the ‘Central

Mediterranean’ which extended from Central America through the Alpine

belt to the Himalaya and beyond, an ocean which Suess subsequently named

‘Tethys’. The question of whether or not deep-sea sediments could occur on

land, as deliberately posed by Gustav Steinmann in 1925, became central to the

long-lasting controversy on the permanency of continents and ocean basins.

Indeed, the occurrence of deep-sea deposits in mountain belts required the

disappearance of oceanic areas and a mobilist concept of orogeny that was

subsequently applied to the Tethyan region by Emile Argand in the wake of the

continental drift hypothesis of Alfred Wegener. Implicit in the views of

Wegener and Argand is the concept of an oceanic crust fundamentally

different from that of the continents. Although ophiolites had been recognized

as a special group of rocks in the early 19th Century, Steinmann was the first to

interpret the association of (serpentinized) peridotite, ‘diabase’ (dolerite–

basalt) and radiolarite (Steinmann Trinity) in a geodynamic context and to

consider it as characteristic of the deep ocean. The comparison of Alpine

radiolarites with Recent radiolarian oozes deposited below the calcite

compensation depth did not remain unchallenged, because of the local

association of these siliceous rocks with coarse clastic deposits. However, after

the advent of the turbidity-current hypothesis, these detrital deposits were

reinterpreted as submarine mass-flow deposits. Consequently, such typical

Tethyan facies as Rosso Ammonitico, Maiolica/Biancone and black shales,

found in close stratigraphical association with the radiolarites, could be

interpreted as deposited on deeply submerged continental and/or oceanic

crust where they recorded faithfully a range of interdependent

palaeoceanographic phenomena: changes in the relative proportion of

siliceous, carbonate and organic-walled biota, in carbonate saturation of sea

water, in oceanic circulation and in the impact of orbital-climatic cycles. The

Sedimentology (2009) 56, 149–190 doi: 10.1111/j.1365-3091.2008.01017.x

� 2009 The Authors. Journal compilation � 2009 International Association of Sedimentologists 149

results of the Deep Sea Drilling Project, with its discovery of typical Jurassic

and Cretaceous Tethyan facies in the Atlantic Ocean, dramatically confirmed

the early interpretations of European geologists of the 19th and early 20th

Centuries.

Keywords Alpine-Mediterranean region, Cretaceous, deep-sea pelagic sedi-ments, Jurassic, ophiolites, Tethys.

INTRODUCTION

In the late 18th Century, Giovanni Arduino (1760)enlarged the early lithological subdivision ofAntonio Lazzaro Moro (1740) into massive [igne-ous] (Monti primari) and layered [in the view ofMoro, volcanic] (Monti secondari) rocks intoOrdine primario, Ordine secondario and Ordineterziario. This classification, which Arduinoestablished mainly in the Southern Alps ofNorthern Italy, still survives in the French sub-division of the Phanerozoic into Ere primaire (i.e.Palaeozoic), Ere secondaire (i.e. Mesozoic) andEre tertiaire (i.e. Tertiary). The Ordine primario ofArduino consisted of micaceous schists and othermetamorphic rocks, without fossils, and granite,overlying still older primary rocks (roccia primi-genia); the Ordine secondario of bedded, fossilif-erous limestones overlying the Monti primari,and the Ordine terziario of limestone, sand andclay derived from the decay of the older rocks.The Ordine quarto finally included the sedimentsof the alluvial plains (Vaccari, 2006). However,because of the geological complexity of theMediterranean area, the development of a coher-ent Earth history was established only in North-ern Europe where Mesozoic and Cenozoic rockswere largely flat-lying and in predictable strati-graphical order as required by Steno’s (1669) lawof superposition and later illustrated, at the closeof the 18th Century, by the English geologicalmaps of William Smith (strata that Smith de-scribed as resembling ‘‘on a large scale, theordinary appearance of superposed slices of breadand butter’’: Phillips, 1844) and by Cuvier &Brongniart (1811).

Likewise, the stratigraphy of the Palaeozoiccould be deciphered in the external zones of theVariscan and Caledonian orogens where strati-graphical relationships were still preserved in arelatively coherent manner. By contrast, in theAlps and Apennines, only the Tertiary post-orogenic and foreland formations (Brocchi,1809, 1814; Lyell, 1833; see Cita, 2009) and part

of the Mesozoic limestones of the external zonesallowed recognition of a stratigraphic order,otherwise the ‘odd rocks of mountain belts’(Fischer, 1974) defied an easy interpretation interms of simple layer-cake stratigraphy. Further-more, during the 19th Century, it became appar-ent that many Alpine sediments were distinct interms of facies and fauna from those outside theAlps (Elie de Beaumont, 1828; Dufrenoy & Elie deBeaumont, 1848; Suess, 1875); and the difficultiesin establishing a reliable stratigraphy in theAlpine belt are reflected, for example, by thebitter controversies on the stages of the Triassicthat lasted into the late 19th Century (Mojsisovicset al., 1895; Bittner, 1896; see also Tozer, 1984).

The question of whether or not deep-sea sedi-ments could occur on land became central to thelong-lasting controversy on the permanency ofcontinents and ocean basins. Indeed, the occur-rence of deep-sea deposits in mountain belts(Molengraaf, 1900, 1909; Steinmann, 1905) re-quired the disappearance of oceanic areas and amobilist concept of orogeny as subsequentlyapplied to the Tethyan belt by Argand (1924a),in the wake of the continental drift hypothesis ofWegener (1912, 1915). In the following account,some of the controversies that developed aroundthe postulated occurrence of deep-sea deposits onland, particularly in mountain belts, are outlined.The question posed by Steinmann (1925) ‘‘Arethere ancient deep-sea deposits of geologicalsignificance?’’ is associated closely with thenotion of a Mesozoic ocean, the ‘Central Mediter-ranean’ of Melchior Neumayr (1885), the ‘Tethys’of Eduard Suess (1893) and the Alpine ‘geosyn-cline’ with its characteristic ophiolites (Stein-mann, 1905, 1927). Indeed, the close associationof ophiolites and radiolarian cherts with theirinferred deep-sea derivation, as recognized bySteinmann (1905, 1925), led Argand (1924a) andother Alpine authors to consider the Alpine‘geosyncline’ as a deep oceanic basin originallyhundreds or thousands of kilometres wide. Theseviews were, however, largely ignored, except by

150 D. Bernoulli and H. C. Jenkyns

� 2009 The Authors. Journal compilation � 2009 International Association of Sedimentologists, Sedimentology, 56, 149–190

Alpine geologists and those working elsewhere inthe Tethyan belt, in places such as Indonesia.Only the results of the American-financed DeepSea Drilling Project (DSDP), with its discovery oftypical Tethyan facies in the Atlantic Ocean in1970, together with the universal acceptance ofplate tectonics, dramatically confirmed the earlyinterpretations of European geologists of the 19thand early 20th Centuries. Table 1 summarises themost important steps in the historical evolution ofthese concepts.

THE PERMANENCE OF OCEANS AND THEBIRTH OF TETHYS

That the floor of the sea could turn into landbecame clear after the organic nature and themarine origin of fossils had been recognized, atleast from the days of Leonardo da Vinci (1452to 1519; see Morello, 2003). By the 18th Century,early oceanographers had begun to map the shelfbreak and explore the depths of the sea (Marsili,1725) and hence distinguish between littoral andpelagic (taken by 18th Century authors to mean‘pertaining to the open-sea’) deposits, in thecontext of migrating shorelines and sea-levelchange (Lavoisier, 1789; Fig. 1). However, geo-logists of the early 19th Century, working mainlyin epicontinental sedimentary successions,apparently assumed a priori that all sedimentsobservable on land were deposited near theedges of continents. Even the kilometres-thickPalaeozoic successions of the North AmericanAppalachians were deposited apparently inshallow water, which is entirely consistent withthe view that continents and deep oceans werepermanent throughout geological ages (Dana,1866, 1873). Indeed, to quote the prevailingview: ‘‘the framework of the continents wasdeveloped in pre-Cambrian time’’ (Chamberlin,1928).

Up to the 1950s, a large part of the non-European geological community still believed inthe antiquity of continents and oceans. This view,however, was called into question by: (i) thegeographical distribution of extinct biota thatseemingly required the former existence of intra-continental seaways and land bridges; and (ii) theoccurrence of oceanic sediments on land. Theseobservations, that emphasized vertical rather thanhorizontal displacements of the crust, werealready current among the 19th Century Vienneseschool of geologists, the founder and most influ-ential of which was Eduard Suess (Fig. 2).

The Central Mediterranean of MelchiorNeumayr

A first attempt to map the former distribution ofland and sea and of biogeographic provinces on aglobal scale was made by Jules Marcou (1860).This map for the Jurassic Period (Fig. 3) shows alarge American–African–Australian continentand seaways with a number of different biogeo-graphical provinces (zones homoiozoıques),including Normando-Burgundian (which in-cluded Britain, Germany and Switzerland), His-pano-Alpine, Himalayan and five others. A keypoint, as developed by Neumayr (1883) (Fig. 4),was the difference between Jurassic and LowerCretaceous facies and faunas in the Alps andthose in Northern Europe. Interestingly, theboundaries between the Mediterranean and non-Mediterranean faunas closely follow the loop ofthe Alpine Orogen in Europe; departures fromthis configuration may be explained by the exis-tence of intermediate crustal blocks, derived fromsmaller lithospheric fragments that drifted awayfrom Europe and attached themselves to thesouthern margin of Tethys (Voros, 1977).

Neumayr (1885, 1887b) named this peri-equa-torial ocean ‘Centrales Mittelmeer’ (Central Med-iterranean) which, during Jurassic and EarlyCretaceous time, was depicted as extending fromCentral America and the Caribbean across theAlpine-Mediterranean to the Himalaya: Alpine-type faunas had been found in India severaldecades earlier (Suess, 1862; Stoliczka, 1866).This ocean was bounded to the north by theNearctic continent and to the south by theBrazilian-Ethiopian and Sino-Australian landmasses; a southerly directed seaway stretchedfrom India to Mozambique and Madagascar,corresponding to the Jurassic Somalia Basin(Fig. 5). Subsequent discoveries, not only in theHimalaya but also as far afield as Timor and Rottiin the East Indies (Rothpletz, 1891, 1892), impliedthat this ocean had effectively girdled the Earth(Fig. 6). In the second volume of the monumentalwork ‘Das Antlitz der Erde’ Suess (1888) followedNeumayr (1885, 1887b) in referring to the east–west seaway connecting the Alpine region withthe Himalayas as the ‘Central Mediterranean’.The name of this seaway was, however, about tochange.

