Sea-level changes during the last 41,000 years in the outer shelf of the southern Tyrrhenian Sea: Evidence from benthic foraminifera and seismostratigraphic analysis

Abstract

An integrated high resolution study based both on a seismostratigraphic approach and on a sedimentary core (VIB 10), collected in the outer shelf (127 m depth) from the southern Tyrrhenian Sea (Gulf of Termini, Sicily), provides new data about climatic, eustatic and paleoenvironmental changes during the last w41,000 years. The results based on the interpretation of a seismic profile, on benthic foraminifera assemblages and on d18O records, allowed recognition of two drastic sea-level falls during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and the Younger Dryas (YD). The short deglacial event, between LGM and YD, known as Bølling/Allerød, played an important role in the sea-level rise that produced changes in benthic foraminiferal assemblages, favoring the proliferation of shallow water species of the inner shelf. After the Younger Dryas, warmer climatic conditions were rapidly established (Climatic Optimum) as indicated by the decrease of d18O values. The rapid sea-level rise due to the input of fresh water from ice caps melting following the increase of Earth’s mean temperature is also indicated by the aggradational geometries of sedimentary layers observed in the seismic profile and by the increase of benthic foraminiferal species typical of the outer shelf.