Palynostratigraphy and palynofacies of the Upper Triassic Streppenosa Formation (SE Sicily, Italy) and inference on the main controlling factors in the organic rich shale deposition

• Palynostratigraphic constrains of the Streppenosa Formation, one of the most important Italian source rocks.
• Palynofacies and sedimentary facies analysis as tool to characterize the depositional environment and its evolutive phases.
• Main controlling processes in the deposition of the Upper Triassic organic rich shales

This paper focuses on the Upper Triassic Streppenosa Formation, penetrated by the Pachino 4 on-shore well, (Southern Sicily, Italy) in order to find stratigraphic age constrains and to reconstruct the paleoenvironmental evolution of this basin within the Upper Triassic palaeogeographic scenario of the western Tethys. Pachino 4 is one of the wells drilled by Eni Exploration and Production in the south-eastern Hyblean plateau with the purpose to better define the time and space distribution of reservoirs and source rocks in an area characterized by considerable subsidence and strong tectonic activity, balanced by high sedimentation rate. The Streppenosa Formation depocenter consists of a thick sequence (> 2500 m) of organic rich shales, turbiditic limestones and marly limestones, grouped into three members (Lower, Middle and Upper). The well diversified microflora assemblages allow the dating of the upper part of the Lower Member and the Middle Member as Norian and the Upper Member as Rhaetian. The palynofacies variations across the Streppenosa Formation show significative changes in the relative abundances of the organic debris that, associated with the lithological and sedimentological features, allowed a reconstruction of the depositional facies successions and a hypothesis for the forcing mechanisms driving the black shale deposition. We considered that the deposition of the Streppenosa Formation occurred in an epeiric basin, under oxygen-depleted bottom waters, with different depth that varied through time in response to the sedimentation rates, eustatic sea level changes, and basin subsidence. The integration of palynofacies and lithofacies data suggests a crucial role for river runoff, responsible for water stratification and for primary productivity increase in the water column. The process was triggered by warmer and wetter climate conditions as documented in many Upper Triassic successions of the western Tethys realm.