Source and Sediment : A Case Study of Provenance and Mass Balance at an Active Plate Margin (Calabria, Southern Italy)

Deciphering provenance - this is the study of how far geology, geomorphology and climate of a source, a mountainous area, may be reconstructable from its erosional products released to the sea; from gravel and sand, from silt, sand, clay which recombine to form a new cycle of rocks. The purpose of this book is to give a quantitative picture of both source and sediment and the masses involved in the flux of material; based on a modern case study in Calabria, southern Italy, a mountain range which is part of an active plate margin. High erosion rates in the past (200mm/ka), and dramatic ones at present (1500mm/ka), make the area a powerful source of sediment comparable to orogenic conditions of the geological past. The book presents the first systematic, quantitative and data-bank supported study - here a larger source with small rivers and their sedimentary products - of the complex topic of provenance of terrigenous sediments and related mass balances at an active plate margin. It may serve as an orientation for corresponding research in other plate tectonic realms. Front Matter....Pages I-IX Introduction....Pages 1-3 Front Matter....Pages 5-5 Position and Geological Framework....Pages 6-14 Basins and Channel Network....Pages 15-29 Altitude and Slopes....Pages 30-45 Climate and Vegetation....Pages 46-50 Rock Units and Their Regional Distribution....Pages 51-64 Erosion and Predicted Sediment Composition....Pages 65-80 Water Budget and Dissolved Load....Pages 81-88 Composition of Rocks and Soils....Pages 89-109 Front Matter....Pages 111-111 Development of the Chemical Composition of Sand....Pages 112-123 Development of Grain-Size Distributions....Pages 124-142 Development of Gravel Sphericity....Pages 143-146 Special Topics of Sediment Development of Lower River Course and Beach....Pages 147-155 Front Matter....Pages 157-157 River-Mouth Gravel....Pages 158-170 River-Mouth Sand, Silt and Clay....Pages 171-191 Front Matter....Pages 193-193 Mass Balances on Land....Pages 194-206 Mass Balances in the Marine Realm....Pages 207-217 Comparison of Source and Sediment: a Multivariate Approach....Pages 218-226 Summary and Conclusion....Pages 227-232 Back Matter....Pages 233-286