Mid-Eocene giant slope failure (sedimentary mélanges) in the Ligurian accretionary wedge (NW Italy) and relationships with tectonics, global climate change and the dissociation of gas hydrates

Upper Lutetian–Bartonian sedimentary melanges, corresponding to ancient mud-rich submarine mass transport deposits, are widely distributed over an area c. 300 km long and tens of kilometres wide along the exhumed outer part of the External Ligurian accretionary wedge in the Northern Apennines. The occurrence of methane-derived carbonate concretions (septarians) in a specific tectonostratigraphic position below these sedimentary melanges allows...