scholarly journals A key continental archive for the last 2 Ma of climatic history of the central Mediterranean region: A pilot drilling in the Fucino Basin, central Italy

2015 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
pp. 13-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Giaccio ◽  
E. Regattieri ◽  
G. Zanchetta ◽  
B. Wagner ◽  
P. Galli ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Central Italy ◽  
Lacustrine Sediments ◽  
Mediterranean Area ◽  
Central Mediterranean ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Xrf Scanning ◽  
History Of ◽  
Sedimentary Succession ◽  
Geochemical Analyses ◽  
Fucino Basin

Abstract. An 82 m long sedimentary succession was retrieved from the Fucino Basin, the largest intermountain tectonic depression of the central Apennines. The basin hosts a succession of fine-grained lacustrine sediments (ca. 900 m-thick) possibly continuously spanning the last 2 Ma. A preliminary tephrostratigraphy study allows us to ascribe the drilled 82 m long record to the last 180 ka. Multi-proxy geochemical analyses (XRF scanning, total organic/inorganic carbon, nitrogen and sulfur, oxygen isotopes) reveal noticeable variations, which are interpreted as paleohydrological and paleoenvironmental expressions related to classical glacial–interglacial cycles from the marine isotope stage (MIS) 6 to present day. In light of the preliminary results, the Fucino sedimentary succession is likely to provide a long, continuous, sensitive, and independently dated paleoclimatic archive of the central Mediterranean area.

Tephrostratigraphy and tephrochronology of a 430 ka sediment record from the Fucino Basin, central Italy

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niklas Leicher ◽  
Biagio Giaccio ◽  
Bernd Wagner ◽  
Giorgio Mannella ◽  
Lorenzo Monaco ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Environmental History ◽  
Central Italy ◽  
Lacustrine Sediments ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Early Pleistocene ◽  
Central Mediterranean ◽  
The North ◽  
Tephra Layers ◽  
Spatio Temporal ◽  
Fucino Basin

<p>The Fucino Basin is the largest and probably the only Central Apennine basin hosting a thick, continuous lacustrine sediment succession documenting the environmental history from the Early Pleistocene to recent historical times. The basin is located downwind of the Italian volcanic districts (< 150 km), which makes it the best candidate available in the central Mediterranean to construct a long and continuous tephrostratigraphic and tephrochronological record. Tephrostratigraphic investigations conducted on a first core (F1-F3) revealed 21 tephra layers of different Italian volcaoes. Among them several widespread and well-dated key Mediterranean marker tephra layers (e.g., Neapolitan Yellow Tuff, Y-1, Campanian Ignimbrite, Y-7, X-5, X-6, and Taurano Ignimbrite) were recognized and allowed to date, together with <sup>40</sup>Ar/<sup>39</sup>Ar ages directly obtained from the Fucino tephra layers, the record back to 190 ka.</p><p>Based on these promising results, a new drilling site with a lower sedimentation rate was targeted, bringing forth the ~98 m long F4-F5 record. In addition to the already recognised tephra layers occurring in the section that overlaps with core F1-F3, ~110 additional tephra and cryptotephra horizons were identified in the composite sediment succession of the F4-F5 record, providing new insights into the Italian volcanic history for the poorly explored interval beyond 200 ka.</p><p>Here we present the first tephrostratigraphic and tephrochronological results for this interval, which is dominated by eruptions from the Sabatini, Vulsini, Vico, and Colli Albani volcanoes. Several important known eruptions were identified and dated for the first time in distal settings: e.g., Canino (256.8 ± 1.1 ka), Tufo Giallo di Sacrofano (288.0 ± 2.0 ka), Magliano Romano Plinian Fall (315.0 ± 2.0 ka), Orvieto-Bagnoregio Ignimbrite (335.8 ± 1.4 ka), Villa Senni (367.5 ± 1.6 ka), Pozzolane Nere and its precursor (408.5 ± 1.3 ka, and 407.1 ± 4.2 ka, respectively). Finally, a tephra located at the base of the succession was directly dated by <sup>40</sup>Ar/<sup>39</sup>Ar at 424.3 ± 3.2 ka, thus extending the record back to the MIS 12/11 transition (~430 ka).</p><p>Ongoing geochemical analysis, including trace elements, Sr and Nd isotopes, and <sup>40</sup>Ar/<sup>39</sup>Ar dating of both Fucino tephra layers and potential proximal counterparts will help to reveal their volcanic sources and enable further tephrostratigraphic correlations supported by independent age determinations. These results will contribute towards an improved MIS 11-MIS 7 Mediterranean tephrostratigraphy, which is still poorly characterized and exploited.</p><p>The recognition and dating of the numerous tephra layers from the F4-F5 record can be directly combined to construct a comprehensive age-depth series of biogeochemical proxies and geomagnetic excursions derived from the lacustrine sediments, forming the backbone for an independent, radioisotopically anchored chronology for the F4-F5 multi-proxy record. Through paleoclimatic alignments and geomagnetic excursion synchronizations, the independent Fucino chronology can be propagated to the North Atlantic records, and possibly on a global scale, setting the framework for a better understanding of the spatio-temporal variability, magnitude, and different expressions of Quaternary orbital and millennial-scale paleoclimatic changes.</p>

