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

• Main Authors: B. Giaccio, E. Regattieri, G. Zanchetta, B. Wagner, P. Galli, G. Mannella, E. Niespolo, E. Peronace, P. R. Renne, S. Nomade, G. P. Cavinato, P. Messina, A. Sposato, C. Boschi, F. Florindo, F. Marra, L. Sadori
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Copernicus Publications 2015-12-01
• Series: Scientific Drilling
• Online Access: http://www.sci-dril.net/20/13/2015/sd-20-13-2015.pdf
• ISSN: 1816-8957; 1816-3459

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.