From the Apulia Foreland to the Bradanic Trough: a one-day geological field trip "jumping" from Cretaceous to Pleistocene in the Murge area (Puglia, southern Italy)

This one-day field trip offers the opportunity to investigate the stratigraphic and sedimentological features of an area within the Alta Murgia National Park that includes the geographic boundary between the foreland (Murge) and the foredeep (Premurge) of the southern Apennines orogenic system. The focus of this field trip is to show the facies associations forming the outcropping sedimentary units and the relationships between tectonics and sedimentation. The sequence of stops follow a temporal thread starting with the observation of the stratigraphic architecture of peritidal facies associations forming the Upper Cretaceous section of Cava Pontrelli, an international geosite hosting one of the largest dinosaur footprint sites in the world. Then, the second stop shows the role of syn-sedimentary tectonics on the deposition of shallow-marine carbonate deposits of the Calcarenite di Gravina Fm during the Pliocene-Pleistocene along some well-exposed natural outcrops. The third stop shows a Gilbert-type delta facies association in the Calcarenite di Gravina Fm formed at the base of an escarpment representing the structural element of conjunction between the foreland and the foredeep. This escarpment corresponds to an ancient fault plane in erosional recession formed into the Cretaceous bedrock. The last stop illustrates the historical use of local building and ornamental stones that form the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Castel del Monte.