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The Zambezi River rises at the center of southern Africa, flows across the low-relief Kalahari Plateau, meets Karoo basalt, plunges into Victoria Falls, follows along Karoo rifts, and pierces through Precambrian basement to eventually deliver its load onto the Mozambican passive margin. Reflecting its polyphase evolution, the river is subdivided into segments with different geological and geomorphological character, a subdivision finally fixed by man’s construction of large reservoirs and faithfully testified by sharp changes in sediment composition. Pure quartzose sand recycled from Kalahari desert dunes in the uppermost tract is next progressively enriched in basaltic rock fragments and clinopyroxene. Sediment load is renewed first downstream of Lake Kariba and next downstream of Lake Cahora Bassa, documenting a stepwise decrease in quartz and durable heavy minerals. Composition becomes quartzo-feldspathic in the lower tract, where most sediment is supplied by high-grade basements rejuvenated by the southward propagation of the East African rift. Feldspar abundance in Lower Zambezi sand has no equivalent among big rivers on Earth and far exceeds that in sediments of the northern delta, shelf, and slope, revealing that provenance signals from the upper reaches have ceased to be transmitted across the routing system after closure of the big dams. This high-resolution petrologic study of Zambezi sand allows us to critically reconsider several dogmas, such as the supposed increase of mineralogical “maturity” during long-distance fluvial transport, and forges a key to unlock the rich information stored in sedimentary archives, with the ultimate goal to accurately reconstruct the evolution of this mighty river flowing across changing African landscapes since the late Mesozoic.

Terrigenous input is often considered detrimental for carbonate producing organisms, however, the common occurrence of mixed siliciclastic–bioclastic deposits indicates that the relationship between carbonate factories and terrigenous fluxes is a complex issue. To investigate this subject, we analyzed the skeletal assemblages of the Paleogene Alpine foreland basin in a wide area encompassing NW Italy and SE France. Four different sections, Mortola, Loreto, Braux and Lauzanier, deposited between the Bartonian and the Priabonian, were studied in detail and, based on microfacies analysis, six main biofacies were recognized: i) nummulitid biofacies and ii) acervulinid and coralline algal biofacies related to shallow water; iii) nummulitid and orthophragminid biofacies and iv) coralline-algal branches and large benthic foraminifera biofacies related to intermediate depth; v) orthophragminid biofacies and vi) orthophragminid and coralline algal biofacies related to deeper settings. Thin sections and X-ray diffraction analyses show that these biofacies can be related to two major carbonate factories. The former was dominated by free-living benthic foraminifera and was characterized by a relevant terrigenous fraction, indicating free-living benthic foraminifera as the most terrigenous-tolerant group of carbonate producers of the Nummulitic Limestone system. The latter was dominated by encrusting acervulinids and coralline algae and thrived far-off major terrigenous sources. Conversely, recent and Neogene coralline algae are known to be able to tolerate high sedimentation rates. The distribution of coralline-algal-rich skeletal assemblages in the Nummulitic Limestone thus hints that Eocene coralline algae might have been fundamentally different (probably less adaptable) than their more modern counterparts.

