FT5. Late Cretaceous tectonic control on bauxite formation, Murge Plateau, southern Italy

The field trip runs through the Upper Cretaceous limestone of the Apulian Platform exposed along the walls of large, inactive quarries of the Murge Plateau. The first stop will be devoted to the visit of a large quarry excavating Turonian karst bauxite located in between the "Calcare di Bari" footwall and the "Calcare di Altamura" hanging wall. There, in the fault-bounded canyon-like cavities, an iron-rich and ooidic in texture bauxite ore occurs. Syn-sedimentary deformation involving the bauxite deposit is also nicely displayed. The second stop will be at the Pontrelli Quarry of Altamura, which includes dinosaur footprints crosscut by a dense network of sheared fractures and small faults associated with a larger-scale, Cretaceous strike-slip fault system.