The Tethys of Eduard Suess

In 1893 Suess, at the invitation of the editor of theBritish journal Natural Science, was offered the

Pelagic sediments and ophiolites of Tethys 151


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opportunity to present his views on ‘that muchdebated question, the Permanence of OceanBasins’. Although Suess wrote that he was‘‘rather at a loss how to deal with the subject’’,he did not hesitate in expressing a dynamicconcept of non-permanence. After contrasting thecircum-Pacific mountain belts with the coasts ofthe Atlantic and the Indian Ocean: ‘‘These arewhat we may call the Pacific and Atlantic types ofoceanic regions’’ (see also Suess, 1883), Suesscorrelated geological formations across theoceans, the Old Red Sandstone across the Atlan-tic Ocean, the Karoo across the Indian Ocean andthe Pliocene across the deep parts of the Aegean,in order to demonstrate the present-day separa-tion of geological units once connected. Suessthen referred to ‘‘the great ocean which oncestretched across Eurasia’’ whose ‘‘folded and

crumpled deposits stand forth to heaven inThibet, Himalaya and the Alps. This ocean wedesignate by the name ‘Tethys’ after the sister andthe consort of Oceanus’’. Suess then cited thethicknesses of the Cambrian to Cretaceous sectionof the Himalaya (up to 14 000 feet) ‘‘show[ing]that a great and deep ocean has been incorporatedinto the continent’’. Suess also referred to bothdeep-water radiolarian chert and to extensiveshallow-water reefs in the former ocean. There isalso a clear emphasis of horizontal movements inmountain building when Suess wrote ‘‘how theimmense Asiatic mountain waves, moving south-ward against the Peninsula have been dammedback by the resistant Peninsular mass…the ‘Vor-land’’’. Admittedly, however, he mainly referredto vertical movements to explain the origin ofoceans.

Fig. 1. Profile of the coast of Normandy with the Upper Cretaceous Chalk, by Antoine Lavoisier (1789, his Plate vi).Marine erosion produces the littoral deposits that, with decreasing grain-size, pass into calcareous pelagic sedimentsthat are the product of organisms (ouvrage des etres vivants) and were deposited at ‘great depth’. Sea-level changesproduce sedimentary cycles with clastic deposits formed during sea-level fall (Bancs Littoraux superieures formes ala Mer descendante) and rise (Bancs Littoraux inferieurs formes a la Mer montante) and calcareous deposits duringhighstands. Lavoisier correctly identified the Chalk (Bancs Pelagiens Calcaires horizontaux inferieurs) as a pelagicsediment, although he apparently interpreted the chert nodules (flints) as pebbles (Craye avec cailloux). With thenotion of a lateral passage from clastic to pelagic rocks Lavoisier anticipated the Gressly (1838 to 1841) concept offacies and, with his concept of cyclic sedimentation reflecting changing sea-level, he introduced the fundamentals ofsequence stratigraphy ‘avant la lettre’. Lavoisier also indicated clearly an erosional unconformity at the base of thelow-stand deposits and between the horizontally bedded sediments and ‘l’ancienne terre’ that, however, he sus-pected to represent older littoral deposits and not ‘la terre primitive’. For an English translation of the memoir ofLavoisier, see Carozzi (1965).



Suess did not refer to the Central Mediterra-nean of Neumayr (1885) in his 1893 article, butlater, in the third volume of his monumentalwork Das Antlitz der Erde, included it in hisconcept of Tethys (Suess, 1901). In 1893 Suessreferred to a ‘‘Palaeozoic, Mesozoic and Tertiaryocean in south-western Eurasia’’ of which thepresent-day Mediterranean was only the ‘‘latestsuccessor’’. Clearly, in the view of Suess, Tethyswas not a permanent ocean but continuallychanged its extent during Earth history. In theTriassic, it certainly did not include the westernreaches of the Central Mediterranean of Neumayrbecause marine deposits of the requisite age werelacking along the shores of the Central Atlanticand on the African continent. Mojsisovics et al.(1895) would therefore write: ‘‘On the basis of ourreview of the pelagic sediments of the Triassic,we follow Suess [1888] in concluding that duringthe Triassic Epoch the Atlantic Ocean, at least inits present configuration, did not yet exist, thatfurthermore the Thetys [note variable spelling]was also bordered to the south by a large conti-nent, and that the Mediterranean was not adependency of the Atlantic Ocean but ratherformed an integral part of that ancient, now

Fig. 2. Eduard Suess (1831 to 1914), aged about38 years. At this time, Suess was engaged actively inAlpine research. From Suess (1916).

Fig. 3. An early reconstruction of Jurassic palaeogeography, showing the distribution of oceans and continents andbiogeographic provinces. The existence of an equatorial ocean, stretching from Western Europe to the Himalaya andbeyond, is clearly visible. From Marcou (1860).



vanished sea’’ (Jenkyns, 1980). Indeed, Suess(1888) had written ‘‘that by an enlargement of thislatitudinal Central Mediterranean in later timesthe Atlantic may have been progressively gener-ated’’ which is in perfect agreement with plate-tectonic reconstructions (Ricou, 1994) (Fig. 7).

Although Suess (1893) spoke of a ‘‘Palaeozoic,Mesozoic and Tertiary ocean in south-westernEurasia’’, he apparently understood the Tethys(and the Central Mediterranean) essentially as aMesozoic phenomenon (Sengor, 1998). TheseProtean transmutations of Tethys through geo-logical time, paralleled by the many differentways of spelling (Jenkyns, 1980; Tozer, 1988),were probably the reason why so many differentconcepts of Tethys were developed: the seawaycould be defined in terms of characteristic bio-geography, climate, facies, palaeogeography andcrustal configuration operative for different peri-ods of geological time. Turning back to Suess(1901): ‘‘Present-day Asia originated from thedisappearance of Tethys and through the fusionof the ancient Angara continent with the Indian

fragments of the Gondwana Continent’’, an inter-pretation that appears remarkably prescient.Since these seminal studies of Suess, differentsutures of Palaeozoic and Mesozoic oceans havebeen identified between Eurasia and the differentnorth-drifting fragments of Gondwana, so it mightbe truly asked: ‘How many wives did Okeanoshave?’ (Sengor, 1985). Today, a plethora of plate-tectonic models for the different branches ofTethys exists (Smith, 1971; Dewey et al., 1973;Biju-Duval et al., 1977; Laubscher & Bernoulli,1977; Dercourt et al., 1986, 1993; Ricou, 1994;Sengor, 1998; Stampfli & Borel, 2002), each withits own strengths and weaknesses.

RECENT DEEP-SEA DEPOSITS ANDPELAGIC SEDIMENTS IN TETHYS

H.M.S. Cyclops and Karl Wilhelm von Gumbel

Although the Challenger Expedition (1872 to1876) is generally credited with founding thescience of oceanography, H.M.S. Challenger wasnot the first ship to retrieve significant materialfrom the deep-sea floor. A number of soundingstaken in the 1840s and 1850s from the AegeanSea, the Bering Sea, the Atlantic Ocean and thesouthern oceans recovered sea floor sediment thatwas investigated for its microscopic components,yielding diatoms, foraminifera, pteropods, radio-larians, sponge spicules and volcanic grains(Ehrenberg, 1854a; Bailey, 1856, 1857). The linedrawings by Ehrenberg of Atlantic deep-sea(�3290 m) foraminiferal ooze, which he consid-ered to resemble chalk, are illustrated in Fig. 8. In1857, H.M.S. Cyclops sampled the bottom of thesea where the first Atlantic telegraph cable wasdue to be laid (across the so-called TelegraphPlateau, now recognized as part of the mid-Atlantic Ridge: Table 1) and the calcareous mudrecovered was sent to Thomas Henry Huxley(Fig. 9A) for examination. In this material, Hux-ley found tiny concentric calcareous bodies thathe termed ‘coccoliths’ (Dayman, 1858; Huxley,1868). In all likelihood, it was samples of thismud that were sent, by Huxley, to the Bavariangeologist Karl Wilhelm von Gumbel whosedescriptions were published in the first and thirdvolumes of the journal Nature (Gumbel, 1870a,b;Fig. 10). As well as coccoliths, Gumbel recordeddiatoms, radiolarians, sponge spicules, foramini-fera, dominantly Globigerina, ostracods and acertain amount of lithogenous material: he notedparenthetically that the siliceous skeletons were a

Fig. 4. Melchior Neumayr (1845 to 1890).



Fig. 6. The relics of the ‘Central Mediterranean’ of Neumayr including the oldest parts of the Central Atlantic, theSomalia Basin (the ‘Ethiopian Mediterranean’ of Neumayr) and the Mesozoic ophiolites of the Alpine–Himalayanbelt.

Fig. 5. The ‘Central Mediterranean’ (Centrales Mittelmeer) of Melchior Neumayr (1885, 1887b). From Neumayr(1887b).



likely source of silica for flints in chalk and thatcoccoliths also occur in the ‘soft marls of theJurassic and Liassic formations’ (Gumbel, 1870b).Gumbel agreed with Huxley (1868) that cocco-liths were of biological origin, in contrast toEhrenberg who had observed them avant la lettrein the North European Chalk (Ehrenberg, 1836)but thought that they were aggregates resultingfrom the coalescence and cementation of tiny‘inorganic’ crystallites that derived from thedecay of microscopic calcareous organisms (Eh-renberg, 1839). Gumbel (1870b) also commented,with respect to coccoliths, on ‘‘their astonishinglywide distribution and their vast numbers, whichstamp them as one of the most essential membersof rock-forming substances’’.

Gumbel (1861) was also familiar with thesedimentary rocks exposed in the Eastern Alpsand his early descriptions of the Lower Jurassicred limestones cropping out near Salzburg men-tion the occurrence of iron–manganese nodulesand crusts: this record predates the discoveryof Recent equivalents by more than a decade(Jenkyns, 1977; Figs 11A, B and 12). After thediscovery, in the Atlantic Ocean, of manganese-rich grains, pellets, crusts and nodules by theChallenger Expedition in 1873, Gumbel was ableto compare them with the Jurassic examplesdescribed previously (Gumbel, 1878). Thereseems little doubt that Gumbel viewed the red

limestones of the Eastern Alps as pelagic sedi-ments analogous to those in the deep sea(Figs 11A, B and 12).

The Challenger Expedition

With the Challenger Expedition came a system-atic study and classification of Recent oceanicdeposits (Thomson, 1874; Murray, 1876; Murrayand Renard, 1884, 1891; Fig. 9B, C and D): thepteropod, Globigerina, diatom and radiolarianoozes, the abyssal red clay and various types ofhemipelagic grey, green and blue muds beingmapped and documented in detail for the firsttime (Fig. 13). Over the same period (1875) aGerman deep-sea expedition on board the S.M.S.Gazelle took place and, during this vessel’s returnvoyage to Europe, the two scientific crews met inMontevideo and samples were exchanged (Pfann-enstiel, 1970). It was Gumbel (1888) who de-scribed the deep-sea sediment samples of theGazelle Expedition.

