Petrographic and geochemical characterization of the early formative stages of Northern Adriatic shelf rocky buildups

The lithification of the morphologies inherited from Pleistocene fluvial systems provided the nucleus for the development of the coralligenous buildups observed in the North Adriatic Sea shelf. It is possible that diagenetic processes, other than those normally responsible for the formation of beachrocks worldwide, have been active in the northern Adriatic Sea starting from the post-Last Glacial Maximum transgression. It is therefore likely that these processes are more relevant for the coralligenous epibenthic growth in temperate siliciclastic shelves than previously thought.