Integrated uplift, subsidence, erosion and deposition in a tightly coupled source-to-sink system, Pagliara basin, northeastern Sicily, Italy

How tectonic forcing, expressed as base level change, is encoded in the stratigraphic and geomorphic records of coupled source-to-sink systems remains uncertain. Using sedimentological, geochronological and geomorphic approaches, we describe the relationship between transient topographic change and sediment deposition for a low-storage system forced by rapid rock uplift. We present five new luminescence ages and two terrestrial cosmogenic nuclide paleo-erosion rates for the late Pleistocene Pagliara fan-delta complex and we model corresponding base level fall history and erosion of the source catchment located on the Ionian flank of the Peloritani Mountains (NE-Sicily, Italy). The Pagliara delta complex is part of the broader Messina Gravel-and-Sands lithostratigraphic unit that outcrops along the Peloritani coastal belt as extensional basins have been recently inverted by both normal faults and regional uplift at the Messina Straits. The deltas exposed at the mouth of the Pagliara River have constructional tops at ca. 300 m a.s.l. and onlap steeply east-dipping bedrock at the coast to thickness between ca. 100 and 200 m. Five infrared-stimulated luminescence (IRSL) ages collected from the delta range in age from ca. 327 to 208 ka and indicate a vertical long-term sediment accumulation rate as rapid as ca. 2.2 cm/yr during MIS 7. Two cosmogenic ¹⁰Be concentrations measured in samples of delta sediment indicate paleo-erosion rates during MIS 8–7 near or slightly higher than the modern rates of ca. 1 mm/yr. Linear inversion of Pagliara fluvial topography indicates an unsteady base level fall history in phase with eustasy that is superimposed on a longer, tectonically driven trend that doubled in rate from ca. 0.95 to 1.8 mm/yr in the past 150 ky. The combination of footwall uplift rate and eustasy determines the accommodation space history to trap the fan-deltas at the Peloritani coast in hanging wall basins, which are now inverted, uplifted and exposed hundreds of metres above the sea level.