The Indo-Burman Ranges (IBR) are a mountain range comprised of Mesozoic-Cenozoic rocks which run the length of Western Myanmar, extending into India and Bangladesh; to the west lies the Indian Ocean, and to the east lies the Central Myanmar Basin (CMB) along which the Irrawaddy River flows. The IBR are considered to be an accretionary prism, developed at the juncture of the Indian and Sunda plates, and a number of hypotheses have been proposed for their evolution. However, in order for these hypotheses to be evaluated, the timing of IBR evolution needs to be determined. We undertook a two-pronged approach to determining the timing of uplift of the IBR. (1) We present the first low-temperature thermochronological age elevation profiles of the IBR using ZFT, AFT and ZHe techniques. Our data show: a major period of exhumation occurred around the time of the Oligo-Miocene boundary; we tentatively suggest, subject to further verification, an additional period of exhumation at or before the late Eocene. (2) We carried out a detailed multi-technique provenance study of the sedimentary rocks of the IBR and Arakan Coastal region to their west, and compared data to coeval rocks of the CMB. We determined that during Eocene times, rocks of the CMB and IBR were derived from similar local provenance, that of the Myanmar arc to the east. Therefore at this time there was an open connection from arc to ocean. By contrast, by Miocene times, provenance diverged. Rocks of the CMB were deposited by a through-flowing Irrawaddy River, with detritus derived from its upland source region of the Mogok Metamorphic Belt and Cretaceous-Paleogene granites to the north. Such a provenance is not recorded in coeval rocks of the IBR, indicating that the IBR had uplifted by this time, providing a barrier to transport of material to the west. To the previously published list of viable proposals to explain the exhumation of the range, we add a new suggestion: the period of exhumation around the time of

Provenance analysis of IODP Expedition 355 cores in the Laxmi Basin sheds new light on the erosional evolution of the Himalayan belt and its western syntaxis during the Neogene and on large-scale mass-wasting and magmatic events that affected the western continental margin of India in the mid-Miocene and early Paleocene. In the cored Laxmi Basin succession, heavy minerals are far less affected by selective diagenetic dissolution than in forelandbasin sandstones exposed along the Himalayan front. Occurrence of euhedral aegirine and apatite in lower Paleocene mudrocks can be tied to alkaline volcanism affecting the adjacent western Indian margin during the late stage of Deccan activity. In the mid-Miocene Nataraja Slide (the second-largest mass-transport deposit reported from passive margins worldwide), dominant carbonate detritus and depleted heavy-mineral suites (including apatite, garnet, and locally augite or rare aegirine) reveal gravitational failure and sliding of the entire succession of carbonate and siliciclastic Paleogene to lower Neogene strata originally accumulated offshore of the Saurashtra margin of western India. Contrary to previous inferences, reworking of Indus-derived detritus by the slide was negligible. The overlying upper Miocene to lower Pleistocene turbidite package has the same feldspatho-litho-quartzose to litho-feldspathoquartzose signature of modern Indus fluvio-deltaic sand, indicating that amphibolite-facies metamorphic rocks have been widely exposed in the Himalaya–Karakorum orogen since at least the mid-Miocene. Pleistocene nannofossil oozes with planktonic foraminifera at the top of the fan contain a very subordinate litho-feldspatho-quartzose terrigenous fraction including augitic clinopyroxene, suggesting mixing of dominant biogenic debris with minor detritus contributed both by the Indus River and by a river draining western peninsular India, possibly the paleo-Narmada or the paleo-Tapti.

The Greater Caucasus form the northernmost deformation front of the Arabia-Eurasia collision zone. Earlier thermochronometric studies on the crystalline core of the western Greater Caucasus highlighted an abrupt along-strike increase in cooling ages to the west of Mt. Elbrus. Twenty-eight thermochronometric analyses conducted as part of this study confirm this pattern. Overall Cenozoic exhumation was restricted to less than 5–7 km, with slow to moderate punctuated Oligo-Miocene cooling. Cooling rates increased during the Late Miocene to Pliocene. These are most rapid east of Mt. Elbrus, where they probably increased later than farther west (at c. 5 Ma rather than 10–8 Ma). Differential cooling rates do not appear to be driven by lateral variations in tectonic shortening. The region undergoing rapid young cooling does coincide, however, with an area of mantle-sourced Late Miocene and younger magmatism. Thermal relaxation or overprinting is ruled out because geomorphic and modern sediment flux data mirror the thermochronometric trends. The buoyancy effects of demonstrable mantle upwelling are capable of causing the magnitude of exhumation-related cooling recorded in this study, but typically act over wavelengths of several 100 km. We suggest that lithospheric heterogeneities are responsible for modulating the shorter wavelength differences in exhumation rate documented here. These heterogeneities may include the continuation of the same structures responsible for the eastern margin of the Stavropol High to the north of the Caucasus, although further work is required. Similar abrupt variations in mantle-supported uplift and exhumation modulated by crustal structure may occur in other mountain belts worldwide.