The distribution of Recent sediments on theocean floor revealed the general decrease inpercentage carbonate with water depth. ‘‘Weconclude, therefore, that the ‘red clay’ is not anadditional substance introduced from with-out…but that it is produced by the removal…ofthe carbonate of lime which forms probably about98 per cent of the material of the Globigerina-

Fig. 7. Triassic palaeogeography of the Atlantic–Tethyan area, after Ricou (1994), modified.



ooze. We can trace, indeed, every successive stagein the removal of the carbonate of lime indescending the slope of the ridge or plateauwhere the Globigerina-ooze is forming, to theregion of the clay. We find, first, that the shells of[aragonitic] pteropods and other surface Mollusca,which are constantly falling on the bottom, areabsent’’ and that ‘‘the smaller foraminifera nowgive way…’’ and that ‘‘the coccoliths first losetheir thin outer border and then disappear…’’ andfinally: ‘‘In the mean time, the proportion of theamorphous ‘red clay’ to the calcareous elementsof all kinds, increases, until the latter disappear,with the exception of a few scattered shells of thelarger Foraminifera…’’ (Thomson, 1874; Fig. 14).Carbonate-free siliceous oozes and red clay,assumed to derive from planktonic skeletal mate-rial and in situ weathering products of volcanicmaterial, became the deep-sea sediments par

excellence: essentially an insoluble residue thataccumulated below the calcite compensationdepth (CCD), a term coined much later by Bram-lette (1961). In addition, the Challenger Expedi-tion found other essential ingredients of deep-seasediments such as pumice and volcanic ashes,sharks’ teeth, whalebones, iron–manganese nod-ules (Figs 11 and 12), phosphatic concretions andcosmic spherules (Murray & Renard, 1891). Forthe origin of the ferromanganese nodules andencrustations the different authors suggestedprocesses which are still considered today (Bo-natti, 1981): (i) leaching of the metals by sub-marine weathering (halmyrolysis) of basalt(Murray in Murray & Renard, 1891); (ii) ‘hydrog-enous’ precipitation from sea water (Renard inMurray & Renard, 1891); and (iii) ‘precipitationfrom submarine springs’, i.e. hydrothermal activ-ity (Gumbel, 1878; see Berger, 1986).

Fig. 8. The constituents of an Atlantic deep-sea carbonate ooze (dominantly foraminifera with diatoms, radiolaria,silicoflagellates, sponge spicules and other biota), as illustrated by Ehrenberg (1854a). The material was described as‘a fine chalky substance, rather yellow’ by Lieutenant Ottway Henry Berryman, who collected it on the US vesselDolphin in 1853 from a depth of �3290 m (Ehrenberg, 1854b). The samples were sent to Ehrenberg by MatthewFontaine Maury. Circular field of view ·55; individual microfossils ·165.



Deep-sea red limestones of the Alps andApennines

Manifestly, the results of the Challenger Expedi-tion influenced the Viennese school of geologistsin their deep-water interpretation of certainAlpine carbonate facies, the most significant ofwhich were the locally manganese-rich nodularred limestones of Triassic (Hallstatterkalk) and

Jurassic (Adneterkalk) age. Exact equivalents ofthese sediments were recognized in the Balkanpeninsula (e.g. Triassic Han Bulog Limestone;Fig. 15) and Italy (Jurassic Rosso Ammonitico: aterm coined by De Zigno, 1850; Fig. 11E). In apioneering palaeoceanographic paper, TheodorFuchs (1877), aware of the Challenger results andthus of the progressive and differential dissolu-tion of calcareous remains with depth, postulated

A

C D

B

Fig. 9. The protagonists of the Cyclops and Challenger Expeditions. (A) Thomas Henry Huxley (1825 to 1895). (B) SirCharles Wyville Thomson (1830 to 1882). (C) Sir John Murray (1841 to 1914). (D) Alphonse Francois Renard (1842 to1903); from Anonymous (1897).



that the Aptychus Limestone (equivalent to theMaiolica, Fig. 11F) of the Alpine Jurassic andCretaceous, that lacked aragonitic phragmocones,was deposited at a greater depth than ammonite-bearing facies such as the Adneterkalk and itsequivalents (Fig. 11C and D). In a subsequentpaper, Fuchs reviewed the state of knowledge ofrecent marine environments, including theresults of several dredging expeditions (Fuchs,1883): he clearly distinguished between shallow-water and deep-water coral reefs, mentionedredeposited coral rubble down to 1000 fathomsand, like Gumbel (1870a, 1870b), interpreted theflints of the English chalk as concentrations ofbiogenic silica. Fuchs questioned the occurrenceof land plants and fossil wood as indications ofshallow or brackish water and interpreted, fol-lowing Nathorst (1881), fucoids of Chondrites-type as typical deep-water trace fossils. Thesefossils had been interpreted previously as theremnants of brown algae, an interpretation stilladhered to by Steinmann (1927). Last but notleast, Fuchs argued for a deep-water origin of theflysch (Fuchs, 1883). Neumayr (1885) finallyestimated the depth of deposition of Alpine

deep-sea sediments at more than 2000 fathoms.Specifically, in a treatise on Earth History, Erd-geschichte, Neumayr (1887a) suggested that thered pelagic limestones of the Alpine Triassic andJurassic had been deposited between the present-day accumulation level of Globigerina Ooze andRed Clay and followed Gumbel in suggesting thatJurassic Alpine manganese nodules signifiedgreat depth. Neumayr pointedly noted thatJohn Murray of the Challenger Expedition couldfind present-day deep-sea counterparts for manyAlpine sedimentary rocks (Neumayr, 1887a;Jenkyns & Hsu, 1974).

Broadly similar interpretations were made byWahner (1891). Publishing in the same year thatthe volume on deep-sea deposits of the Challengerreports finally appeared, Wahner reviewed thenature of Recent pelagic sediments and once againstressed their similarities to the Alpine Triassic–Jurassic red limestones, which he placed palaeo-bathymetrically between the Globigerina oozeand the red deep-sea clay (Wahner, 1886). Of noteis Wahner’s observation that ammonites werebetter preserved on their undersides where theyhad lain in the deep-sea ooze than on their upperside where dissolution had taken its toll becausesedimentation rates were so low. Such observa-tions, with identical interpretation, have remainedin the literature (Wendt, 1970; Schlager, 1974).

Are radiolarites deep-sea sediments?

Radiolarian cherts, interpreted by Suess (1875) andFuchs (1883) as the equivalents of Recent radiolar-ian ooze, were fundamental to the question ofwhether true deep-sea sediments could occur onland (Steinmann, 1925), a question that, of course,had serious tectonic implications. Because thepresence of abyssal sediments on land under-mined the concept of the permanency of oceans,the interpretation of radiolarites as deep-waterdeposits, championed by Alpine geologists, wasrejected by many prominent scientists of the time,including Johannes Walther (1897) and, ulti-mately, John Murray himself (quoted by Stein-mann, 1905). Murray’s change of heart from theviews expressed to Neumayr (1887a, p. 364) isillustrated by the following comments: ‘‘It seemsdoubtful if the deposits of the abysmal areas havein the past taken any part in the formation of theexisting continental masses’’ and ‘‘with somedoubtful exceptions it has been impossible torecognize in the rocks of the continents formationsidentical with these pelagic deposits’’ (Murray &Renard, 1891). This controversy was expressed

Fig. 10. Karl Wilhelm von Gumbel (1823 to 1898);from Ammon (1899).



A B

E F

C

D

Fig. 11. (A) Field of ferromanganese nodules from the middle Jurassic Rosso Ammonitico Inferiore, Cima Campo diLuserna, Southern Alps, Northern Italy. Individual nodules are about 2 cm across. (B) Field of ferromanganesenodules from the Pacific Ocean, 5292 m water depth, from Heezen & Hollister (1971, fig. 10-10). Nodules are typicallyseveral centimetres in diameter. (C) and (D) Pelagic nodular marly limestones: (C) from the Central Atlantic, LowerJurassic, Deep Sea Dilling Project, Leg 79, Core 547B-10-3, 75–92 cm; (D) from the Lower Jurassic Rosso AmmoniticoFormation, Ionian zone, Kouklessi, Western Greece. Hammer is 33 cm long. (E) Red, nodular pelagic limestone withmoulds of ammonite phragmocones, deposited above the aragonite compensation depth, Upper Jurassic, SouthernAlps, Italy. Diameter of coin: 20 mm. (F) White pelagic limestone of Maiolica facies with Aptychi, lacking the mouldsof aragonitic ammonite phragmocones and deposited below the aragonite compensation depth, Upper Jurassic,Devoluy, Western Alps, France. Diameter of coin: 20 mm.



elegantly by Nicholson, Regius Professor of Natu-ral History at the University of Aberdeen in anaddress on recent progress in palaeontology for theyear 1890: ‘‘An interesting point in connectionwith the Radiolarian hornstones of the Mesozoicperiod…is that these deposits seem to be clearlyancient representatives of the modern ‘Radiolarianooze’ of the deep sea. If this point be admitted…itcannot be asserted that no deposits similar to thedeep-sea oozes of the present day are to be recog-nized among the stratified rocks which composethe greater part of the earth’s crust. This admissionwill necessarily have an important bearing uponthe modern theory that the present continentalareas have been in the main areas of elevation andthe existing oceans in the main areas of depression,since the beginning of the Cambrian period, if notfrom still earlier times’’ (Nicholson, 1890).

The longevity of the legacy of Murray and ofWalther is reflected by the statement in the classictextbook by Twenhofel (1932) that equally con-forms with the dogma of permanence of oceansand continents: ‘‘It is not certain that sedimentsdeposited in the bathyal environment are presentin the exposed geological column, but it is notunlikely that some parts of the shallower parts ofthat environment have been elevated above sealevel’’. However, Twenhofel also cites the DanauFormation of Molengraaf (1909, 1915) as a possi-ble deep-sea deposit and mentions, reluctantly,the doubtful exceptions of Murray (Barbados,

Malta). In 1950, Twenhofel still maintained that‘‘evidence [for the deep-sea origin of radiolariancherts] comes a long way from being convincing,as everyone of the characters named may befound in shallow-water deposits’’.

In spite of the verdict of Murray and Walther,Steinmann (1890, 1905, 1925, 1927) (Fig. 16) andMolengraaf (1915) continued to interpret theradiolarites and associated claystones as ancientequivalents of the radiolarian oozes and red deep-sea clays of modern oceans. In the Austroalpinenappes of Graubunden (Switzerland) – the prin-cipal field area of Steinmann – the radiolarites areunderlain directly by coarse breccias and sand-stones (Saluver Formation; Fig. 17A); and locallythere are coarse breccias with a radiolarite matrix(Fig. 17B). The close association of the radio-larites with these seemingly ‘transgressive’ brec-cias and sandstones was to cast serious doubt onthe deep-sea interpretation because such clasticdeposits were considered generally to be ofcontinental, beach or shelf-sea origin (Cadischet al., 1919; Grunau, 1947). Radiolarites thereforewere considered by many authors to be, at least inpart, of shallow-water character (Grunau, 1947;see discussion in Cornelius, 1951). Steinmann(1925) solved the problem in his own way: heclaimed that the (sedimentary) Maran Breccia andthe breccias of the Saluver Formation were theproducts of tectonic fracturing during Alpineorogeny.