scholarly journals Multiscale regression model to infer historical temperatures in a central Mediterranean sub-regional area

2010 ◽  
Vol 6 (6) ◽  
pp. 2625-2649 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Diodato ◽  
G. Bellocchi ◽  
C. Bertolin ◽  
D. Camuffo
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Central Italy ◽  
Mediterranean Area ◽  
Temperature Pattern ◽  
Efficiency Coefficient ◽  
Central Mediterranean ◽  
Air Temperatures ◽  
Regional Area ◽  
The Right ◽  
Watson Statistic

Abstract. To reconstruct sub-regional European climate over the past centuries, several efforts have been made using historical datasets. However, only scattered information at low spatial and temporal resolution have been produced to date for the Mediterranean area. This paper has exploited, for Southern and Central Italy (Mediterranean Sub-Regional Area), an unprecedented historical dataset as an attempt to model seasonal (winter and summer) air temperatures in pre-instrumental time (back to 1500). Combining information derived from proxy documentary data and large-scale simulation, a statistical methodology in the form of multiscale-temperature regression (MTR)-model was developed to adapt larger-scale estimations to the sub-regional temperature pattern. The modelled response lacks essentially of autocorrelations among the residuals (marginal or any significance in the Durbin-Watson statistic), and agrees well with the independent data from the validation sample (Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency coefficient >0.60). The advantage of the approach is not merely increased accuracy in estimation. Rather, it relies on the ability to extract (and exploit) the right information to replicate coherent temperature series in historical times.

scholarly journals Extending the tephra and palaeoenvironmental record of the Central Mediterranean back to 430 ka: A new core from Fucino Basin, central Italy

2019 ◽  
Vol 225 ◽  
pp. 106003 ◽  
Author(s):  
Biagio Giaccio ◽  
Niklas Leicher ◽  
Giorgio Mannella ◽  
Lorenzo Monaco ◽  
Eleonora Regattieri ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Central Italy ◽  
Central Mediterranean ◽  
Fucino Basin

U–Pb detrital zircon ages from Gorgoglione Flysch sandstones in Southern Apennines (Italy) as provenance indicators

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annamaria Fornelli ◽  
Salvatore Gallicchio ◽  
Francesca Micheletti ◽  
Antonio Langone
Keyword(s):  
Detrital Zircon ◽  
Mediterranean Area ◽  
Source Rocks ◽  
Southern Apennines ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Icp Ms ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Intermediate Part ◽  
Detrital Zircon Ages