The Upper Palaeozoic Godar-e-Siah Complex of Jandaq, Central Iran, comprises three isolated, fault-bounded outcrops exposing Palaeozoic fossiliferous carbonates, volcanics and siliciclastics, which are markedly distinct from the surrounding sedimentary successions. The three outcrops, that emerge below Cretaceous and younger sediments, are the Chah Rizab outcrop, the Godar-e-Siah northern outcrop, and the Godar-e-Siah central outcrop. Their sedimentary successions strongly differ from the typical passive margin successions of Gondwanan affinity that characterize the Yazd, Lut and Tabas blocks of Central Iran and the Alborz in North Iran. To understand the origin of these profound differences, we first calibrated the age of the Jandaq successions: U-Pb radiometric zircons ages, obtained from granitoid boulders in the conglomerates at Chah Rizab and in the Godar-e-Siah northern outcrop, gave a Late Devonian to Mississippian age. Biostratigraphic data from brachiopods and fusulinids from the Godar-e-Siah northern and central outcrops indicate a Pennsylvanian age. The age of the successions is thus post-Visean to Pennsylvanian. The petrographic composition of the siliciclastic deposits indicates the erosion of a magmatic arc. To understand where the Jandaq complex could have been located at that time, we have assessed the palaeobiogeographic affinity of the faunas. The collected brachiopods and fusulinids assemblages are mostly similar to coeval faunas from Spain, Donbass, Urals, and Yukon Territory (Canada) and have a North-Palaeotethyan affinity. The Godar-e-Siah Complex of Jandaq likely represents part of the southern active margin of Eurasia (northern margin of the Palaeotethys), in contrast to the surrounding Central and North Iran blocks, which were at that time located along the southern margin of the Neotethys. Our investigations confirm a complex palaeogeographic evolution for the studied outcrops, suggesting that they represent fragments of the southern Eurasi

This work reconstructs a now completely eroded late Eocene to earliest Oligocene carbonate factory of Northern Italy, through the analysis of a carbonate deep-water-fan sequence (Ternate-Travedona Formation) and the limestone detritus dispersed into the late Oligocene clastic-wedge of the Gonfolite Lombarda Group. Textural characteristics and skeletal assemblages of the Gonfolite pebbles were studied and compared to those of the Ternate-Travedona Formation. The same skeletal assemblage and the same taxa were found in samples from both areas, suggesting their common origin. Whereas the Ternate-Travedona Formation skeletal grains were reworked during transport, the Gonfolite Lombarda Group pure-limestone pebbles are pristine fragments of the carbonate platform, that was uplifted and eroded from the late Eocene to the early Oligocene. Using both these sources of information it was possible to reconstruct the late Eocene environment and its facies distribution. The areas undergoing high hydrodynamic energy were dominated by free-living coralline-algal branches, rhodoliths and larger thick-tested benthic foraminifera. A coralline framework, associated with thin-tested benthic foraminifera and boxwork rhodoliths, was present in slightly deeper and sheltered environments. Episodic debris flows, mainly triggered by river floods, supplied the sub-marine fan of the Ternate-Travedona Formation. These events were able to down-cut through the narrow platform and rip off large fragments of the substrate. River runoff probably also supplied large quantities of organic matter, leading to local oxygen-depletion and preservation of organic matter. The combined stressful effects of bottom instability and riverine discharge probably excluded corals from the association. The integrated study of the Ternate-Travedona Formation, and of the limestone pebbles in the Gonfolite Group, have enabled the reconstruction of this otherwise lost Eocene carbonate factory.