A B 1 cm

1 cm

Fig. 12. (A) ‘‘Section of a nodule from the South Pacific… In the centre there is a light-coloured nucleus, probably ofvolcanic origin, surrounded by layers which are denser and blacker than usual. The outer surface is extremelyirregular. Station 289, 2550 fathoms. South Pacific.’’ From Murray & Renard (1891, plate iii, fig. 7). (B) Ferroman-ganese nodule in condensed middle Jurassic pelagic limestone. Rocca Argenteria, Sicily.



A

B

Fig. 13. Distribution of modern oceanic sediments according to (A) Murray & Renard (1894) and (B) Davies &Gorsline (1976). On the map of Murray & Renard, the belt of Antarctic siliceous (diatom) oozes, the mid-Atlanticridge with its calcareous (coccolith) oozes and the large areas of deep-sea clays in the Pacific are represented clearly.Less pronounced are the other segments of the global ocean-ridge system. The different shades of grey on the Murray& Renard map indicate the bathymetry.



However, a few Alpine geologists were aware ofthe occurrence of deep-sea sands and gravelderived from the continent (Heim, 1924; Fig. 18).A year earlier than Steinmann (1925), Heim (1924)(cited by Steinmann, 1925) had also interpreted thevery same Maran Breccia correctly as a sedimen-tary deep-water deposit related to submarinetectonic movements. Heim was also aware of thelarge submarine areas of non-deposition (=omis-sion, a term introduced by Heim (1924)) in modernoceans, of submarine erosion, stratigraphical con-densation, mineralization and the formation ofhardgrounds. Heim also pointed out that, in thecase of platform drowning, Walther’s (1893/94)law of succession of facies would not be valid(Heim, 1924; cf. Schlager, 1989) and consequentlyexplained the observed ‘transgression’ of the radi-olarites on the shallow-water dolomites (NorianHauptdolomit) as a submarine unconformity re-lated to Jurassic tectonics (Fig. 19). Because, at thistime, the Argand (1916) concept of embryonicnappes prevailed, Heim considered compressionalrather than extensional movements to be moresignificant, although the reverse was later shown tobe the case, the context being that of a riftingcontinental margin (Bernoulli & Jenkyns, 1974;

Bernoulli et al., 1979b). In large part, the publica-tion by Heim (1924) was a brilliant exercise on thepalaeoceanography of Alpine sediments, writtendecades before its time. It was, however, as Heim(1958) wistfully observed many years later (in apaper written in English rather than in German),largely ignored, even by Alpine geologists.

After the advent of the turbidity-current hypo-thesis (Kuenen & Migliorini, 1950), the brecciasand sandstones associated with radiolarites couldbe reinterpreted as submarine mass-flow deposits(Schlager & Schlager, 1973; Trumpy, 1975; Finger,1978; Fig. 17). A similar conclusion was reachedindependently by Bailey & McCallien (1953), whosuspected that the sandstones locally associatedwith the sedimentary rocks of the SteinmannTrinity were redeposited in deep water by ‘turbid-ity transport’, or, as Arnold Heim remarked in1958: ‘‘certainly, the sandstone and breccia does

Fig. 14. Distribution of pelagic sediments in relation to depth; after Murray & Hjort (1912).

Fig. 15. Red stratigraphically condensed limestonewith ammonites coated by ferromanganese oxyhy-droxides. Middle Triassic Asklipion (Han Bulog)Limestone, Theokafta, Argolis, Greece. Diameter ofcoin: 20 mm.

1901

Gustav SteinmannFig. 16. Gustav Steinmann (1856 to 1927); from Wil-ckens (1930).



not prove a neritic origin of the chert series, but incontrary, the radiolarian chert proves the abyssaldeposit of the sandstone’’.

White and pink pelagic limestones

Although many workers discussed the palaeo-bathymetric significance of red ammonite-bearinglimestones, the uppermost Jurassic and LowerCretaceous light-coloured fine-grained limestonesthat follow higher in the succession attracted lessattention. These sediments have been variouslycalled Maiolica or Biancone in the Southern Alps:terms dating back to at least the early 19thCentury (Dal Piaz & Trevisan, 1956) and used ina loose way already by Arduino (Vaccari, 2006).These sediments probably constitute one of themost widely distributed Tethyan facies and canbe identified along most of the Central Mediter-ranean of Neumayr (1885) between the East andWest Indies (Colom, 1955, fig. 2; Wieczorek, 1988;Figs 11F and 20).

Arnold Heim, who in 1909 visited Murray inEdinburgh and studied the Challenger material,equated the pink Alpine Cretaceous pelagiclimestones with planktonic foraminifera (e.g.Couches rouges of the Western Alps, Scaglialimestones of the Southern Alps and Apennines,Alvarez, 2009) with Recent Globigerina ooze(Heim, 1924; Fig. 21). However, Heim noted thatthe tests of planktonic foraminifera made up onlypart of the Globigerina ooze and that most of thesediment was constituted by fine carbonate mud.

A

2 cm

B

Fig. 17. (A) Coarse mass-flow breccia of the SaluverFormation (lower part of Middle Jurassic). Spelm Ravu-lainas, Austroalpine Samedan zone, Graubunden, Swit-zerland. These breccias, interpreted in the 1920s as‘transgressive’ or shallow-water deposits, were to castdoubt on the deep-water interpretation of the overlyingradiolarites as proposed by Steinmann (1905, 1927).Hammer is 33 cm long. (B) Crudely graded dolomitebreccia with a radiolarite matrix, overlying radiolaritewith starved ripple of dolomite arenite. The dolomiteclasts are composed of Triassic material, presumablyderived from an active submarine fault scarp. RadiolariteFormation, Middle to Upper Jurassic, AustroalpineS’charl nappe,Piz Lischanna, Graubunden, Switzerland.

Fig. 18. Arnold Heim (1882 to 1965) in the Himalaya(1936); photograph by Augusto Gansser.



Heim thought that this fine carbonate mud, likedolomite, was a primary chemical precipitate.According to Heim, limestones therefore wereprecipitated under delicate equilibrium condi-tions and limestones with chert nodules weretypical of intermediate water depth (2000 to4000 m). Steinmann (1925) also assigned suchcalcareous sediments to an abyssal environment;however, he questioned their inorganic originbecause, under high magnification, he observedthe matrix to be composed of coccoliths.Steinmann explained the difference betweenmodern coccolith ooze and the hard Maiolicalimestones by assuming diagenetic cementationof the latter by tiny spherical calcite aggregatesand still smaller calcite crystals. Steinmann esti-mated the depositional depth of the Maiolicaat 3000 to 4000 m, its depositional area in theAlps and Apennines at between 120 000 and

500 000 km2 or more and, therefore, calls it ‘‘anormal deposit of a true ocean, in no way formedunder special circumstances’’.

Together with the Maiolica-type limestones,Steinmann (1925) described dark shales withnodules and layers of dark limestones that containoccasional radiolarians and calpionellids. FromSteinmann’s excellent descriptions it is easy toidentify this formation with the Argille a Palom-bini of the Italian authors. Steinmann mistakenlythought that it was of Early and Middle Liassic agebut accurately compared it with the hemipelagic‘Blue Mud’ of the oceans. Today this LowerCretaceous formation is attributed to the oceanicsequence overlying the Jurassic ocean floor of theLigurian Apennines and the South-Penninenappes of the Alps (Decandia & Elter, 1972;Bernoulli & Jenkyns, 1974; Weissert & Bernoulli,1985).

A

C

B

Fig. 19. (A) Submarine hardground between Upper Triassic shallow-water limestone (a, Dachstein Limestone), below,and red pelagic limestone with ferromanganese-coated ammonite shells (b, Middle Jurassic), above. The top of theDachstein Limestone is brecciated and contains fragments, nodules and ‘small ooids’ of ‘manganese ore’ and clasts ofthe overlying red limestone. (c) is red radiolarian chert of Late Jurassic age. From Heim (1924). (B) Radiolarian chert(Middle to Upper Jurassic, left) overlying about 25 cm of red pelagic limestone (Jurassic) which, in turn, overlies theUpper Triassic Hauptdolomite with a stratigraphic gap. Lower Austroalpine Tschirpen nappe, Tschirpen, Graubunden,Switzerland. Hammer is 33 cm long. (C) Scheme of the ‘transgression’ of the Radiolarite Formation in Graubunden; aftera sketch by J. Cadisch. From Heim (1924). K: crystalline basement; D: Hauptdolomit [Upper Triassic]; L: Liassic brecciasand shales; A: Aptychus Limestone; R: Radiolarian Chert (Malm); B: Maran Breccia. Caption translated from Heim(1924). The small section illustrated in panel (B) corresponds to the stratigraphical configuration at Urdenfurkeli inthe profile (C), in which Heim interprets the ‘transgression’ of the radiolarian cherts as a submarine hiatus.



Black shales

In 1891 Guido Bonarelli (Fig. 22), while still astudent at Rome University, published a paperon the geology of the region of Gubbio in theCentral Apennines of Italy where several river-cut gorges expose the Cretaceous pink andwhite pelagic limestones of the Scaglia (Bonar-elli, 1891). From the Bottaccione Gorge (later toachieve notoriety for geochemical studies onstrata at the Cretaceous–Tertiary boundary;Alvarez, 2009) Bonarelli recorded a level ofblack organic-rich shale (uno strato di scistonero bituminoso), about 1 m thick, close to theboundary of the Cenomanian and Turonianstages of the Late Cretaceous (Fig. 23). It is thisunit, which today bears his name (LivelloBonarelli), that has proven to represent a pheno-menon of accelerated marine organic-carbonburial on a global scale: a so-called OceanicAnoxic Event, characterized by enhancedorganic productivity and widespread develop-ment of anoxic water masses in oceans andshelf seas (Schlanger & Jenkyns, 1976).Although Oceanic Anoxic Events, of varyingsignificance in terms of their sedimentaryrecord, have proven to characterize a numberof intervals in the Cretaceous, there is but onewell-documented occurrence in the Jurassic:that of the early Toarcian (Jenkyns, 1985,

1988). Given that recognition of an OceanicAnoxic Event relies on the occurrence of coevalblack shales across the globe, the discussion byDal Piaz (1907) of Toarcian organic-rich faciesin pelagic deposits of the Southern Alps of Italyis remarkably prescient. For Dal Piaz noted that,although somewhat patchily distributed in theMediterranean area, coeval organic-rich depositswere developed much more widely elsewhere, aclear reference to the Posidonienschiefer ofGermany and its equivalents in England andFrance (Fig. 24). Dal Piaz’s recognition thatcertain time intervals in geological history couldrecord significant environmental change isessentially modern. A few years later, Renz(1910) equally recorded Posidonienschiefer, sim-ilar to that found in Swabia, in the LowerJurassic pelagic sediments of Epirus and Corfu,Greece.

