Imaging bed geometry and architecture of massive sandstones in the Fontanelice Channels, Italian Apennines, using new digiscoping techniques

About 75-80% of the channel fill is composed of massive sandstone beds > 1 m thick, with overall sandstone : shale ratios of ∼9 : 1. Massive sandstones are poorly sorted and overall show little or no normal grading. They are commonly amalgamated and always have sharp bed tops. Massive sandstone beds show abrupt pinch-outs at the channel margin, whereas overlying thin-bedded siltstone/mudstone layers taper gradually and drape up the margin more extensively. This suggests that the depositing flows were stratified into a lower, thin, (hyper)concentrated density flow and an upper, more dilute, turbidity current. In summary, the digiscoping technique is shown to be a cheap and efficient method for imaging distant and/or inaccessible outcrops and providing information on bed geometry and architecture.