Field Trips

The field trip focuses on the outcropping upper Triassic-Lower Jurassic Po Valley carbonate petroleum system of the central Southern Alps. Two dolomitic reservoirs present different petrophysical properties in relation to various dolomitization processes: examples of early and burial dolomitization models will be shown and discussed.

The shores of Lake Iseo allow examination of the reservoir equivalent to the subsurface Norian Dolomia Principale early dolomitized peritidal platform and microbialitic margin facies, their coeval intraplatform basin source rocks and the overlying Hettangian platform characterized by multiphase burial dolomitization.

Outcrops around Lake Lugano and in the Varese region are deemed equivalent to the Middle Triassic-Lower Jurassic Po Valley petroleum system of the Western Southern Alps. There basinal middle Triassic organic rich carbonate and shale (Besano and Meride formations) and Middle Triassic-Early Jurassic dolomitic reservoirs are well exposed providing clues to the understanding of the Villafortuna-Trecate Field. Additional emphasis is placed on the complex polyphase extensional Mesozoic tectonics.

The trip includes an introductory Core Workshop at eni’s lab.

The field trip area is located in Central Italy and lies in the external portion of the Apenninic Thrust and Fold Belt.

The purpose of the field trip is examining the Late Miocene foredeep (Laga Formation) and Early Pliocene turbiditic systems (Cellino Formation) as well as the shelfal lobes and coarse grained turbidites infilling the piggy-back basins that developed in Late Early Pliocene to Late Pliocene time. Facies, geometries, architectures and the overall tectonic-sedimentary evolution will be illustrated by means of outcrops, well log correlations, log/outcrop/seismic correlations and seismic imaging.

This field trip focuses on Middle and Upper Triassic carbonate platforms and coeval basinal units. High relief isolated carbonate edifices will be visited, together with low-relief platforms and ramp systems. Clastics sealed drowned carbonate pinnacles associated with potential source shales will be examined. Sedimentary facies will be discussed within their seismic scale depositional geometry and framed into a high-resolution chrono- and sequence stratigraphy scheme. The genetic connection linking carbonate producing systems, platform slopes and basinal environment will be discussed. The role played in the formation of potential source, seal and reservoir units by a changing paleoclimate framework, varying terrigenous input and the active syndepositional tectonics will be debated.

A limited number of scholarships are available for students interested in participating in Field Trip 3 – Triassic Platform and Basinal Bodies of the Dolomites as Outcrop Analogues for Hydrocarbon Carbonate Systems. To apply for a scholarship please indicate your interest for acquiring funds by selecting the box requesting scholarship information during the online registration process. Students that are selected to receive a scholarship for field trip 3 must pay US $50. To ensure a spot in this field trip we suggest that you select trip 3 at the time of registration, you will be charged the full fee. If you apply and are selected, your account will be credited the difference. If you are not selected for a scholarship you will be required to pay the published rate.

The field trip illustrates the structural setting of the Sicilian collisional complex, including its gently deformed foreland.

A traverse along the recently acquired Siripro crustal seismic profile, from the Tyrrhenian Shore to the Gela Field, allows correlation between outcropping and buried structures providing new insights on the imbricated carbonate thrust system of the Northern belt, the very thick Caltanissetta trough and the dramatic flexure of the Iblean foreland crust.

This trip will develop along four main N-S transects, including the Western Madonie shallow and deepwater carbonates, the Eastern Sicanian thrust system, the structured Central Sicily Messinian Evaporites, the Pleistocene thrust-top basins and the deformed Iblean foreland.

Besides geology, the region offers beautiful landscapes and celebrated archaeological remains.

The field trip will focus on different Late- to post-Variscan, largescale dolomitization types and phases of Cambrian and Ordovician carbonates in the SW Sardinia (Iglesiente) Zn-Pb-Ba district. Spectacular outcrops of the original carbonates and their dolomitized counterparts will be observed, with emphasis on the geometry of dolomitization fronts and the structural control exerted by Variscan cleavage on dolomite textures (zebra-type, geodes, breccia cements). The genesis of several dolomite generations will be discussed within the geological evolution and related fluid flows from the rifted margin stages to collisional tectonics and exhumation.

The subjects of this field trip are the stratigraphy, facies and processes of foredeep turbidites of the Marnoso-arenacea Formation (MaF, Langhian-Tortonian) outcropping in the north-eastern Apennines. This field trip will be focused on two specific aspects of the MaF sedimentation: 1) synsedimentary structural controls affecting the MaF turbidites deposited in an elongate, NW-stretched foredeep in front of the growing Northern Apennines orogenic wedge and 2) vertical facies changes of the MaF stratigraphic succession (about 4,000 m thick) in relation to the progressive closure and upilft of the foredeep. An introduction to the geology and stratigraphy of the northern Apennines will be provided.

This field seminar gives participants a chance to look at the complex interplay of sedimentology, diagenesis, crustal-scale structuring and local strain patterns that developed since Triassic in the Apulian carbonate platforms of the southern Apennines fold and thrust belt (southern Italy). Integrated descriptions and interpretations of spectacular outcrops allow considering the following aspects and their strong inter-relations:

• Sedimentary, stratigraphic and reservoir characteristics — exposed carbonates range from Cretaceous to Pliocene in age and were deposited in environments ranging from highenergy shallow water platforms to deepwater slope and basin depositional settings. The contrasting facies have different properties in terms of lithology (grain size, sorting), petrophysics (porosity and permeability), reservoir unit dimensions, and mechanical behavior.
• Multiscale and multi-phase structural evolution — the tectonickinematic evolution of the Apennine fold and thrust belt produced different deformation processes. These processes occurred at very different scales (from regional to sub-seismic) and at different stages of the geological history of the area, ranging from early rifting to orogeny and late exhumation.

The same carbonate units will be observed in different tectonic settings (foreland and thrust belt) to verify the impact of structural position on the development of fracture and fault networks.

The trip focuses on the reconnaissance and time-space organization of complex freshwater carbonate bodies, their poro-permeability characteristics (including synsedimentary karst), cyclicity and climatic control, as well as analogies and differences with respect to larger marine carbonate growth forms. Large travertine bodies capable of modifying the substrate morphology will be seen in detail as well as travertine slopes of varying gradient, passing upwards to lacustrine deposits and frontally to waterfalls. Evidence for depositional rates is provided by the ruins of the Greek-Roman town of Paestum (to be visited) which was founded on a travertine basement and fossilized by tufa about 1,000 years ago.