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| Upper Coralline Limestone | |
|---|---|
| Name | Upper Coralline Limestone |
| Type | Lithostratigraphic unit |
| Age | Late Miocene–Pliocene |
| Period | Neogene |
| Primary lithology | Limestone |
| Other lithology | Dolomite, marl |
| Region | Mediterranean Basin, Atlantic margins |
| Country | Malta, Sicily, Gibraltar, Algeria, Tunisia |
Upper Coralline Limestone The Upper Coralline Limestone is a Late Neogene carbonate succession widely recognized in the central Mediterranean and adjacent Atlantic realms. It is a coarse-grained, reefal to bioclastic limestone unit that forms prominent cliffs, plateaus and karst landscapes and has been subject of stratigraphic correlation, paleontological study and engineering assessment by regional geological surveys and academic institutions.
The unit occurs within Neogene stratigraphic frameworks tied to the Messinian Salinity Crisis, Zanclean, and Piacenzian chronostratigraphic intervals, and is correlated with Mediterranean units mapped by the British Geological Survey, Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, and regional geological surveys of Malta, Sicily, and Gibraltar. Stratigraphically it overlies marls and calcarenites equivalent to the Blue Clay Formation and underlies terrigenous or younger Pleistocene deposits commonly identified in lithostratigraphic schemes used by the Geological Society of London and university research groups. Sequence stratigraphic interpretations reference work by researchers affiliated with University of Cambridge, University of Oxford, and Sapienza University of Rome to link the unit to Mediterranean sea-level oscillations recorded in global datasets like those compiled by the International Commission on Stratigraphy.
The lithology is dominated by massive to bedded bioclastic limestone, locally dolomitized and interbedded with calcarenite and marl; petrographic and geochemical analyses have been performed by teams from the University of Malta, Imperial College London, and ETH Zurich. Bulk mineralogy includes high-Mg calcite and low-Mg calcite with accessory dolomite and sparry calcite; stable isotope and elemental studies cite laboratories at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography for comparative datasets. Textural facies range from boundstone and bafflestone to grainstone and packstone, documented in mapping campaigns by the Geological Survey of Gibraltar and coastal geomorphology projects allied with the Mediterranean Science Commission (CIESM).
Fossil assemblages include scleractinian corals, red algae (Corallinaceae), benthic foraminifera, bivalves, gastropods, and echinoids, catalogued in museum collections such as the Natural History Museum, London, the National Museum of Natural History, Malta, and the Museo Geologico Giovanni Capellini. Taxonomic work by paleontologists associated with the Plymouth University Marine Institute, University of Barcelona, and the University of Palermo has identified reef-building corals comparable to taxa reported from the Red Sea and Atlantic Iberian margin, while micropaleontological biostratigraphy utilises zonations developed by the International Commission on Micro-paleontology and researchers at the University of Vienna.
Interpretations invoke shallow, warm, oligotrophic to mesotrophic marine conditions with elevated carbonate production on continental shelves and ramp settings influenced by Mediterranean circulation patterns discussed in syntheses by the European Geosciences Union and oceanographic studies from the Mediterranean Sea Research Center. Reefal frameworks and biohermal mounds indicate ecological analogues to modern systems studied by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, while sequence stratigraphers reference global sea-level curves produced by groups at the National Oceanography Centre and the Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory to explain stacking patterns.
Prominent outcrops occur across Malta where the formation caps the Maltese archipelago, in parts of Sicily and the Aeolian Islands, at coastal cliffs of Gibraltar, and as correlated units in parts of Algeria and Tunisia; occurrences are included in regional geomorphological studies by the European Commission and conservation assessments by the UNESCO and local heritage agencies. Quarries, sea-cliff exposures and borehole records documented by the Geological Survey of Malta and the U.S. Geological Survey provide key sections used for correlation across the central Mediterranean and Iberian Atlantic margin.
The limestone is a major dimension stone and aggregate resource exploited in historic architecture and modern construction in Malta and Sicily, with heritage evaluations by the Malta Environment and Planning Authority and structural assessments by engineering firms linked to University College London. Karstification yields important aquifers studied by hydrogeologists at the International Association of Hydrogeologists, while coastal erosion and slope stability problems have been addressed in risk projects supported by the European Investment Bank and civil engineering departments at the Politecnico di Milano.
The unit entered geological literature through 19th- and 20th-century surveys by scholars associated with the British Admiralty Hydrographic Office, the Geological Survey of the United Kingdom, and Italian geologists from the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei. Subsequent stratigraphic revisions and fossil descriptions were published by researchers affiliated with institutions such as the Royal Society, Academia delle Scienze di Torino, and modern university departments at University of Malta and University of Catania, leading to the current lithostratigraphic consensus used in regional geologic maps.
Category:Limestone formations