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

Wynn, R.B., Talling, P.J. and Amy, L. (2005) Imaging bed geometry and architecture of massive sandstones in the Fontanelice Channels, Italian Apennines, using new digiscoping techniques. Sedimentary Geology, 179 (1-2), 153-162. (doi:10.1016/j.sedgeo.2005.04.012).

Abstract

In this study we present digital images and sedimentological data from a channel fill succession in the Italian Apennines that is dominated by massive sandstones. Although the studied outcrop is largely inaccessible, valuable data have now been obtained using the new technique of ‘digiscoping’, which allows features of < 10 cm to be resolved from a distance of several hundred metres.
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.

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