In the 1970s, the Deep Sea Drilling Project,which cored Jurassic red nodular limestones,Cretaceous white coccolith oozes and blackshales of identical facies to those in the Alpsand Apennines on both sides of the CentralAtlantic, demonstrated that the palaeobathy-metric interpretations of Arnold Heim (1924)and Gustav Steinmann (1925) were correct. Therecord of Cretaceous black shales is now knownto extend deep into the ocean basins, not only theAtlantic but the Pacific and Indian Oceans as well

A B

Fig. 20. White pelagic coccolith-rich ooze and limestone of Maiolica facies: (A) Nannoplankton ooze to chalk withnodule of lithified quartzose replacement chert. Blake Bahama Formation, uppermost Jurassic–Lower Cretaceous,Central Atlantic, Deep Sea Drilling Project, Leg 11, Core 100-1-4, 97–115 cm. Scale is in centimetres. (B) Whitepelagic limestone with lenses and bands of black replacement chert. Vigla Limestone (Maiolica), uppermost Jurassic–Lower Cretaceous, Ionian zone, Lefkas, Western Greece. Hammer is 33 cm long.



(Bernoulli, 1972; Bernoulli & Jenkyns, 1974;Schlanger & Jenkyns, 1976; Ryan & Cita, 1977;Thurow et al., 1992).

The association of ophiolites and radiolarites

The ‘symbiotic’ association (an expression ofSteinmann, 1905) of ophiolites and [radiolarian]cherts (jaspes) was already known to Brongniart(1813, 1821) and the early Italian workers (Pan-tanelli, 1880; Lotti, 1886, 1910). However, it wasprobably Steinmann (1905, 1927) who first per-ceived the significance of this characteristicassociation. Eventually, the importance of Stein-mann’s work was recognized outside the Alps,and the association of serpentinites, ‘diabase’(dolerite-basalt) and radiolarites became knownas the ‘Steinmann Trinity’ (Bailey and McCallien,1950, 1953).

Because dissolved silica or reactive silicatematerial like volcanic ash was thought to beinvolved in the growth of radiolarians, a directlink between submarine volcanism/hydro-thermal activity and the sedimentation anddiagenesis of radiolarian ooze was assumed bymany authors (e.g. Pantanelli, 1880; Lotti, 1886;Teall, 1894; Dewey & Flett, 1911; Davis, 1918;Wenk, 1949; Bailey & McCallien, 1953; Grunau,1965). By contrast, Steinmann (1905, 1927)thought that the close association of ophioliteswith radiolarites existed only because both werelinked to the deepest parts of the Alpine‘geosyncline’. However, like many of his con-temporaries, Steinmann believed that the radio-larites and associated pelagic limestones wereolder than the ophiolitic ‘intrusions’ and there-fore not related to each other. Steinmann failedto appreciate the extrusive and subaqueous

A

B

0·5 mm

0·5 mm

Fig. 21. (A) Recent Globigerina ooze, dredged off Ber-muda by the Challenger Expedition, 1950 fathoms.‘Here the deposit is chiefly made up of the shells ofpelagic Foraminifera, and might be called a Globigerinaooze’; from Murray & Renard (1891, Pl. xiii, fig. 3).(B) Pelagic limestone of Couches rouges facies (Sca-glia), Tabiago Formation, Paleocene, Tabiago, SouthernAlps, thin-section.

Fig. 22. Guido Bonarelli (1871 to 1951) at Las Palmas(Canary Islands), 1 October 1914, from Bonarelli (2001).Reproduced by permission of Board of the Associazi-one Veterani e Pionieri Eni, Milano.



character of pillow lavas recognized early in the20th Century (Anderson, 1910; Dewey & Flett,1911), as well as misinterpreting the stratigraphicalcontact between the igneous rocks and theoverlying sediments.

Steinmann (1927) questioned the link be-tween the volcanic and sedimentary rocks notonly because he thought that the ophioliteswere distinctly younger than the sediments butalso because the regional distribution of theJurassic radiolarites extended far beyond theophiolitic units onto the rocks of the continent,now recognized as deeply submerged Tethyanmargins in the Apennines (Bernoulli et al.,1979b; McBride in McBride & Folk, 1979), inthe Alps (Winterer & Bosellini, 1981) andelsewhere. These continental-margin radiolariteslack any trace of submarine volcanic material.Indeed, the different facies of the deep-waterpelagic sediments overlying the oceanic base-ment and the sunken carbonate platformsappear to be determined primarily by bathy-metry, fluctuations in the CCD, planktonproductivity and other palaeoceanographic vari-ables (Berger & Winterer, 1974; Hsu, 1976;Jenkyns & Winterer, 1982; Muttoni et al., 2005).

INTERLUDE: THE GEOSYNCLINE

Continents and oceans

Suess and others before (for example, Bertrand,1887, fig. 5, cited by Suess, 1893) showed that thestructures of mountain belts could be followedacross the Atlantic and the Indian oceans andspeculated that, because former oceans could beuplifted to form mountain ranges, continentscould also sink to oceanic depths. An illustration

Fig. 23. The black shale of the Bonarelli Level thatrecords the global Oceanic Anoxic Event at the Ceno-manian–Turonian stage boundary (Late Cretaceous).The black shale (~1 m thick) is intercalated betweenwhite to pink pelagic limestones (Scaglia), rich inplanktonic foraminifera and coccoliths that recall the‘Couches rouges’ of the Western Alps. Furlo, MarcheanUmbrian Apennines, Central Italy. Persons for scale areapproximately 1Æ8 m tall.

Fig. 24. Giorgio Dal Piaz (1872 to 1962) wrote thefollowing on Toarcian black shales of the Alpi Feltrine,Northern Italy (1907): ‘‘E una facies particolare che ha ilsuo massimo sviluppo nella regione extraalpina, madella quale, per quanto sporadici e limitati, non mancanoesempi anche nel bacino mediterraneo.’’ This descrip-tion underscores the regional nature of the early Toar-cian black-shale phenomenon or Oceanic Anoxic Event,as it is now termed (Jenkyns, 1985, 1988). The photo-graph shows Giorgio Dal Piaz during a geologicalexcursion in the Apennines of Bologna, 12/13 July 1920.Courtesy of Vittorio and Giorgio V. Dal Piaz.



by Walther (1886) (Fig. 25) shows the structuresof the continent disappearing along a flexurebelow the ocean: in this view, there is nofundamental difference between continental andoceanic crust.

At the end of the 19th Century, it became clearthat the two strands of geological thought, onerequiring the permanence of ocean basins and theother requiring former ocean-wide land bridges,could not be reconciled. Biogeographical datasuggesting free interchange of faunas along deepand shallow seaways and across land masseswere in conflict with the inferred differences instructure and composition of continental andoceanic crust as well as isostasy – at least as longas oceans were permanent and continents did notmove. The Wegener (1912, 1915) theory of con-tinental drift, however, appeared to resolve theparadox. This radical concept was welcomedenthusiastically by Alpine geologists (Argand,1916, 1924a,b; Gagnebin, 1922; Staub, 1924) anda mechanism involving mantle convection wasput forward by Arthur Holmes (1928). Enthusias-tic devotees of this global tectonic model in-cluded geologists working in the southernhemisphere (Du Toit, 1937, 1939). The map ofDu Toit (1937, fig. 18) of the North Atlantic showsthe same Palaeozoic fold zones crossing the oceanas Bertrand (1887) had drawn, albeit on a muchmore convincing pre-drift configuration.

Between 1910 and 1930, the stage was setpotentially for modern mobilist concepts. Stein-

mann (1905, 1927) had already considered theassociation of peridotite, ‘diabase’ (basalt) andradiolarite as characteristic of the deep oceanfloor. Indeed, implicit in his writings is theconcept of ophiolites as ocean crust and radio-larites as analogues of deep-sea siliceous oozes.Steinmann’s vision of the ophiolites as a palaeo-tectonic element of prime importance thus led tothe discovery of the nappe structure of theNorthern Apennines (Steinmann, 1907, 1913)and, finally, proved to be Ariadne’s thread inthe labyrinth of Alpine tectonics (Steinmann,1905). Bailey, referring to the Argand (1924a)paper, placed Steinmann’s interpretation into thecontext of continental drift and orogeny: ‘‘E.Argand [in his 1924 paper] has developed Stein-mann’s views, and has pictured geosynclines asdetermined by stretching, by continental drift-apart, which attenuates the sial layer and even-tually allows sima to reach the bottom of the seaat bathyal or abyssal depths. If such drift-separa-tion continues, a new ocean bed may be devel-oped, covered with products of submarineeruptions. If…a drift of separation gives place toa drift of approach, then a folded mountain chaincomes into being’’ (Bailey, 1936).

In spite of its strong geometrical and palaeo-geographical arguments, the hypothesis ofWegener was dismissed by the majority ofAnglo-Saxon geologists, as documented by mostof the contributions in the 1926 AAPG Sympo-sium on Continental Drift (Van Waterschoot van

Fig. 25. The ‘continental flexure’ inthe view of Johannes Walther (1886,plate xii).



der Gracht et al., 1928). The different composi-tion and thickness of continental and oceaniccrust (Heck, 1938) and the resulting isostasticresponse would show ‘‘how improbable it wouldbe to suppose that a continent could founder or goto oceanic depth or that ocean floor at ±3000fathoms could ever have been a stable land areasince the birth of the oceans’’ (Hess, 1954, fig. 8).With permanent oceans and stable continents,mountain chains still had to originate fromnarrow, elongated, unstable belts, the geosyn-clines, circling the continents or following ‘zonesof crustal weakness’ within them.

Geosynclines

The concept of the geosyncline was, followingpreliminary ideas in Europe (Elie de Beaumont,1828), developed in North America where JamesHall (1859) and J.D. Dana (1873) had connectedgenetically the thick accumulations of shallow-water sediments with orogeny (Glaessner & Teic-hert, 1947; Hsu, 1973; Sengor, 1998, 2003). At anearly stage, Alpine geologists took issue with theconcepts of Hall and Dana: Suess (1875), Haug(1900), and others noticed – like Elie de Beau-mont (1828) long ago – that Alpine geosynclineswere the site of bathyal deep-water sedimentation(200 to 1000 m in the sense of Haug), where suchsediments as Aptychus limestones and nodularRosso Ammonitico or even ‘abysmal’ radiolarites(Molengraaf, 1909) were deposited. These depres-sions were zones of crustal weakness from whichgeanticlines and finally mountain belts woulddevelop either between more stable continentalmasses, or between continents and oceans. In themap of Haug (1900, fig. 1) that shows the oldcontinents and Mesozoic geosynclines, the pal-aeogeographical motif owes much to the ‘CentralMediterranean’ and its remnants in young moun-tain belts (Neumayr, 1887b, Fig. 26). This essen-tially non-mobilist concept of the geosynclinesurvived well into the 20th Century: a map byStille (1944) of the Pacific geosynclines repli-cates that of Haug (1900), with the geosynclinesseparating old, stable continental (Hochkraton)or oceanic (Tiefkraton) areas. As late as 1955,Stille claimed that ‘‘the Tethyan zone was inter-continental in character’ and that ‘the Pacific as adeep-sea region [was] superstable’ (Stille, 1955).However, the disappearance of former landbridges, postulated to have existed between thedifferent fragments of Gondwana, still had to beexplained by ‘‘gradual sinking of former conti-nental areas’’ (Stille, 1935).

