Rocca chi Parra Quarry (Rocca che Parla Quarry), Trapani, Trapani Province, Sicily, Italyi

Regional Level Types
Rocca chi Parra Quarry (Rocca che Parla Quarry)	Quarry (Active)
Trapani	Commune
Trapani Province	Province
Sicily	Autonomous Region
Italy	Country

Rocca chi parra quarry (sometimes the Sicilian toponym is also reported in the Italianised form "Rocca che parla", literally "the speaking rock") is located at the northern foot of Montagna Grande (750 m), in the municipal territory of Trapani near the border with the one of Calatafimi Segesta (the quarry is 25 km from Trapani, but just 7 km west of the town of Calatafimi and 6 km southwest of the well-known archeological site of Segesta).

The Montagna Grande area is one of the sectors in western Sicily where carbonate rocks of Jurassic age referable to the Trapanese Domain crop out. The Jurassic rocks cropping out in the area of Montagna Grande have been studied for more than a century also because of the rich Middle and Upper Jurassic ammonite assemblages (e.g. Gemmellaro 1872-82; Gemellaro, 1873; Christ, 1960; Wendt, 1963; Giunta & Liguori, 1972; Mascle, 1979, Martire et al., 2000, Martire & Pavia, 2004).

In the quarry the succession of peritidal platform limestones of the Upper Jurassic Inici Formation is spectacularly exposed for a thickness of about 30 m. The most striking feature is the presence of a well-developed network of polyphase volcanic dykes, up to 10 m wide, crossing the white limestones of the Inici Formation and easily distinguished through the dark grey colour of the infill. The top of the Inici Formation is flat and unmineralised, and the overlying Midlle Jurassic - Lower Cretaceous pelagic beds of the Rosso Ammonitico Formation display multiple pinehouts thickening progressively from less than 1 m in the westernmost part of thw quarry to 3.5 m to the east. The Rosso Ammonitico may be subdivided in a lower unit of dark grey limestones ana an upper unit of light gley limestones, overlain by whitish coloured limestones of the Lower Cretaceous -Paleogene Lattimusa Formation. Most beds, especially in the lower part of the Rosso Ammonitico, are separated by discontinuity surfaces marked by black Fe-Mn-oxide coatings or by mineralised stromatolitic beds (Frutexites). These surfaces are highly irregular and the beds show a pinch and swell geometry. A lag rich in minerlised lithoclasts and reworked ammonite molds, brachiopods, arnd crinoids may also occur at the base. Lithologically, beds vary from wackestone with abundant,and sometimes also very coarse, echinoderm debris to packstone wth peloids and protoglobigerinids; undulose, mm lamination is often recognisable in stromatolitic domes. Firm-ground burrorws, up to 1 cm in diametre, are filled with coarser sediments and have a lighter colour. Larger cavities, with irregular shape, are geopetally filled with laminated sediment and calcite blocky spar.

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References