Abstract Twenty-one sandstone samples belonging to the intermediate part of Gorgoglione Flysch (GF) dated Middle-Miocene, cropping out in the Southern Apennines (Italy), have been studied to highlight the detritus provenance. Petrographic and chemical composition indicates that the successions consist of feldspatho-quartzose and litho-feldspatho-quartzose arenites interbedded with pelitic and calciclastic layers and reveals a provenance from a basement formed by low- to medium-grade metamorphic rocks with abundant granitoids covered by sedimentary rocks in which a volcanic component was also present. In the Mediterranean area, basements with these characteristics are widespread both in western and southwestern domains. The supply provenance of Gorgoglione Flysch has been better detailed utilizing U–Pb detrital zircon ages recording the geological history of the source rocks. Fifty-eight crystals from six samples of coarse- and fine-grained sandstones have been analysed using the U–Pb isotopic systematic (LA-ICP-MS). They produce 70 concordant zircon ages forming three defined clusters at 672 ± 28 Ma, 458 ± 9 Ma and 297 ± 8 Ma, and four zircon ages corresponding to 24 ± 1 Ma. An evaluation of the entire collected data suggests that the provenance area is better identified in northwestern sectors of the Mediterranean area in which the Sardinia–Corsica (pro-part) block plays a fundamental role.

scholarly journals First tephrostratigraphic results of the DEEP site record from Lake Ohrid, Macedonia

2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (18) ◽  
pp. 15411-15460 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Leicher ◽  
G. Zanchetta ◽  
R. Sulpizio ◽  
B. Giaccio ◽  
B. Wagner ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mediterranean Area ◽  
Volcanic Field ◽  
Middle Pleistocene ◽  
Lake Ohrid ◽  
Central Mediterranean ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
Tephra Layers ◽  
Deep Site ◽  
Geochemical Analyses ◽  
Glass Shards

Abstract. A~tephrostratigraphic record covering the Marine Isotope Stages (MIS) 1–15 was established for the DEEP site record of Lake Ohrid (Macedonia/Albania). Major element analyses (SEM-EDS/WDS) were carried out on juvenile fragments extracted from 12 tephra layers (OH-DP-0115 to OH-DP-2060). The geochemical analyses of the glass shards of all of these layers suggest an origin from the Italian Volcanic Provinces. They include: the Y-3 (OH-DP-0115, 26.68–29.42 cal ka BP), the Campanian Ignimbrite/Y-5 (OH-DP-0169, 39.6 ± 0.1 ka), and the X-6 (OH-DP-0404, 109 ± 2 ka) from the Campanian volcanoes, the P-11 of the Pantelleria Island (OH-DP-0499, 129 ± 6 ka), the Vico B (OH-DP-0617, 162 ± 6 ka) from the Vico volcano, the Pozzolane Rosse (OH-DP-1817, 457 ± 2 ka) and the Tufo di Bagni Albule (OH-DP-2060, 527 ± 2 ka) from the Colli Albani volcanic district, and the Fall A (OH-DP-2010, 496 ± 3 ka) from the Sabatini volcanic field. Furthermore, a comparison of the Ohrid record with tephrostratigraphic records of mid-distal archives related to the Mediterranean area, allowed the recognition of the equivalents of other less known tephra layers, such as the TM24-a/POP2 (OH-DP-0404, 101.8 ka) from the Lago Grande di Monticchio and the Sulmona basin, the CF-V5/PRAD3225 (OH-DP-0624, ca. 162 ka) from the Campo Felice basin/Adriatic Sea, the SC5 (OH-DP-1955, 493.1 ± 10.9 ka) from the Mercure basin, and the A11/12 (OH-DP-2017, 511 ± 6 ka) from the Acerno basin, whose specific volcanic sources are still poorly constrained. Additionally, one cryptotephra (OH-DP-0027) was identified by correlation of the potassium XRF intensities from the DEEP site with those from short cores of previous studies from Lake Ohrid. In these cores, a maximum in potassium is caused by glass shards, which were correlated with the Mercato tephra (8.43–8.63 cal ka BP) from Somma-Vesuvius. With the tephrostratigraphic work, a consistent part of the Middle Pleistocene tephrostratigraphic framework of Italian volcanoes was for the first time extended as far as to the Balkans. The establishment of the tephrostratigraphic framework for the Lake Ohrid record provides important, independent tie-points for the age-depth model of the DEEP site sequence, which is a prerequisite for paleoclimatic and -environmental reconstructions. Furthermore, this age-depth model will help to improve and re-evaluate the chronology of other, both undated and dated tephra layers from other records. Thus, the Lake Ohrid record is candidate to become the Rosetta stone for the central Mediterranean tephrostratigraphy, especially for the hitherto poorly known and explored lower Middle Pleistocene period.