The teleological concept of the geosyncline,whereby it would evolve inevitably into a moun-tain belt, dominated Alpine geology for severaldecades (Argand, 1916; Staub, 1924). The geanti-clines segmenting the geosyncline were com-pared with island arcs, the geosynclines to theirfore-deeps (Haug, 1900; Argand, 1916, fig. 1) or todeep-sea trenches (Steinmann, 1925) and moderngeotectonic analogues were sought in the islandarcs and trenches of Indonesia (Horn, 1914;Arbenz, 1919; Tercier, 1939). Even today, thisarea has served, with some modification, as anactualistic model for the late-stage tectonic con-figuration of the Alpine Tethys (Trumpy, 2003).Despite the fact that so many strands of thoughtconverged towards a mobilist view of non-per-manent oceans and drifting continents (Argand,1924a; Holmes, 1928; Du Toit, 1937, 1939), theseconcepts were not generally adopted by thegeological community at large.

With the advent of plate tectonics, the conceptof the geosyncline became instantaneouslyobsolete. Actualistic models now equated theformer pre-orogenic miogeosyncline of Stille(1941) and Kay (1951) with passive continentalmargins (Drake et al., 1959), the eugeosynclinewith its igneous rocks with ‘collapsing continen-tal rises’ (Dietz, 1963) and the ophiolites withfragments of oceanic lithosphere. The dogma, that‘geosynclines’ would necessarily result in moun-tain building, already questioned by Suess (1875,1909), equally had to be modified. Indeed, themaximum lifetime of passive continental marginsand ocean basins appears to be governed by thegravitational stability of ageing oceanic litho-sphere, limiting the potential age of ocean basinsto roughly 200 Myr, more or less the time spanpostulated by Hess (1962). The deformation ofpassive continental margins in orogeny must thusoccur sooner or later but is not in any waypre-ordained.

OCEANIC LITHOSPHERE OF THE TETHYS

Before the advent of plate tectonics, ‘‘the problem[of ultramafics in mountain belts] remainedunsolved. Some vital piece of evidence [was] stillmissing’’ (Hess, 1955). Contemporaneously withthe work of Steinmann, but apparently unknownto him, differing views were developing in theAmerican and English literature. Whereas, forAlpine geologists, the plutonic and volcanicrocks in ophiolites represented a consanguineousassociation and were the result of magmatic



differentiation of an ophiolitic magma (Stein-mann, 1927), Anglo-Saxon authors argued that‘Alpine peridotites’ were unrelated to the otherrocks of the Steinmann Trinity and had intrudedfolded ‘geosynclinal’ sediments (Benson, 1926).In spite of experiments by Bowen (1927, 1928)and Bowen & Tuttle (1949), indicating that peri-dotitic and serpentinitic magmas could not begenerated under geologically reasonable temper-ature conditions in the crust, many authors stillweighed the field evidence in favour of anintrusive (Hess, 1938, 1955) or even extrusive(Bailey & McCallien, 1950, 1953) origin of theserpentinites in order to explain their close fieldrelationship with volcanic and sedimentaryrocks.

A book on ‘Geosynclines’ (Aubouin, 1965),although reviewing the work of Steinmann, stilldescribed ophiolites, in a language all its own,as vast submarine magmatic products extrudedover the seabed; but in the very same year Hess(1965) wrote: ‘‘Dredging on oceanic ridges hasrecently brought to light the suite of rockscharacterizing this environment…This suite isone that is very familiar to me; it is Steinmann’s(1906) Trinity of the Alpine ophiolitic belts, thatis, characteristically serpentinized peridotite,pillow-lavas often spilitic, and radiolariancherts. Often in the Alpine belt of the Mediter-ranean they are found as large exotic blocks(Italy and Turkey) or as overthrust sheets (North-ern Greece, Cyprus, Syria and New Caledonia).One may speculate that there may have been anocean ridge through the centre of the TethyanSea of early Mesozoic times, from which theophiolites slid’’. The concept of sea floor spread-ing finally resolved the long-lasting controversybetween Bowen and Hess, when it was recogni-zed that peridotites were the (partly hydrated)residues of partial melting of the mantle thatproduced the igneous rocks of the ocean crust.It also eliminated the weaknesses of Wegener’shypothesis providing ‘‘an acceptable mecha-nism for continental drift whereby continentsride passively on convecting mantle instead ofhaving to plough through oceanic crust’’ (Hess,1962).

Western Mediterranean ophiolites

Ironically, it appears that Steinmann never saw acompletely developed ophiolite as defined by the1972 Penrose Conference (Anonymous, 1972) andfound in Cyprus (Troodos) or Oman (Semail). Inthe field areas of Steinmann, in the Alps and theApennines, the internal stratigraphy of the ophio-lites does not match that of the classicalsequence; no substantial relics of a sheeted dykecomplex are found and gabbros play a subordi-nate role. Instead, oceanic sediments, radiolariancherts, and pelagic limestones, stratigraphicallyoverlie: (i) serpentinized mantle rocks andtectono-sedimentary breccias; and (ii) pillowlavas that were extruded onto serpentinitespreviously exposed on the ocean floor alonglow-angle normal faults (Decandia & Elter, 1972;Lemoine et al., 1987; Fig. 27). These ophiolitesrepresent fossil ocean–continent transitions(Manatschal & Bernoulli, 1999; Desmurs et al.,2001) and/or relics of a slow-spreading ridge(Lagabrielle & Lemoine, 1997) (Table 2).

The tectono-sedimentary breccias, or ophical-cites, mark the trace of the low-angle normal faults(Bernoulli et al., 2003). In the past, various inter-pretations of these breccias have been offered,ranging from products of contact metamorphism(Steinmann, 1905, 1913) to magmatic carbonatites(Bailey & McCallien, 1960) and subaerial caliche(Folk and McBride, 1976, 1978). However, newobservations indicate that these breccias are theproduct of a combination of tectonic fracturing,replacement of serpentine minerals by calcite, seafloor carbonate cementation and infill by pelagicand/or diagenetic sediment (Fig. 28). Matrix-supported ophicalcites may have been redepos-ited by debris flows (Lemoine et al., 1987). Inmodern oceans, ophicalcites occur where mantlerocks have suffered brittle deformation and havebeen exhumed on the sea floor; along slow-spreading ridges like the Central Atlantic (Juteauet al., 1989), along oceanic transform faults(Bonatti et al., 1974) and ocean–continent transi-tion zones (Whitmarsh et al., 1998; Wilson et al.,2001). Ophicalcites are conspicuously absent inophiolites of the East-Mediterranean area.

Fig. 26. (A) The map of young mountain chains by Neumayr (1887b), compared with (B) the map of Mesozoicgeosynclines by Haug, (1900, fig. 1). The geosynclines depicted by Haug follow more or less exactly the mountainbelts of Neumayr including his Central Mediterranean (Neumayr, 1885) but also his Ethiopian Gulf. (see Fig. 5).Likewise, the ‘Continent africano-bresilien’ of Haug corresponds to the ‘Brasilianisch–Athiopischer Kontinent’ ofNeumayr; the ‘Continent nordatlantique’ to the ‘Nearktischer Kontinent’. Note that in Haug’s map there is a ‘Con-tinent pacifique’, a notion that survived well into the into 20th Century with the interpretation by Stille (1935, 1944)of the Pacific as a primordial ocean, classified as a ‘Tiefkraton’.



Ophicalcites, pillow lavas and oceanic sedi-ments may carry the signatures of hydrothermalalteration (Fruh-Greene et al., 1990). A particularfeature of the supra-ophiolite radiolarian cherts inthe Apennines and Western Alps is the localdevelopment of iron-poor manganese depositsthat are exactly comparable with those foundon present-day oceanic hydrothermal centres(Bonatti et al., 1976).

Eastern Mediterranean ophiolites

By contrast, ophiolites of the Eastern Mediterra-nean area and Oman match, by and large, theclassical ophiolite stratigraphy and the conceptof a stratified oceanic lithosphere, as anticipatedby Hess (1954). In Greece (Vourinos), Turkey(Antalya, Kizildag), Cyprus (Troodos) and Oman(Semail nappe) the ophiolite bodies include the

A

B

C

Fig. 27. (A) Cross-sections across the Alpine geosyncline showing the ophiolites as syn-tectonic intrusions alongembryonic thrusts; from Argand (1916, pl. 3, fig. 1). This section largely reflects the view of Steinmann (1905, 1927),who unfortunately never illustrated these concepts graphically. In contrast to Steinmann (1905), Argand shows partof the ophiolites also as extrusives on the ocean floor. (B) ‘The initial stages of the geosyncline: the situation duringthe Late Jurassic after the laceration of the continental crust [widely spaced dots]’, from Elter (1972, fig. 3). Elterexplained the particular stratigraphy of the North Apennine ophiolites by tectonic exhumation of the mantle alonglow-angle normal faults, accompanied by underplating of gabbroic intrusions (stippled) and followed by thesubmarine extrusion of ‘diabases’ (dolerite–basalt). (C). Cross-section along the South-Pennine/Austroalpine ocean–continent transition; from Manatschal & Nievergelt (1997, fig. 19). As in the reconstruction by Elter (1972),subcontinental mantle rocks are exhumed along a low-angle detachment system that has emplaced extensionalallochthons on the mantle rocks. The mantle rocks were intruded by asthenosphere-derived gabbros and are overlainby pillow lavas of similar origin (Muntener et al., 2004 and references therein). Ophicalcites (Fig. 28) mark the traceof the detachment faults along the exhumed mantle (Bernoulli et al., 2003), whereas syn-rift deep-water breccias(Saluver Formation, Fig. 17), mantling the extensional allochthons, represent the ‘trangressive’ breccias of earlierauthors (Cadisch et al., 1919; Grunau, 1947).



classical vertical sequence from tectonite harz-burgite, cumulate peridotite and gabbro, to asheeted dyke complex and a thick pile of pillowlavas, interbedded with and overlain by well-developed hydrothermal sulphide depositsand/or ferromanganese-rich sediments (umbers,Fig. 29), locally containing traces of fossil ventfaunas, and biogenic oceanic sediments derivedfrom siliceous and calcareous plankton (Moores& Vine, 1971; Robertson & Hudson, 1974; Fleet &Robertson, 1980; Haymon et al., 1984; Oudin &Constantinou, 1984). These relatively completeophiolite sequences, with their metre-thick cov-ers of metalliferous sediments, suggest derivationfrom fast-spreading ocean crust characterized byvigorous hydrothermal activity (Jenkyns, 1986).