This study illustrates the petrographic, heavy-mineral, geochemical and geochronological signatures of sand transported by various branches of the Irrawaddy (Ayeyarwadi) River, one of the first in the world for sediment flux. Intrasample and intersample compositional variability, weathering and hydraulic-sorting controls are also discussed. Feldspatho-quartzose sand in Irrawaddy headwaters is largely derived first-cycle from mid-crustal metamorphic and plutonic rocks of the Mogok Belt and Lohit complex, whereas feldspatho-litho-quartzose Chindwin sand is largely recycled from supracrustal, sedimentary and very low-grade metasedimentary units. Additional mafic to ultramafic detritus is derived from ophiolites and blueschists exposed from the Indo-Burman Ranges to the Jade Mines and Myitkyina belts, linked northward to the Yarlung-Tsangpo suture of the Himalaya. Volcanic detritus derived from the Popa-Wuntho arc or recycled from forearc-basin strata also occurs. Decreasing concentration of most chemical elements along the Irrawaddy reflects progressive addition of detritus recycled from sedimentary rocks, most evident downstream of the Chindwin confluence. REE patterns with LREE enrichment and negative Eu anomaly reflect the occurrence of allanite, largely derived from granitoid rocks in the Mali catchment. Chemical indices indicate moderate weathering in the monsoon-dominated climate of Myanmar. Young U-Pb ages (15–170 Ma) represent 85% of detrital zircons in Irrawaddy headwater branches, reflecting long-lasting subduction-related magmatism along a ring of fire connecting with the southern and central Lhasa batholiths in Tibet and polyphase metamorphism in the Mogok belt. Chindwin sand contains larger amounts of finer-grained, recycled pre-Mesozoic zircons, also yielding early Mesoproterozoic to Archean ages. Such different petrographic, heavy-mineral, geochemical and geochronological fingerprints characterizing sand in different river branches allowed us to calculat

We use quantitative provenance analysis (geochemical analysis; high- resolution bulk-petrography and heavy-mineral analysis, exploratory compositional data analysis and Aitchison distance) on present-day river sediments of the Changjiang (Yangtze) River to quantify the contributions of each tributary to the Changjiang River Delta, and thus to evaluate sediment provenance in the distinct p arts of the drainage basin.

The Changjiang, the fourth longest river on Earth and the largest in Eurasia, has a complex sediment-routing system presently interrupted by the Three Gorges Dam, the world's largest hydroelectric engineering project. To study sediment-generation processes in the huge catchment and compare the different erosion patterns obtained by different methodological approaches, high-resolution petrographic and heavy-mineral analyses were performed on sands from the trunk river and its major tributaries. The frequency distributions of diverse groups of detrital amphiboles were also investigated. Rigorous statistical methods were used to define end-members, evaluate mineralogical variability, assess similarities among samples, and eventually calculate the relative contributions from each major tributary to the trunk river by forward end-member modelling of integrated compositional data. The litho-quartzose sand with few heavy minerals generated in Tibetan headwaters evolves downstream to feldspatho-litho-quartzose with medium-rank metamorphic rock fragments and moderately rich amphibole-epidote suites. Sand across the Sichuan basin and as far as the Three Gorges Dam is enriched in mafic volcanic, clinopyroxene, and carbonate grains eroded from Permian basalts and Paleozoic strata of the South China Block. The final (Yangtze) tract is characterized by litho-feldspatho-quartzose sand with moderately poor, amphibole-dominated suites with epidote, clinopyroxene, and garnet. The orogenic compositional signature acquired in the upper part of the basin is thus carried all the way to the Chinese passive margin, as observed also for the Yellow River in the north. Even after long-distance transport across wide continental areas, detrital modes thus reveal the tectonic character of the source rather than the geodynamic environment of the sink.Quantitative provenance analysis indicates that left-bank tributaries draining the Longmen and Qinlin mountains supply most of the sand reaching the

