Travertines as self regulating carbonate systems . Evolutionary trends and classification

Travertines are widespread in Central and Southern Italy, where they formed mostly during late Quaternary times, either from ambient or from hot waters, and now crop out as lensoid bodies up to some square kilometres in extent and several metres in thickness. These deposits, at present-day exceptionally forming, result essentially from calcareous incrustations on plant templates and can be described in terms of textures and sedimentary structures, like marine carbonate rocks. On these bases several lithofacies and lithofacies associations can be identified, the latter corresponding to spécifie sedimentary environments, grouped into complex depositional systems. The evolutionary trends recorded in the travertine bodies show many analogies with carbonate platform systems.

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