African crocodylians in the Late Neogene of Europe: A revision of Crocodylus bambolii Ristori, 1890

2008 ◽  
Vol 82 (2) ◽  
pp. 336-343 ◽  
Author(s):  
Massimo Delfino ◽  
Lorenzo Rook
Keyword(s):  
Differential Diagnosis ◽  
Late Miocene ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Central Italy ◽  
Mediterranean Area ◽  
Morphological Characters ◽  
Early Miocene ◽  
Central Mediterranean ◽  
Italian Peninsula ◽  
Late Neogene

Genus Crocodylus is considered to have originated in Africa during the Early Miocene but it is only in the Late Miocene that there are evidences of dispersal toward Europe, where tomistomines and the alligatoroid Diplocynodon were widespread since the Paleogene. Revision of the type material of Crocodylus bambolii Ristori, 1890, a Tortonian crocodylian from the renowned Oreopithecus localities in central Italy, excludes it from Diplocynodon. The morphology of the remains, combined with chronology and biogeography, confirms its identity as cf. Crocodylus. The validity of the species Crocodylus bambolii is however not supported by the available morphological characters so that a solid differential diagnosis cannot be realized. It is therefore here proposed to consider Crocodylus bambolii as a nomen dubium. The European Late Miocene distribution of short-snouted crocodylians sees only alligatoroids in western Europe and, curiously, only crocodylids in the Central Mediterranean area. The Tusco-Sardinian and the Apulo-Abruzzi paleobioprovinces, whose lands are nowadays part of the Italian peninsula, are apparently the only European areas inhabited by short-snouted crocodylids, which are at the same time among the last crocodylians of the continent. The isolated teeth from Fiume Santo and Scontrone, two localities of these palebioprovinces, are also not Diplocynodon-like, but further material is needed to identify their owners with confidence.

PROVENANCE AND SYNTECTONIC DEPOSITIONAL HISTORY OF THE MIOCENE CAMERINO DEEPWATER BASIN, CENTRAL ITALY

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Pitts ◽  
◽  
Achim D. Herrmann ◽  
John T. Haynes ◽  
Gabriele Giuli ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Central Italy ◽  
Depositional History ◽  
History Of ◽  
Deepwater Basin

Religious Architecture in Latium and Etruria, c. 900-500 BC

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte R. Potts
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Central Italy ◽  
Archaic Period ◽  
Comprehensive Treatment ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
Detailed History ◽  
Religious Buildings ◽  
Religious Architecture ◽  
The People ◽  
History Of

Religious Architecture in Latium and Etruria, c. 900-500 BC presents the first comprehensive treatment of cult buildings in western central Italy from the Iron Age to the Archaic Period. By analysing the archaeological evidence for the form of early religious buildings and their role in ancient communities, it reconstructs a detailed history of early Latial and Etruscan religious architecture that brings together the buildings and the people who used them. The first part of the study examines the processes by which religious buildings changed from huts and shrines to monumental temples, and explores apparent differences between these processes in Latium and Etruria. The second part analyses the broader architectural, religious, and topographical contexts of the first Etrusco-Italic temples alongside possible rationales for their introduction. The result is a new and extensive account of when, where, and why monumental cult buildings became features of early central Italic society.

Brokering Trade in the Central Mediterranean

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Corey Tazzara
Keyword(s):  
Central Italy ◽  
Competitive Response ◽  
Central Mediterranean ◽  
Commercial Development ◽  
International Commerce ◽  
Exchange Networks ◽  
North Central ◽  
Autonomous Region ◽  
Global Commerce ◽  
Quantitative Examination

Chapter 6 offers a quantitative examination of the commercial development of Livorno, showing how it plugged local and regional exchange networks into the currents of global commerce. Livorno was at the epicenter of the reorganization of maritime trade in the Tyrrhenian and throughout the Mediterranean. Despite dense connections between north-central Italy and the free port, however, international commerce did not substantially affect productive relations in the hinterland. North-central Italy remained an autonomous region; rather than a colonial outpost subservient to northern capitalism, Livorno was a large marketplace connecting otherwise distinct economies. The Tuscan city’s success in organizing trade eventually provoked a competitive response by neighboring ports.

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