The Pamirs represent the indented westward continuation of the northern margin of the Tibetan Plateau, dividing the Tarim and Tajik basins. Their evolution may be a key factor influencing aridification of the Asian interior, yet the tectonics of the Pamir Salient are poorly understood. We present a provenance study of the Aertashi section, a Paleogene to late Neogene clastic succession deposited in the Tarim basin to the north of the NW margin of Tibet (the West Kunlun) and to the east of the Pamirs. Our detrital zircon U-Pb ages coupled with zircon fission track, bulk rock Sm-Nd, and petrography data document changes in contributing source terranes during the Oligocene to Miocene, which can be correlated to regional tectonics. We propose a model for the evolution of the Pamir and West Kunlun (WKL), in which the WKL formed topography since at least ~200 Ma. By ~25 Ma, movement along the Pamir-bounding faults such as the Kashgar-Yecheng Transfer System had commenced, marking the onset of Pamir indentation into the Tarim-Tajik basin. This is coincident with basinward expansion of the northern WKL margin, which changed the palaeodrainage pattern within the Kunlun, progressively cutting off the more southerly WKL sources from the Tarim basin. An abrupt change in the provenance and facies of sediments at Aertashi has a maximum age of 14 Ma; this change records when the Pamir indenter had propagated sufficiently far north that the North Pamir was now located proximal to the Aertashi region.

We present a detailed sediment-provenance study on the modern Euphrates-Tigris-Karun fluvial system and Mesopotamian foreland basin, one of the cradles of humanity. Our rich petrographic and heavy-mineral dataset, integrated by sand geochemistry and U–Pb age spectra of detrital zircons, highlights the several peculiarities of this large source-to-sink sediment-routing system and widens the spectrum of compositions generally assumed as paradigmatic for orogenic settings. Comparison of classical static versus upgraded dynamic petrologic models enhances the power of provenance analysis, and allows us to derive a more refined conceptual model of reference and to verify the limitations of the approach. Sand derived from the Anatolia-Zagros orogen contains abundant lithic grains eroded from carbonates, cherts, mudrocks, arc volcanics, obducted ophiolites and ophiolitic mélanges representing the exposed shallow structural level of the orogen, with relative scarcity of quartz, K-feldspar and mica. This quartz-poor petrographic signature, characterizing the undissected composite tectonic domain of the entire Anatolia-Iranian plateau, is markedly distinct from that of sand shed by more elevated and faster-eroding collision orogens such as the Himalaya. Arid climate in the region allows preservation of chemically unstable grains including carbonate rock fragments and locally even gypsum, and reduces transport capacity of fluvial systems, which dump most of their load in Mesopotamian marshlands upstream of the Arabian/Persian Gulf allochemical carbonate factory. Quartz-poor sediment from the Anatolia-Zagros orogen mixes with quartz-rich recycled sands from Arabia along the western side of the foreland basin, and is traced all along the Gulf shores as far as the Rub' al-Khali sand sea up to 4000 km from Euphrates headwaters.

In this paper, we describe the upper Cisuralian Safetdara and Gundara formations of the Darvaz mountains, North Pamir, which were part of the Kunlun Arc, developed along the active Eurasian margin. The Safetdara Formation comprises massive limestones (mainly cyanobacterial, Tubiphytes and Archaeolithoporella boundstones) alternating with well-bedded bioclastic and oncoidal limestones and an interval of recessive shales. The formation crops out above the Chelamchi Formation consisting of turbiditic siltstones and sandstones with bioclastic silty limestones yielding massive limestone olistoliths. The Gundara Formation consists of fine sandstones at the base, followed by well-bedded marly bioclastic, oncoidal and microbial limestones, bearing a rich silicified brachiopod fauna in life-position. Two new taxa have been identified in this association: the cemented coralliform Gundaria insolita n. gen. n. sp. and the pedicle attached Hemileurus politus n. sp. The inferred environmental setting is that of shoal deposits of warm, shallow, high energy, clear marine waters for the Safetdara Formation. The agglutinated microbial reefs to cluster reefs of the Gundara Formation were probably growing in a muddier, quieter and probably slightly deeper setting. The foraminifers of the Brevaxina Zone suggest a Bolorian age for the top of the Chelamchi Formation, the Safetdara Formation and the base of the Gundara Formation. Kungurian conodonts have been found in the lower part of the Safetdara Formation. The biostratigraphic data from the sedimentary succession of North Pamir, integrated with those already obtained from Southeast Pamir, allow to refine the correlations between the Tethyan regional scale and the International Time Scale. In particular, it seems now clear that the Bolorian and the lower part of the Kubergandian correlate to the Kungurian.

