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Two microbial mound-shaped carbonate bodies buried below the slope deposits of the middle Triassic Latemar platform (Dolomites, Italy) have been studied. The two sedimentary bodies, after having reached different stages of evolution, drowned and were covered by the slopes of the Latemar carbonate platform. The estimation of the depth and time at which they were located when they were buried made it possible to infer the average rates of relative sea-level rise to which they were subjected, revealing that these latter exceeded the growth rate of the main Latemar buildup. Given the estimated rates of sea-level rise, the two satellite bodies reached a critical depth at which microbial carbonate production stops, or it is significantly reduced, before being buried. As extensional tectonics was active in the area of the Dolomites during the Anisian, subsidence is the more likely cause of sea level rise. It is therefore hypothesized that the cause of the ultimate drowning of the “mounds” were subsidence rates exceeding their aggradation potential and inducing a progressive deepening that brought them below the lower depth threshold of microbial carbonate production.

The Yanchang Formation was deposited during the Middle Triassic in a vast lacustrine basin in the modern Ordos Basin and is a main target for hydrocarbon exploration in Central China. It is divided, based on sedimentary cycles and lithology, into the Chang 10 (the oldest) to Chang 1 (the youngest) members. During the deposition of the Chang 7 Member, the Ordos lake system reached its maximum depth and large volumes of organic-rich sediments were deposited. The evolution of the Ordos Basin sedimentary system during this phase is, however, not completely understood, and uncertainty still exists as for the chronostratigraphy of Chang 7 Member. We acquired palynological markers and palynofacies and a high-resolution δ13Corg record through the entire Chang 7 Member, and a ID-TIMS 206Pb/238U date of 240.95 ± 0.033 Ma from a volcanic ash bed in the middle of this Member. These imply that the maximum deepening phase of the lacustrine system was during the earliest Ladinian. Evidence of marine influence in the Ordos Basin at that time and comparison to the sea-level oscillations observed in Western Tethys suggest that a global eustatic rise and highstand may have played a role in determining lake-level variations.

Quantitative petrologic analysis on carbonates was carried out on stratigraphic sections encompassing the Carnian Pluvial Episode from northwestern Sichuan Basin, South China and eastern Southern Alps. The Carnian Pluvial Episode, or CPE, is a period of climate change that occurred between the early Carnian and the beginning of the late Carnian (Late Triassic) and coincides with multiple, sharp negative excursions in the record of δ13C that are thought to be evidence of perturbations of the global carbon cycle. During the CPE, relevant environmental modifications and biological turnovers occurred in the marine realm. In particular, microbial carbonate platforms, that were dominant in northwestern Sichuan Basin and throughout Tethys, underwent widespread demise and the microbial component in shelf carbonate sediments sharply decreased and was replaced by ooid- and skeletal grains. Our results show a Tethys-wide coincidence between this change in the carbonate factory. Most notably, both in eastern and western Tethys microbial carbonate production recovered in the late Tuvalian, and the timing of recovery was not influenced by differences of basin evolution and geodynamic setting that characterize such distant domains.

During Middle-earlyLate Triassic(∼243–235?Ma) a diffuse igneous activity developed in the Southern Alps (Italy). Sparselava flowand pyroclastic succession remnants of such Southern Alps Triassic Igneous Rocks (SATIR) crop out in the Brescian Prealps, the Vicentinian Alps (Recoaro-Schio-Posina), Non Valley, Dolomites and Julian Alps.Plutonic rocksare found in two main plutonic complexes (Monzoni and Predazzo) and a small stock (Cima di Pape). Coeval igneous products can be traced eastward to Austria and Dinarides, for a total length of ∼450?km. The coeval formation of major late Anisian-lateLadiniancarbonate platformsin the subsiding eastern Dolomites, and significant uplift and subaerial erosion in the western Dolomites suggest, for these areas, the occurrence of large-scale strike-slip andextensional tectonicswith the development of horst-and-graben structures. This study reports the first complete review of the SATIR activity, including new mineral chemical data on 14 samples, 61 major and trace element whole rock analyses and 7 Sr-Nd-Pbisotopic ratiosfor volcanic and plutonic samples from Dolomites (lavas plus Monzoni and Predazzo plutonic rocks) and Vicentinian Alps lavas. Despite the variable post-magmatic modifications, the large areal distribution of the products and their wide spectrum of chemical compositions, these samples show rather common geochemical and mineralogical characteristics and define major and trace element trends that can be associated with nearly close-system magmatic evolution. Minor uppercrustal contaminationscan be observed in specific cases, mostly in the most differentiated products (SiO2>70?wt%). A specific characteristic of SATIR is their calcalkaline to shoshonitic affinity, resembling the derivation from subduction-modifiedmantle sources, a feature at odds with the coeval strike-slip and extensional tectonics. Geochemical modelling, petrological considerations and geological constraints allow us to propose a model in which the SATIR mantle sources reflect previous subductionmetasomatism(likely occurred duringVariscantimes). These metasomatised mantle sources were reactivated ∼90–100 Myr after the end of the subduction, when continental rifting caused a raise of the geotherms and passive upwelling of asthenospheric mantle.

