Search results for "Sea level changes"

SEA-LEVEL AND CLIMATIC CHANGES DURING THELAST 41,000 YEARS IN THE OUTER SHELF OF THE SOUTHERN TYRRHENIAN SEA: EVIDENCE FROM FORAMINIFERA AND SEISMOST…

2012

Carbonate/evaporitic sedimentation during the Messinian salinity crisis in active accretionary wedge basins of the northern Calabria, southern Italy

2020

Abstract This work deals with Messinian deposits belonging to the Neogene infill of the Rossano and Belvedere Basins, respectively developed along the fore-arc and the back-arc areas of the north Calabria accretionary wedge. The main goal is to characterize the carbonate and evaporitic sedimentation during the Messinian Salinity Crisis, in the general framework of the basin architecture and the interplay between eustatic vs tectonic controlled sea-level variations. Fieldwork integrated with seismic lines and well logs interpretations led to the revision of the general stratigraphy of the basins and the proposal of a new sequential stratigraphic model driven by cyclic sea-level variations. E…

Millstones as indicators of relative sea-level changes in northern Sicily and southern Calabria coastlines, Italy

2011

Abstract New data are presented for late Holocene relative sea-level changes in two coastal sites of Sicily and Calabria, southern Italy. Reconstructions are based on precise measurements of submerged archaeological remains that are valuable indicators of past sea-level position. The archaeological remains are millstone quarries carved on sandstone coastal rocks and nowadays partially submerged which, to the authors’ knowledge, are used for the first time as sea-level markers. Millstones of similar typology are located on the coast of Capo d’Orlando (northern Sicily) and Capo dell’Armi (southern Calabria). When the archeologically-based sea-level position is compared with the shoreline elev…

A stalactite record of four relative sea-level highstands during the Middle Pleistocene Transition

2017

International audience; Ice-sheet and sea-level fluctuations during the Early and Middle Pleistocene are as yet poorly understood. A stalactite from a karst cave in North West Sicily (Italy) provides the first evidence of four marine inundations that correspond to relative sea-level highstands at the time of the Middle Pleistocene Transition. The speleothem is located ∼97 m above mean sea level as result of Quaternary uplift. Its section reveals three marine hiatuses and a coral overgrowth that fixes the age of final marine ingression at 1.124 ± 0.2, thus making this speleothem the oldest stalactite with marine hiatuses ever studied to date. Scleractinian coral species witness light-limited…

Sea level and climate forcing of the Sr isotope composition of late Miocene Mediterranean marine basins

2014

Sr isotope records from marginal marine basins track the mixing between seawater and local continental runoff, potentially recording the effects of sea level, tectonic, and climate forcing in marine fossils and sediments. Our 110 new Sr-87/Sr-86 analyses on oyster and foraminifera samples from six late Miocene stratigraphic sections in southern Turkey, Crete, and Sicily show that Sr-87/Sr-86 fell below global seawater values in the basins several million years before the Messinian Salinity Crisis, coinciding with tectonic uplift and basin shallowing. 87Sr/86Sr from more centrally located basins (away from the Mediterranean coast) drop below global seawater values only during the Messinian S…

Millstone coastal quarries of the Mediterranean: A new class of sea level indicator

2014

The coasts of Italy still preserve several remnants of coastal quarries built in antiquity, that now provide insights into the intervening sea-level changes occurred during the last millennia. In this paper, we show and discuss a new class of sea level indicator consisting of millstones carved along the rocky coast of southern Italy since 2500 BP, that are currently submerged. They were extracted from beachrocks, sandstones or similar sedimentary rocks, easier for carving by ancient carving tools. Our study focuses on 10 coastal sites located at Capo d'Orlando, Avola, and Letojanni, in Sicily; Soverato, Tropea, and Capo dell'Armi, in Calabria; Castellabate, Palinuro, and Scario, in Campania…