Sand migration in the vast Taklamakan desert within the Tarim Basin (Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous region, PR China) is governed by two competing transport agents: wind and water, which work in diametrically opposed directions. Net aeolian transport is from northeast to south, while fluvial transport occurs from the south to the north and then west to east at the northern rim, due to a gradual northward slope of the underlying topography. We here present the first comprehensive provenance study of Taklamakan desert sand with the aim to characterise the interplay of these two transport mechanisms and their roles in the formation of the sand sea, and to consider the potential of the Tarim Basin as a contributing source to the Chinese Loess Plateau (CLP). Our dataset comprises 39 aeolian and fluvial samples, which were characterised by detrital-zircon U-Pb geochronology, heavy-mineral, and bulk-petrography analyses. Although the inter-sample differences of all three datasets are subtle, a multivariate statistical analysis using multidimensional scaling (MDS) clearly shows that Tarim desert sand is most similar in composition to rivers draining the Kunlun Shan (south) and the Pamirs (west), and is distinctly different from sediment sources in the Tian Shan (north). A small set of samples from the Junggar Basin (north of the Tian Shan) yields different detrital compositions and age spectra than anywhere in the Tarim Basin, indicating that aeolian sediment exchange between the two basins is minimal. Although river transport dominates delivery of sand into the Tarim Basin, wind remobilises and reworks the sediment in the central sand sea. Characteristic signatures of main rivers can be traced from entrance into the basin to the terminus of the Tarim River, and those crossing the desert from the south to north can seasonally bypass sediment through the sand sea. Smaller ephemeral rivers from the Kunlun Shan end in the desert and discharge their sediment there. Both river run-o

Marine accumulations of terrigenous sediment are widely assumed to accurately record climatic- and tectonic-controlled mountain denudation and play an important role in understanding late Cenozoic mountain uplift and global cooling. Underpinning this is the assumption that the majority of sediment eroded from hinterland orogenic belts is transported to and ultimately stored in marine basins with little lag between erosion and deposition. Here we use a detailed and multi-technique sedimentary provenance dataset from the Yellow River to show that substantial amounts of sediment eroded from Northeast Tibet and carried by the river/'s upper reach are stored in the Chinese Loess Plateau and the western Mu Us desert. This finding revises our understanding of the origin of the Chinese Loess Plateau and provides a potential solution for mismatches between late Cenozoic terrestrial sedimentation and marine geochemistry records, as well as between global CO2 and erosion records., Supplementary information available for this article at http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2015/151009/ncomms9511/suppinfo/ncomms9511_S1.html

Marine accumulations of terrigenous sediment are widely assumed to accurately record climatic- and tectonic-controlled mountain denudation and play an important role in understanding late Cenozoic mountain uplift and global cooling. Underpinning this is the assumption that the majority of sediment eroded from hinterland orogenic belts is transported to and ultimately stored in marine basins with little lag between erosion and deposition. Here we use a detailed and multi-technique sedimentary provenance dataset from the Yellow River to show that substantial amounts of sediment eroded from Northeast Tibet and carried by the river's upper reach are stored in the Chinese Loess Plateau and the western Mu Us desert. This finding revises our understanding of the origin of the Chinese Loess Plateau and provides a potential solution for mismatches between late Cenozoic terrestrial sedimentation and marine geochemistry records, as well as between global CO 2 and erosion records.

