Integrated stratigraphy and astronomical tuning of lower–middle Pleistocene Montalbano Jonico section (southern Italy)
Introduction
Astronomical dating of late Neogene sedimentary sequences from the Mediterranean has now been well established and forms the backbone of the Astronomical Tuned Neogene Time Scale (ATNTS2004; Lourens et al., 2004). The dating method is purely based on the calibration of sedimentary cycles such as sapropels, carbonate cycles, diatomite layers, combined with several geochemical and petrophysical climate sensitive proxies, to the computed time series of the quasi-periodic variations of Earth's orbit and axis (Hilgen, 1991a, Hilgen, 1991b, Hilgen et al., 1995, Hilgen et al., 2000a, Hilgen et al., 2000b, Hilgen et al., 2003, Hilgen and Krijgsman, 1999, Krijgsman et al., 1999, Langereis et al., 1997, Lourens et al., 1996a, Lourens et al., 1996b, Lourens et al., 1998, Lourens et al., 2001, Sierro et al., 2001, Sierro et al., 2003, Lourens, 2004, Abels et al., 2005). This time scale provides precise and accurate numerical ages, not only for the sedimentary cycles, but also for calcareous plankton events and magnetic polarity reversals recorded in the tuned sections. Accordingly, all the middle to late Neogene stages are by now defined in tuned land-based marine sections in the Mediterranean region. The Pleistocene part of the ATNTS2004 is based on a few ODP Sites (964, 969 and 967) and piston cores (RC9-181, MD84641, KC01B, KC01), with the exception of the Lower Pleistocene interval in which data from the land-based marine sequences of Vrica and Singa (Calabria, Italy) were also included. The Vrica section includes the GSSP of the Pliocene–Pleistocene boundary (Aguirre and Pasini, 1985). At present, the Calabrian Stage and the Lower/Middle and Middle/Upper Pleistocene boundaries should be regarded as informal (Cita and Castradori, 1995, Cita et al., 2006, Cita et al., 2008).
The Montalbano Jonico composite section, cropping out in Southern Italy, due to its continuity and exposure condition, together with the available detailed integrated stratigraphy, has been proposed as the reference succession for the upper portion of Calabrian Stage (Cita et al., 2008). The section can fill the gap between the top of Vrica section (according to Lourens et al., 1998 the top of Vrica section is directly above insolation cycles i-116) and the base of Ionian informal Middle Pleistocene stage. Further, the section has been considered suitable for the selection of the Middle Pleistocene GSSP (Cita and Castradori, 1995, Ciaranfi et al., 1997, Ciaranfi and D'Alessandro, 2005, Cita et al., 2006, Cita et al., 2008), although the absence of a clear paleomagnetic signal in the succession prevents the recognition of the Brunhes/Matuyama boundary, the primary criterion for the definition of GSSP. This paper presents the astronomical calibration of the composite Montalbano Jonico section based on the previously developed benthic and planktonic stable oxygen isotope stratigraphy, together with new planktonic δ18O data, additional biostratigraphical constraints and new tephrostratigraphic study of the volcaniclastic layers occurring in the studied record.
Section snippets
Study section
The lower–middle Pleistocene Montalbano Jonico composite section crops out in the Lucania Basin (Balduzzi et al., 1982), a minor basin of Bradano Trough (Casnedi, 1988) between the Apennines Chain to the west and the Apulia foreland eastward (Fig. 1A). It belongs to the argille subapennine unit (Azzaroli, 1968) and is about 450 m thick consisting of coarsening upwards deposits from muddy clays to muddy sands and including nine volcaniclastic layers (V1–V9) (Fig. 2). Locally, some terraced marine
Stable Isotopes
Oxygen and carbon stable isotope analyses throughout the Montalbano Jonico composite section were partially presented in previous papers (Brilli et al., 2000, Ciaranfi et al., 2001, Stefanelli, 2003, Maiorano et al., 2004, Stefanelli et al., 2005, Joannin et al., 2008). In detail, benthic and planktonic δ18O and δ13C values were measured on benthic foraminiferal species Cassidulina carinata and on planktonic foraminifer Globigerina bulloides.
Isotopes of planktonic foraminifera (202 samples)
Chemical and mineralogical composition of volcaniclastic layers
A detailed description of the lithological composition of the loose grains extracted from the samples, referred to the 2φ fraction, and the semi-quantitative evaluation of mineral content are reported in Table 1. Acicular glass shards of V2 layer, glass fragments, sanidine crystals and minor clinopyroxene and biotite grains of V5 layer are shown in Fig. 5A and B, respectively.
Among the tephra layers identified throughout the successions, glass composition could be obtained only on V2, V5 and V7
Age model and implication for biochronology and tephrochronology
Following Lourens et al. (1996b) and Lourens (2004), a 3 ky time lag was used between the midpoints of each individual sapropel (corresponding to insolation cycles i-112, i-104, i-102, i-90 and i-86) and their correlative precession minima to reconstruct the benthic and planktonic δ18O time series of Interval A. In addition, G. bulloides δ18O record of Montalbano Jonico Interval B has been tuned to the same record from Mediterranean ODP-Site 975 (Lourens, 2004) by visual correlation combined
Concluding remarks
The new stratigraphical and chronological data acquired for the Montalbano Jonico section allow the proposal of an astronomical tuning of the record. The integrated stratigraphic framework (biostratigraphy, sapropel stratigraphy, radiometric dating of tephra V5) provides correlation of benthic and planktonic δ18O data to a continuous MIS 36–MIS 17 record. The developed age model indicates that the Montalbano Jonico section extends from 1240 ka to 609 ka. The change in sedimentation rate in
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank Prof. Leonardo Giordano, Mayor of Montalbano Jonico, for supporting research activity and B. Jicha (University of Wisconsin in Madison) for his availability and kindness. The paper has benefited from careful reviews of T. Naish and Enrico Di Stefano. This study was financially supported by “Fondi Ateneo” 2008 (University of Bari) granted to R. La Perna.
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