Mass‐Transport Deposits in the Foredeep Basin of the Miocene Cervarola Sandstones Formation (Northern Apennines, Italy)

In this chapter, we discuss different types of mass‐transport deposits that characterize foredeep basins. In particular, we have focused on the Cervarola Sandstones Formation, Aquitanian‐Burdigalian in age, which was deposited in a northwest‐southeast elongate foredeep basin forming at the front of the growing Northern Apennine orogenic wedge. Within the turbiditic succession, three types of mass‐transport deposits can be observed: (i) extrabasinal basin wide olistostromes that mark the base and the top of the turbiditic succession and are related to the allochthonous unit advancement, (ii) intrabasinal slumps related to the activity of tectonic structures internal to the basin, and (iii) particular megabeds, six in number, characterizing the turbiditic succession. We have described each type of mass‐transport deposit in detail, giving an interpretation of the related depositional processes and introducing a facies model for megaturbidites. Finally, a paleogeographic model has been proposed, which describes the meaning of each mass‐transport deposit type in the foredeep basin framework.