Here, we describe the Permian-Lower Triassic sedimentary succession of South Pamir and the associated biota of conodonts, foraminifers and brachiopods. The studied succession comprises the Carboniferous-Lower Permian siliciclastic Uruzbulak and Tashkazyk formations (Bazar Dara Group), which are unconformably covered by upper Lower to Upper Permian units, deposited both in platform settings (Kurteke Formation), and on the slope and basin (Kochusu Formation, Shindy Formation, Kubergandy Formation, Gan Formation, and Takhtabulak Formation). These formations comprise bioclastic limestones, cherty limestones, shales, volcaniclastic rocks, basalts, sandstones and conglomerates, and are locally very rich in fossils (fusulinids, ammonoids, brachiopods, corals and conodonts). The Permian succession is then overlain by shallow water carbonates of the Induan to Anisian Karatash Group. Subsidence analysis and volcanics of the Permian and overlying Triassic successions constrains the timing of rifting of South Pamir from Gondwana in the Early Permian (=Cisuralian), and its docking to Central Pamir, the Eurasian margin and the interposed volcanic arcs at the end of the Triassic. The sedimentary successions of the Pamirs represent a key-point to refine the correlations between the Tethyan regional scale and the International Time Scale. The analyses of the fusulinids and conodonts of the Kubergandian and Murgabian stratotypes of SE Pamir suggest that: (1) the upper Bolorian and the lower part of the Kubergandian correlate to the upper Kungurian; (2) the upper Kubergandian and the lower Murgabian correlate to the Roadian; (3) the mid-upper Murgabian correlates to the Wordian; (4) possibly the uppermost Murgabian and the lower Midian correlate to the lower Capitanian.The Kubergandian is thus a defined regional stage, based on fusulinids, ammonoids and conodonts and can be correlated to the Kungurian and the Roadian; still problematic remains the Murgabian correlation which needs to

The carbonate platforms of the Tertiary Alpine basins (Northalpine Molassa and Southalpine Foredeep basin) are shaped by the different geodynamic settings. According to the classification of Bosence (2005-Sed.Geo.), the Northalpine basin hosted a foreland margin platform (Nummulitic Limestones), whereas the Southalpine basin probably hosted a thurst-top platform that supplied the shallow-water carbonate turbidites of the Ternate Formation. Actually, this latter carbonate platform is no more present, rapidly eroded during the Oligo-Miocene evolution of the Southern Alps, but a paleoecological reconstruction have been provided by Coletti et al. (in prep.) through the analysis of pebbles encountered in the Oligo-Miocene siliciclastic turbidite fan of the Gonfolite Lombarda Group. Here, we first reconstructed the suitable conditions of rise and growth of this narrow platform on top of the active thrusts of the Southern Alps during the Eocene and Early Oligocene, and then investigated the geodynamic processes that have contributed to killing it in the Early Oligocene. We envisaged a top-thrust platform grown up in front of gentle relieves of Jurassic to Cretaceous sedimentary covers, as suggested by the abundant and angular Mesozoic pebbles encountered in the turbidite fan of the Ternate Formation. The large presence of mass flow deposits and marly, often plurimetric soft clasts also suggests that a small, instable delta was frequently discharging terrigenous detritus through flash flood events moving across the platform deep into the basin. The abrupt disappearance of re-sedimented shallow-water carbonates probably corresponded to the death of the platform soon after the Early Oligocene, but doubts are still present on the causes that triggered it. The temporal gap (at least 5 Ma) that divides the top of the Ternate Formation and the first clastic inputs of the Gonfolite Lombarda Group (~27 Ma) may indicate that the onset of the major phase of growth of the Alpine belt