THE DEEP SEA DRILLING PROJECT ANDSEDIMENTOLOGY OF TETHYANPELAGIC SEDIMENTS

The development of transmission and scanningelectron microscopy revealed the composition andtexture of the fine fraction of pelagic sediments inextraordinary detail (Grunau & Studer, 1956;

Honjo & Fischer, 1964; Fischer et al., 1967). Asanticipated by Gumbel (1870a, 1870b) and Stein-mann (1925), coccoliths were found to be presentin rock-forming quantities in Jurassic and youngerTethyan sediments. With these techniques inplace, the Deep Sea Drilling Project and its succes-sor projects allowed unprecedented access to theMesozoic history of the oceans by allowingdetailed investigations of the recovered materialon all scales. The spatial and temporal variations ofthe CCD could be reconstructed (Berger & Win-terer, 1974), as could the impact of orbital-climaticcycles on pelagic sedimentation (Dean et al., 1977;see also Fischer et al., 2009) and the evolution ofcalcareous and siliceous plankton. The stage wasset for a detailed comparison between pelagicsediments exposed in Alpine mountain belts andthose under the sea (Hsu & Jenkyns, 1974), asalready proposed by Gumbel (1870a) who hadcalled for ‘deep-sea investigations on the dry land’in the very first volume of the journal Nature.

Tethyan sediments of the Central Atlantic

The Glomar Challenger sailed from Orange,Texas, on 20 July 1968 and returned to Hoboken,

Table 2. Interpretation of ophiolites from the time of Steinmann (1905, 1927) to the present day.

Steinmann (1905, 1927)

Today

Ocean–continent transition Spreading ridge

Ophiolites are a consanguineousassociation, derived from anophiolitic magma

Mantle and magmatic rocks aregenetically unrelated

Magmatic rocks are the result ofpartial melting of the sub-oceanicmantle

Peridotites are magmatic rocks Peridotites are tectonicallyexhumed sub-continental mantlerocks (± modified by mantle fluids)

Peridotites are more or lessdepleted melt residues

Pillow lavas are intrusive rocks Pillow lavas are submarineextrusions

Pillow lavas are submarineextrusions

Ophiolites intruded as hugeplakoliths between sial andoceanic sediments

Ophiolites are an association ofsub-continental mantle andigneous rocks derived fromMORB-melts

Ophiolites are asthenosphere-derived oceanic lithosphere

Granites are tectonic slivers ofcontinental crust transported withthe ophiolite nappes

Granites are typically continentalbasement rocks, tectonicallyemplaced on exhumed mantlerocks

Plagiogranites are magmaticdifferentiates

Ophicalcites are the product ofcontact metamorphism related toophiolite intrusion

Ophicalcites are tectono-sedimentary breccias related to tectonic mantleexhumation along:low-angle detachment faults transform faults and normal faults

along slow-spreading ridges

Deep-sea sediments are the bottomof the ‘geosyncline’ intruded bythe ophiolites

Deep-sea sediments are interbedded with pillow lavas and/orstratigraphically overlie the oceanic basement



New Jersey, on 23 September 1968, having com-pleted Leg 1 of the Deep Sea Drilling Project inthe western Central Atlantic. During these twomonths at sea, pelagic sediments as old as latestJurassic were recovered, as were Cretaceous andyounger sediments. The Cretaceous faciesincluded light-coloured foraminiferal–nanno-fossil oozes and Albian–Cenomanian blackcarbon-rich radiolarian claystones, the latter con-stituting the first record of these characteristicsediments from the ocean basins (Beall & Fischer,

1969). On 8 April 1970, the ship left Miami,Florida, for DSDP Leg 11 and returned, onceagain, to Hoboken, New Jersey, on 1 June: thediscoveries made during this leg were to have aprofound impact on Alpine geology, not only interms of sedimentology and stratigraphy but alsoin terms of modelling the pre-orogenic history ofthe Mediterranean region. During Leg 11, a num-ber of holes were drilled close to the westernmargin of the Central Atlantic off the easternseaboard of the USA and a suite of sediments ofJurassic and Cretaceous age, overlying both con-tinental and ocean crust, was recovered (Lancelotet al., 1972). These sediments, of Oxfordian andyounger age, are typically Tethyan in character,and include red clay-rich nodular limestones ofRosso Ammonitico facies and white coccolith-rich limestones, strictly comparable to the Maiol-ica and Biancone of the Southern Alps andApennines (Bernoulli, 1972; Renz & Habicht,1985; Figs 11C, D and 20). Black clays of mid-Cretaceous age also were recovered. Evidence ofredeposition, within the pelagic domain, is pres-ent in many of the Atlantic cores, with gradedbeds and slumped and retextured sedimentsbeing commonplace. In one site, close to theBahama Banks, the pelagic Cretaceous sectioncontains graded and laminated material of bank-derived shallow-water origin; again analoguescan be found in coeval sections from SouthernItaly where basins receiving pelagic sedimenta-tion passed laterally into coeval carbonate plat-forms and transitional facies contain abundantshallow-water grains mixed with coccolith-richchalks.

The significance of the similarity betweenAtlantic and Alpine-Mediterranean Mesozoicsediments went far beyond a simple consider-ation of Atlantic facies as essentially Tethyanin character (Colom, 1955). Rather, it reinforcedthe concept of the Atlantic–Tethyan system as akinematically related entity with similar con-tinental margins and adjacent ocean basins:relatively short-lived in the case of the Tethys,long-lived in the case of the Atlantic (Bernoulli &Jenkyns, 1974). The Bahama Banks could beviewed equally as a type carbonate continentalmargin, whose exact counterparts, having experi-enced Alpine orogeny, form present-day moun-tain ranges in Croatia, Southern Italy, Sicily andelsewhere (D’Argenio, 1974; D’Argenio et al.,1975; Bosellini, 1989; Eberli et al., 2004; Figs 30and 31). Recognition that the Alpine orogenic beltincluded deformed margins of Atlantic typehelped to weld together the disparate worlds of

Fig. 28. Typical fabric of Alpine ophicalcite. Replace-ment of serpentine minerals is illustrated by relics ofpyroxene crystals floating in a red microsparitic lime-stone matrix, reflecting the original texture of the ex-humed and tectonically fractured mantle rock.Replacement has been followed by sea floor carbonatecementation and subsequent geopetal infill of red pe-lagic and/or diagenetic sediment. South-Pennine Tot-alp Peridotite, Davos, Graubunden, Switzerland.Diameter of coin: 20 mm.

Fig. 29. Metalliferous sediments (umbers) of the Pera-pedhi Formation, Campanian, Upper Cretaceous. ThePerapedhi Formation stratigraphically overlies thevolcanic cover of the Troodos ophiolite complex andfills the relief in the underlying pillow lavas. Triniklini,north of Limassol, Cyprus. Hammer is 33 cm long.



field-based and marine geology and illustrated thepower of the uniformitarian principle. In addi-tion, the Deep Sea Drilling Project offered insightsinto the smaller-scale tectonic motif of the Meso-zoic Tethys. For example, Kelts (1981) elegantlydepicted the obliquely rifted present-day Gulf ofCalifornia, drilled during DSDP Leg 64 (1978 to1979), as a model for the Jurassic–Cretaceousconfiguration of the Alpine belt.

Deepening-upward successions of subsidingcontinental margins and theirpalaeoceanographic signatures

In the external Apennines, Western Sicily, theSouthern Alps, the Northern Limestone Alps andother segments of the Mediterranean chain,

Mesozoic pelagic sequences typically overlie thedisintegrated relics of Upper Triassic to lower-most Jurassic carbonate platforms that weresubmerged during the course of rifting (Bernoulli& Jenkyns, 1974; Fig. 32). A potent factor in thedrowning of some of these platforms, particularlyin areas of relatively rapid subsidence, may havebeen the early Toarcian Oceanic Anoxic Event,characterized by elevated sea-surface tempera-tures and high nutrient loads: environmentalconditions inimical to shallow-water carbonateproduction (Woodfine et al., 2008). The faciesevolution of the overlying pelagic successionsreflects increasing water depth during syn-riftand post-rift thermal subsidence of the passivecontinental margins (Garrison & Fischer, 1969;Bosellini & Winterer, 1975; Winterer & Bosellini,

Fig. 30. Tectonic units and Late Jurassic palaeogeography of the peri-Adriatic area. Although no palinspastic res-toration was attempted, the distribution of isolated Bahamian-type carbonate platforms surrounded by deeper basinsis clearly visible. I: Imerese Basin; L: Lagonegro Basin; P: Panormide Platform; S: Sicani Basin; T: Toscanides. AfterBernoulli (2001).



1981; Fig. 33). In basinal areas, formed wheredrowned carbonate-platform segments subsidedrapidly, the pelagic successions typically startwith thick piles of cyclically bedded limestonesand marls interbedded with mass-flow depositsderived from adjacent surviving carbonate plat-forms and/or active fault scarps. These succes-sions may pass upward into clay-rich RossoAmmonitico facies (Fig. 11D), locally with evi-dence of soft-sediment deformation (slumps) andintra-basinal ‘pelagic’ turbidites (Bernoulli, 1964,1971) and thence into radiolarites overlain byuppermost Jurassic to lowermost Cretaceouswhite coccolith limestones of Maiolica/Bianconefacies (Fig. 20).

On initially less subsident blocks of drownedplatform carbonate, crinoidal limestones, strati-graphically condensed red nodular limestonesof Rosso Ammonitico facies with manganesenodules (Fig. 11A), problematic stromatolitesand ammonite internal moulds (Fig. 11E) weredeveloped (Jenkyns, 1967, 1971, 1986; Wendt,

1970). These ‘seamount’ facies (Jenkyns & Tor-rens, 1971) typically grade upward into progres-sively more clay-rich red limestones that, inturn, pass into first calcareous, then locallynon-calcareous radiolarian cherts, usually ofLate Jurassic age and, ultimately, white cocco-lith limestones of Maiolica/Biancone facies.Where accurately dated, arrival of the radiolaritefacies on less subsident blocks can be shown tobe later than in more basinal areas (Baumgart-ner, 1987). This overall facies evolution reflectsdifferential subsidence of the Tethyan continen-tal margins. The first obvious sign of deepeningis the loss of formerly aragonitic fossils such asammonites: this change records crossing of thearagonite compensation depth. Higher in thesuccession, the progressive loss of calciticfossils, calcite matrix and change to radiolaritesillustrates not only subsidence below the CCDbut an increase in productivity of siliceousbiota, apparently related to plate-tectonic move-ments of the Tethyan area into peri-equatorial

Fig. 31. Late Cretaceous (94 to 93 Ma) palaeogeography of the Atlantic–Tethyan system showing the distribution ofBahamian-type carbonate platforms. After Bernoulli (2001). The presence of Early Cretaceous dinosaur footprints inthe platform carbonates of Croatia and Southern Italy (Bosellini, 2002) poses a currently unresolved palaeo-geographic problem in that the migration corridors are impossible to identify. A: Apulia carbonate platform; AD:Adria microplate; B: Bahamas; CA: Central Atlantic; EM: Eastern Mediterranean; G: Gavrovo carbonate platform; HK:High-Karst carbonate platform; L: Lazio-Abruzzi carbonate platform; PL: Piemonte-Liguria ocean; Y: Yucatan.



latitudes (Hsu, 1976; Jenkyns & Winterer, 1982;Baumgartner, 1987; Winterer, 1998; Muttoniet al., 2005). In fact, the continental-marginradiolarites are the time-and-space equivalentsof the radiolarian cherts overlying the oceanicbasement of the ophiolite nappes (Steinmann,1927; Bernoulli et al., 1979b; McBride & Folk,1979), although they may simply record a rangeof palaeodepths great enough to inhibit accu-mulation of carbonate. A few anomalous, less-subsident blocks show a facies evolution fromcondensed red iron–manganese-enriched lime-stones to an Upper Jurassic cream-colouredstromatolitic pellet and ‘oolite’ facies rich in

planktonic biota (ammonites, globigerinid for-aminifera, coccoliths) that appears to representa shallowing rather than a deepening trend(Jenkyns, 1972, 1980): such sequences are,however, the exception rather than the ruleand probably relate to the local presence oftranscurrent faults incising the continentalmargin.

