Cavazza, W., Blenkinsop, J., DeCelles, P.G., Patterson, R.T., and Reinhardt, E.D., 1997, Stratigrafia e sedimentologia della sequenza sedimentaria oligocenico-quaternaria del bacino calabro-ionico: Bollettino della Societa Geologica Italiana, 116:51-77.
The substantial Quaternary uplift of the Calabrian peninsula (southern Italy) has extensively exposed a thick sedimentary sequence of Oligocene to Quaternary age. This sequence covers nonconformably the crystalline basement complex of the Calabrian microplate and represents the proximal portion of the fill of the Calabrina forarc basin, still active between the Ionian subduction zone to the southeast and the calcalkaline Aeolian volcanic arc to the northwest.
Analysis of sedimentological facies and paleocurrents as well as the petrological study of sandsones and conglomerates indicate that the terrigenous detritus contained in the clastic units of the basin-fill sequence was derived either directly from the erosion of the nearby crysalline basement or – for the younger units of the basin fill – from the partial cannibalization of the older sedimentary units. The only exceptions are the varicolored clays, derived from the Ionian accretionary prism.