New biostratigraphic and paleoecologic data on the Pliocene-Pleistocene paleogeographic evolution of the northeastern coastal area of the central Tyrrhenian sea (Italy)

Abstract

In this work, we present new biostratigraphic and paleoecological data from the Mignone River valley, located in the central sector of the Tyrrhenian Sea margin and part of the wider Tarquinia basin, and cores in the area of Rome. By combining the new paleontological information with a review of the extant literature, we re-examine the stratigraphic architecture of the Pliocene succession in the central sector of the northwestern Tyrrhenian Sea margin, spanning the Zanclean (MPl1; 5.33–5.08 Ma) through the early Piacenzian (MPl4b; 3.57–3.31 Ma), and of the following Pleistocene transgressive-regressive sequence, comprising the Gelasian (MPl6; 2.59–1.81 Ma) through the Santernian (MPl1; 1.81–1.5 Ma).

We propose a revision of the paleogeographic evolution of the central Tyrrhenian Sea basins throughout the Pliocene-Lower Pleistocene interval, by coherently framing it within the chronology of the volcanic phases that occurred in this region. In particular, our reconstruction points toward the presence of a single Transgressive-Regressive (T-R) sequence starting with the Zanclean reflooding of the Mediterranean after the Messinian Salinity Crisis and ending in the Piacenzian, as opposed to the previously proposed occurrence of two depositional T-R sequences separated by an erosional phase affecting part of the Globorotalia puncticulata biozone.