The pelagic sediments of the oceans andcontinental margins reflect not only generalsubsidence and increasing water depth but alsoglobal climatic and geochemical changes. Theuppermost Jurassic to Lower Cretaceous whitecoccolith limestones of Maiolica/Biancone

A

B

Fig. 32. (A) Palaeogeographic map of the Southern Alps for the Late Jurassic, not palinspastically corrected, afterWinterer & Bosellini (1981). (B) Palinspastic cross-section through the South-Alpine continental margin for LateJurassic times, after Bernoulli et al. (1979a), modified. For the location of the palaeogeographic elements of theSouthern Alps, see Fig. 30.



facies, deposited atop the radiolarites in theAlpine-Mediterranean region, were developedaround the globe and clearly record an ocean-ographic change – an increase in calcitic at theexpense of siliceous plankton – that resulted indepression of the CCD (Bosellini & Winterer,1975; Weissert, 1979; Ogg et al., 1983; Fig. 33).In addition, the global oceanic anoxic events ofthe early Toarcian (Jenkyns, 1988), the earlyAptian (Livello Selli, Coccioni et al., 1987) andthe Cenomanian–Turonian boundary (LivelloBonarelli, Schlanger & Jenkyns, 1976; Schlangeret al., 1987) are recorded faithfully as black-shale intervals in pelagic sediments from theTethyan continental margins (Emeis & Weissert,2009). The sedimentary signatures of orbital-climatic signals are also accurately registered inthe more stratigraphically expanded Jurassicand Cretaceous basinal pelagic successions ofthe Alps and Apennines (Herbert & Fischer,1986; Weedon, 1989; Fischer et al., 2009). Inessence, the whole of the Tethyan area, wher-ever these sediments crop out, offers a naturallaboratory where a range of palaeoceanographicinvestigations can be undertaken. For example,carbon-isotope determinations, of both carbon-ates and organic matter, have proved particu-larly useful in deciphering the workings of the

Mesozoic carbon cycle (Weissert et al., 1979;Scholle & Arthur, 1980; Jenkyns & Clayton,1986; Jenkyns et al., 1994; Tsikos et al., 2004;Weissert & Erba, 2004).

Extensional tectonics and neptunian dykesand sills

The less subsident blocks of drowned carbonateplatforms were subject to submarine erosion,consequently the environment was favourable toearly cementation of the carbonate ooze with theformation of hardgrounds within the stratigraph-ically condensed Rosso Ammonitico (Jenkyns,1971). As well as the more typical nodules, thesediment commonly was lithified further by iron–manganese oxyhydroxide crusts. Such hard sub-strates typically record the evidence for pulses ofextensional tectonic activity during the Jurassicin the form of syn-sedimentary breccias, neptu-nian dykes and sills (Wendt, 1963, 1965, 1971;Wiedenmayer, 1963; Schlager, 1969). The dykesand sills commonly penetrate the underlyingplatform carbonates. In the pelagic basinal suc-cessions, not subject to such rapid submarinelithification, these phenomena are rare. Poly-phase fracturing and injection of sediment areindicated by the observed cross-cutting relation-

Fig. 33. Proposed ideal subsidence tracks for various parts of the South-Tethyan continental margin. ALy: aragonitelysocline, ACD: aragonite compensation depth; CLy: calcite lysocline; CCD: calcite compensation depth. Curvelabelled ‘Apennines’ is the suggested track of the former Tethyan ocean floor now represented by Ligurian ophiolitesof Italy. In this model all subsidence tracks are thought to be unaffected by post-rift tectonic activity. Modified afterBosellini & Winterer (1975) from Jenkyns (1986).



ships between different generations of dykes andsills (Fig. 34) and the occurrence of successivefills in the same fissure. In extreme cases,complex tectono-sedimentary breccias aregenerated, in which the older phases formcomposite clasts in a sequence of successivelyyounger generations of matrix and cement(Wiedenmayer, 1963; Bernoulli et al., 1990;Winterer et al., 1991; Fig. 34). Where the hostrock was not overlain by unconsolidatedsediment, the fissures stayed open, sometimesover a considerable length of time, allowing fortheir enlargement by carbonate dissolution and/or occlusion by submarine drusy calcite oraragonite cements. Neptunian dykes and sillsare most abundant close to major faults boundingthe seamounts and, in some places, the onlap ofthe basinal sediments onto the fault scarps are

still preserved (Castellarin, 1972; Bice andStewart, 1985, 1990). Neptunian dykes are notrestricted to pre-rift shallow-water carbonatesediments and their stratigraphically condensedpelagic sedimentary cover. Such dykes occur, forexample, in phyllitic continental basement rocks(Sigal & Truillet, 1966), giving unambiguousevidence of their tectonic origin. In inter-platformareas, where pelagic conditions were present asearly as Triassic time, neptunian dykes and sillsof this age, typically penetrating shallow-watercarbonates, are not uncommon (Schlager, 1969;Krystyn et al., 1971; Scholl & Wendt, 1971).Because Triassic and Lower to Middle Jurassicneptunian dykes and sills have also beenrecorded in Southern Britain (Jenkyns & Senior,1991; Wall & Jenkyns, 2004), it is apparent thatextensional phenomena extended over much if

A

B

10 cm

Fig. 34. (A) Tectono-sedimentarybreccia with neptunian dyke. Thehost rock, upper Triassic Haupt-dolomit, has suffered brittle fracturewith the resultant cavities infilledby different generations of carbonatecement and unconsolidated LowerLiassic sediment. The latest genera-tion of sediment is red pelagic clay-rich limestone of Middle Liassic agethat fills a subvertical fracture. Notethe geometrical fit of the in situbrecciated clasts of the host rock inthe breccia and across the sedimen-tary dyke. The lack of carbonateprecipitation, together with thefilling of the finest cracks by pelagicsediment, suggests that the sedi-ment was injected under hydrostaticpressure upon sudden dilation,probably in connection with asubmarine earthquake. MacchiaVecchia Breccia, Arzo, SouthernSwitzerland. From Bernoulli et al.(1990). (B) Repeated fracturing ofthe Upper Triassic host rock andolder generations of Liassic sedi-ment infill leads to complex tectono-sedimentary breccias, in which theolder phases form composite clastsin a sequence of successivelyyounger generations of matrix andcement. The fit of the differentfragments of Hauptdolomit testifiesto the in situ fragmentation of thehost rock. Macchia Vecchia Breccia,Arzo, Southern Switzerland. Fieldof view is about 2 m wide.



not all of the European epi-Variscan craton duringthe mid-Mesozoic.

Former interpretations of Tethyan neptuniandykes as sediment-filled subaerial karsts are nowabandoned (Wiedenmayer, 1963). Equally,interpretations of the pelagic seamount depositsas shallow-water deposits recording evidence ofsubaerial emergence in the form of desiccationcracks (Farinacci, 1967; Colacicchi et al., 1970)have proved erroneous: the structures are neptu-nian sills filled with submarine cements. Inter-estingly, the controversy over the non-volcanicseamounts of Umbria repeats the old controversybetween Diener (1885), who interpreted Liassicneptunian dykes in the Upper Triassic DachsteinLimestone of the Eastern Alps as karstic fissures,and Wahner (1886) who clearly stated that thedykes were filled in deep water by the Liassicsediments that also onlap onto a submarine relief.

There exists, however, an ongoing debate as towhether the seamounts and their surroundingsremained close to the photic zone for much oftheir early history (Santantonio, 1993; Santanto-nio et al., 1996) or subsided continuously todeeper waters in the order of one or morekilometres (Winterer, 1998). Detailed fluid-inclu-sion work on early submarine calcite cements inLower Jurassic crinoidal limestones capping afault-dissected and drowned carbonate platformin Western Sicily suggests palaeodepths as shal-low as 23 m during early stages of foundering (DiStefano et al., 2002; Mallarino et al., 2002).

WHY WAS PLATE TECTONICS NOTINVENTED IN THE ALPS (ORAPENNINES)?

In a recent article, Trumpy (2001) asked: ‘‘whydid the Alps and similar mountain chains, whichprovided clear evidence for large-scale relativedisplacements between continents or continentalfragments, play such an insignificant part in theestablishment and acceptance of the plate tecton-ics theory?’’ According to Trumpy (2001), it ‘‘wasthe excessive caution of Alpine geologists andtheir reluctance to realize the consequences oftheir own observations’’; this is certainly true forthe period of time between 1935 and 1960. Toquote Malerba (1992): ‘‘Gli Svizzeri si alzanopresto ma si svegliano tardi!’’ Another reason forthis period of lacklustre Alpine research was thestranglehold of the geosynclinal model on Euro-pean geologists: a model that they preferred tomodify endlessly rather than abandon. However,

the fundamental paradox remained: althoughgeosynclines were elongated furrows of crustalweakness and therefore of potential ‘high mobil-ity’, possibly with oceanic or near-oceanic crust,they were locked within more stable areas (con-tinents) or between continents and oceans. Ulti-mately, geosynclines could give rise to mountainranges but, in essence, continents remained con-tinents and oceans remained oceans. Only a smallgroup of geologists, Argand (1924a,b), Holmes(1928, 1944) and a few others, followed Wegenerand included the oceans in non-fixist reconstruc-tions where continents could glide across theglobe. Following the inexorable logic of suchmobilist concepts, ophiolites and deep-sea sedi-ments of the Tethyan region ultimately would beshown to mark the disappearance of oceanicareas, formerly hundreds or thousands of kilome-tres wide, as anticipated by Steinmann (1925).Manifestly, however, the mechanisms of sea floorspreading could not be deciphered from thefragmentary record of oceanic lithosphere andpelagic sediment preserved in the Alps andApennines. Understanding the significance ofthe stratigraphy and structure of Alpine-Mediter-ranean mountain chains would come from thenew world of marine geology and marine geo-physics.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We thank Celal Sengor and Helmut Weissert forcareful reviews, and Urs Gerber (ETH Zurich),K. Leu (Basel) and David Sansom (Oxford) formuch help with the illustrations. Hugh Torrenskindly supplied information on William Smith,and Tony Watts on the history of marine geology.

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Manuscript received 1 February 2008; revisionaccepted 15 August 2008



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