Late Pleistocene–Holocene climatic and volcanic events in the bathyal area of the Eastern Tyrrhenian Sea and the stratigraphic signature of the 39 ka Campanian Ignimbrite eruption

Abstract

Abstract A multidisciplinary study, based on integration of eco-biostratigraphy and tephrostratigraphy, was applied to the sedimentary record of core CET2, recovered in a bathyal area of the Eastern Tyrrhenian Sea, along the Campania Continental Margin. An event stratigraphy of the Late Pleistocene–Holocene succession was obtained, also through the integration of the results coming from the study of the nearby CET1 core. A very detailed integrated stratigraphic framework was reconstructed for the last 40-ka time span, basing on the planktonic foraminifera eco-biozones and correlations of tephra layers. In the time interval older than 40 ka, the relationship between climatic events and tephra layers were highlighted. Some reworked intervals were identified at different stratigraphic levels; the thickest among these was identified just below the Campanian Ignimbrite tephra and interpreted as a debris flow. This deposit is here considered as the stratigraphic signature of the volcano-tectonic event of the Campanian Ignimbrite eruption. Other mass-transport deposits were identified below tephra layers related to very energetic eruptions, thus suggesting a possible link between the huge volcanic explosive eruptions of the Campania Volcanic Zone, coeval fault activity and the occurrence of mass-transport events in the study area.