Refining the Late Quaternary Paleomagnetic Secular Variation record in the Mediterranean Region as a Chronologic Tool for Marine Geology Investigations (Invited)

Together, piston cores C1067, C1201 and C1202 from the continental shelf and slope in the Salerno Gulf and Cilento offshore in the Eastern Tyrrhenian Sea record long-term change (Paleomagnetic Secular Variation - PSV) of Earth's magnetic field during the last approximately 115,000 years. Each core contains the last 24,000 years except for the interval from about 20,000 to 11, 000 years that is absent in C1067 and C1202 because of erosion on the continental slope. The PSV for the Eastern Tyrrhenian Sea is correlated to curves of global relative paleomagnetic field intensity in other marine cores (Stoner et al., 2002) and dated lacustrine records of PSV for western Europe (Thouveny et al., 1990) and Great Britain (Turner and Thompson, 1981). Tephrochronology and radiometric dates (C14 and Ar/Ar) also are used for assigning an age to the record. Along with an improved record of PSV for the Mediterranean region, the PSV in the Salerno Gulf and Cilento offshore piston cores has application for placing time constraints on the marine geology and stratigraphy on the continental shelf and slope. The result is that catastrophic events such as large-scale submarine slumps, volcanic eruptions, turbidite deposition, and abrupt changes in sedimentation rate are dated. The changes in sedimentation rate seem to be linked to global rapid sea level pulses and climate events that induced concurrent reduction and/or abundance in the sediment supply from the adjacent coastal margin.