Palaeoenvironmental evolution of a coastal lagoon as a response to climate oscillations during the Early Pleistocene: a case study from Sousaki Basin (Eastern Gulf of Corinth, Greece)

Abstract

Climatic oscillations during the Pleistocene were controlled by glacial/interglacial cycles. Such oscillations are commonly imprinted into sediments and fossils from transitional marine environments, as is also the case in Sousaki Basin (Eastern Gulf of Corinth, Greece). Nevertheless, the records become scarcer as we go back in time. During the Lower Pleistocene, Sousaki Basin (Eastern Gulf of Corinth, Greece), was dominated by transitional marine environments. Micropalaeontological analysis has been carried out in sedimentary sequences to identify the evolution of the palaeoenvironments in an area where intense tectonic activity occurred, being at the western end of the Hellenic volcanic arc and at the eastern end of the Corinth rift. The recovered ostracod assemblage revealed a primarily brackish environment. Deposition took place in a coastal lagoon which was subjected to constant salinity changes. The palaeoenvironment in the basin evolved from a delta fan environment to an outer lagoon with possible connection to a sublittoral marine environment at the top. This evolution coincides and therefore is attributed to minor climate oscillations that occurred during the Early Pleistocene.