Caprazoppa Quarry, also known as Ghigliazza Quarry, is located on the coastal promontory of Caprazoppa between Finale Ligure and Borgio Verezzi. The quarry is currently abandoned and remains the subject of ongoing discussions concerning environmental restoration and future land use.

The site exposes a well-developed stratigraphic succession, here described in chronological oder:
Val Tanarello Limestones consist of light grey to pinkish marly limestones, deposited in a progressively deepening pelagic environment during the Upper Callovian to Upper Cretaceous (p.p.).
These are overlain by the Caprauna Formation, composed of grey calcareous schists with varying detrital content and centimeter to multi-metric intercalations of quartz-schists, interpreted as deposits of a basinal plain and tentatively dated to the Upper Cretaceous–Paleocene.

Basal complex of the Finale Ligure limestone:
Above an erosional surface, basal breccias crop out as clast-supported, heterometric, fossil-free carbonatic breccias, interpreted as proximal channelized colluvial deposits affected by very limited transport and tentatively attributed to the Upper Oligocene–Aquitanian (p.p.).

Finale Ligure limestone:
1) Poggio Member: characterized by alternations of massive polygenic conglomerates and subordinate sandstones, pink to cream in color and rich in calcitic cement. Although generally poor in fossils, some lenses contain abundant molds and impressions of bivalves such as Oopecten rotundatus (Lamarck, 1819), Gigantopecten holgeri (Geinitz, 1846), Chlamys bollenensis (Mayer-Eymar, 1876), Manupecten fasciculatus (Millet, 1866), and Pecten fraterculus (G. B. Sowerby I, 1847), along with Balanus sp. and rare internal molds of Clypeaster laganoides. The predominantly carbonate clasts are almost always dissolved, giving the rock a markedly vuggy texture; porphyroid and schist elements are also present. This unit is capped by an erosional surface and is attributed to the Langhian.
2) The overlying Verezzi Member begins with a metric-thick unfossiliferous red sandstone (elsewhere bearing rare selachian teeth), followed by several meters of coquinoid limestones passing upward into well-bedded pink to reddish bioclastic limestones containing echinoid fragments and radioles, numerous bivalves, and rare solitary corals such as Conotrochus typus, and is assigned to the Serravallian.
3) The succession culminates with the Rocce dell’Orera Member, consisting of massive, strongly bioclastic and vuggy limestones dominated by Balanus, Pectinidae, and Ostrea.

Meteoric water infiltrations dissolved calcite and aragonite that form the fossil seashells and various other carbonatic fossils, cracks caused by faults and cavities caused by karst phenomena have provided enough space for the calcite and aragonite to precipitate and form crystals - both in the Finale limestone and the Val Tanarello limestone.

Quarrying activity has profoundly altered the original geomorphology, producing large artificial cuts and significantly modifying the landscape. Prior to extraction, the area was characterized by the presence of the Arene Candide coastal dune.
This dune formed after the Tyrrhenian highstand (Late Pleistocene), when sea level stood approximately 9–11 m above the present level, followed by a major regression during the Würm glaciation that lowered sea level to about −120 m and exposed wide coastal sectors. Under these conditions, mature quartz-rich beach sediments were reworked by wind and accumulated against the cliff, forming a large dune body later reaching near the so called "Arene Candide" cave entrance.
The deposit was completely removed in the early 20th century for industrial silica sand extraction, and only cemented remnants (eolianites) are locally preserved at the cliff base, situated at approximately +8–10 m above sea level.
Micromorphological and SEM analyses of these residual deposits indicate that the sediment consists predominantly of well-sorted coarse sands rich in polycrystalline quartz, with subordinate monocrystalline quartz and rare plagioclase, bioclasts, and fish bone fragments.
Grain surface textures show a clear superposition of marine features and aeolian features, indicating sediment recycling from high-energy litoral environments followed by short-distance aeolian transport. The cement is composed of two generations of calcite: an early pedogenetic micritic coating formed under arid, well-drained conditions, and a later sparitic cement related to groundwater circulation under more humid conditions, which contributed to partial lithification of the deposit. These data suggest that the dune originated from deflation of coastal sediments during arid phases of the last glacial period, while subsequent Holocene humid phases promoted groundwater development at the cliff base and induced calcite precipitation and sediment lithification.

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References