Cugnan stone

Description

On the northern slope, red marl limestone emerge, with the strata orientated in the direction of th slope, with same inclination more or less. Lithostratigraphy (see Italy Geological Map, 1:50.000 scale, sheet 063 Belluno): in this particular sector of Belluno Basin: Cugnan and Scaglia Rossa Formation, followed by the Marna della Vena d’Oro e Scaglia Cinerea Formation above and by the Calcari del Fadalto at the base (between Cretaceous and Pleistocene). They have the following lithological characteristics.

Lithological characteristics

• Marna della Vena d’Oro e Scaglia Cinerea (Vena d’Oro marlstone and Scaglia Cinerea): Paleocene (Thanetian – basal Cuisian); red and grey-greenish foliated clay marlstones in globoborotallides and truncarotaloidides. Marlstones and ash clay marlstones in globoborotallides, under grey marl limestones, densely stratified with sporadic interbedded bioclastic limestones.
• Formazione di Cugnan e Scaglia Rossa (Cugnan Formation and Scaglia Rossa): Paleocene – Cretaceous (Santonian – Maastrichtian); alternating light grey biocalcarenites, marl limestones and reddish clay marlstones in globoborotallides; reddish slab-shaped calcareous marlstones and marl limestones in globotroncanidides, truncarotaloidides, inocerami and ichnofossils, flint in the lower part, with calcarenites and whitish bioclastic breccias.
• Formazione dei Calcari del Fadalto (Fadalto Limestones Formation): Cretaceous (Abian/Cenomanian – Santonian); hazel-coloured calcarenites and bioclastic breccias with fragments of rudists and caprinidae. Indistinct stratification or in meters-thick layers.
• In particular, Cugnan Stone is found at certain levels of the Formazione di Cugnan, in correspondence with a limited and characteristic level consisting of intense red marl limestones, 1-2 m thick.