Sedimentary facies analysis in paleoclimatic reconstructions. Examples from the Upper Miocene-Pliocene successions of south-central Tuscany (Italy).

One of the purposes of the workshop on ‘Climatic and environmental changes in the Neogene of Europe’, was to assemble different points of view on problems which by their nature need a multidisciplinary approach. Climatic and environmental changes can be detected in the geologic record by palaeontologists, sedimentologists and geochemists, through integration of their efforts. The goal of this paper is to show how sedimentology can contribute to such multidisciplinary studies. Facies analysis has acquired a great importance in the detailed study of sedimentary deposits. A facies is a rock or sediment unit distinguishable from others on the basis of its specific aspect (from Latin facies) including lithologic, sedimentologic, and biologic features. A sedimentary facies records the physical, chemical or biological processes operating during sedimentation. Facies associations and sequences (the spatial arrangement of facies) provide information on the depositional environments and on their dynamics. Selected examples from Upper Miocene–Pliocene continental and shallow marine deposits filling some post-collisional basins in southern and central Tuscany (central Italy, Fig. 17.1a), will show in the following paragraphs, the potentialities and limits of facies analysis as an integrative tool for palaeoclimatic reconstructions.