DOLOMITES - Annexes 2-8 - Provincia di Udine

NOMINATION OF THE DOLOMITES FOR INSCRIPTION ON THE WORLD NATURAL HERITAGE LIST UNESCO
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old Rocky islands (Anisian clastic and carbonate formations)
The fundamental character of the Anisian geology of the Dolomites is the break in the relative paleogeographic
uniformity that had characterized the Lower Triassic (Werfen Formation) and the lowest
part of the Anisian, at the time of the deposition of the Lower Serla Dolomite. Whereas Werfen
and Lower Serla extend with only minor lateral variations in facies and thickness from Lombardy
to Karawanken, the Anisian successions document an articulate paleogeographic picture in which
the synsedimentary tectonics creates (even in small areas) carbonate platforms, deep basins and dry
lands. Various generations (at least three ones) of continental or coastal conglomerates, that evolve
toward the top into shelf deposits and therefore into true carbonate platforms (or into their equivalent
basins), have been documented in the Dolomiti di Braies by Pia (1937) and Bechstadt & Brandner
(1970). Fundamental contributions relative to western Friuli, Agordino and Zoldano were provided
during the 1970s by Pisa (1972), Assereto et alii (1977), Farabegoli et alii (1977), Pisa et alii
(1979).
Southern cliff of Mt. Cernera:
abrupt contact between the Richtofen
Cgm.(reddish) and the Upper Serla Fm
During the Anisian, 240-235 million years ago, large areas of the Dolomites emerged from the sea.
Short rivers with small deltas flowed into the sea (Piz da Peres Conglomerate, Val Leogra Breccias).
The clastic facies are characterized by prevalent squared to rounded pebble conglomerates, made up
of dolomites and pale dolomitic limestones (Lower Serla Dolomite) and, to a lesser extent, by pebbles
originating from the Werfen Formation (micritic limestones, calcarenites and oolithic-bioclastic
doloarenites, siltites, sandstones). The conglomerates can be in pockets, lenses or sub-metric banks;