The Julian Alps (western Slovenia) structurally belong to the eastern Southern Alps. The Upper Triassic succession mostly consists of shallow water platform carbonates of the Dolomia Principale-Dachstein Limestone system and a deep water succession of the Slovenian Basin outcropping in the southern foothills of the Julian Alps. In addition to the Slovenian Basin, a few other intraplatform basins were present, but they remain poorly researched and virtually ignored in the existing paleogeographic reconstructions of the eastern Southern Alps. Herein, we describe a deepening-upward succession from the Tamar Valley (north-western Slovenia), belonging to the Upper Triassic Tarvisio Basin. The lower, Julian-Tuvalian part of the section comprises peritidal to shallow subtidal carbonates (Conzen Dolomite and Portella Dolomite), and an intermediate carbonate-siliciclastic unit, reflecting increased terrigenous input and storm-influenced deposition (Julian-lowermost Tuvalian shallow-water marlstone and marly limestone of the Tor Formation). Above the drowning unconformity at the top of the Portella Dolomite, Tuvalian well-bedded dolomite with claystone intercalations follows (Carnitza Formation). The latter gradually passes into the uppermost Tuvalian–lowermost Rhaetian bedded dolomite with chert and slump breccias, deposited on a slope and/or at the toe-of-slope (Bača Dolomite). Finally, basinal thin-bedded bituminous limestone and marlstone of Rhaetian age follow (Frauenkogel Formation). The upper part of the Frauenkogel Formation contains meter-scale platform-derived limestone blocks, which are signs of platform progradation. The Tarvisio Basin may have extended as far as the present Santo Stefano di Cadore area, representing a notable paleogeographic unit at the western Neotethys margin.

Wide carbonate platform environments developed on the western passive margin of the Tethys during the Late Triassic, after a major climate change (Carnian Pluvial Episode) that produced a crisis of high-relief microbial carbonate platforms. The peritidal succession of this epicontinental platform (Dolomia Principale/Hauptdolomit, Dachstein Limestone) is widespread in the Mediterranean region. However, the start-up stage is not fully understood. The original platform to basin depositional geometries of the system have been studied in the north-eastern Southern Alps, close to the Italian/Slovenian boundary where they are exceptionally preserved. Sedimentological features have been investigated in detail by measuring several stratigraphic sections cropping out along an ideal depositional profile. The analysis of the facies architecture allowed reconstruction of the paleoenvironments of the Dolomia Principale platform during its start-up and early growth stages in the late Carnian. The carbonate platform was characterized by an outer platform area, connected northward to steep slopes facing a relatively deep basin. Southward, the outer platform was connected to inner sheltered environments by a narrow, often emerged shelf crest. Behind this zone, carbonate sedimentation occurred in shallow lagoons and tidal flats, passing inward to a siliciclastic mudflat. The Dolomia Principale platform was initially aggrading and able to keep pace with a concomitant sea-level rise, and then prograding during the late Carnian. This stratigraphic interval was correlated to the Tuvalian succession of the Dolomites, allowing depiction of the depositional system on a wide scale of hundreds of kilometrew. This large-scale depositional system presents features in common with some Palaeozoic and Mesozoic carbonate buildups (fo example, the Permian Capitan Reef complex, Anisian Latemar platform), both in terms of architecture and prevailing carbonate producers. A microbial-dominated carbonate factory is testified in the outer platform and upper slope. The recovery of high relief microbial carbonate platforms marks the end of the Carnian Pluvial Episode in the Tuvalian of Tethys. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

In the early Late Triassic a period of increased rainfall, named the Camian Pluvial Event (CPE), is evidenced by major lithological changes in continental and marine successions worldwide. The environmental change seems to be closely associated with a negative carbon isotope excursion that was identified in a stratigraphic succession of the Dolomites (Italy) but the temporal relationship between these phenomena is still not well defined. Here we present organic-carbon isotope data from Carnian deep-water stratigraphic sections in Austria and Hungary, and carbonate petrography of samples from a marginal marine section in Italy. A negative 2-4 parts per thousand delta C-13 shift is recorded by bulk organic matter in the studied sections and is coincident with a similar feature highlighted in higher plant and marine algal biomarker carbon-isotope records from the Dolomites (Italy), thus testifying to a global change in the isotopic composition of the reservoirs of the exchangeable carbon. Our new observations verify that sedimentological changes related to the CPE coincide with the carbon cycle perturbation and therefore occurred synchronously within the western Tethys. Consistent with modern observations, our results show that the injection of C-13-depleted CO2 into the Camian atmosphere-ocean system may have been directly responsible for the increase in rainfall by intensifying the Pangaean mega-monsoon activity. The consequent increased continental weathering and erosion led to the transfer of large amounts of siliciclastics into the basins that were rapidly filled up, while the increased nutrient flux triggered the local development of anoxia. The new carbonate petrography data show that these changes also coincided with the demise of platform microbial carbonate factories and their replacement with metazoan driven carbonate deposition. This had the effect of considerably decreasing carbonate deposition in shallow water environments.