Late Carboniferous to Early Permian palaeogeography of the Italian and central Mediterranean area

An attempt is made at deriving palaeogeographic constraints for late Carboniferous to early Permian restorations from the new stratigraphic data mainly collected in previously poorly known marine deposits of the circum-Mediterranean area. The assumption of an early Permian emplacement of oceanic crust in the eastern Mediterranean Levantine and Ionian Seas is independently supported by the new evidences of deep water facies and faunas from Oman to western Sicily. The bearing on the palaeogeographic reconstruction for the Moscovian and Artinskian time intervals are tentatively suggested by means of two new sketch maps.