Sea-level and climatic controls on Late Pleistocene coastal aeolianites in the Cap Bon peninsula, northeastern Tunisia

Abstract

Elmejdoub, N., Mauz, B. & Jedoui, Y. 2010: Sea-level and climatic controls on Late Pleistocene coastal aeolianites in the Cap Bon peninsula, northeastern Tunisia. Boreas, 10.1111/j.1502-3885.2010.00162.x. ISSN 0300-9483. The chronology of coastal dunes (aeolianites) along the western littoral of the Cap Bon peninsula (northeastern Tunisia) was investigated using an optical dating technique to examine their tentative correlation with the Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) record. These dunes, formed under a northwesterly wind regime and supplied by sand from the shore, are an indicator of sea-level and climate changes. We obtained optically stimulated luminescence ages for these aeolianites ranging from 112±10 to 53±2 ka and clustering around the last interglacial period (∼125–75 ka), implying that the former stratigraphic allocation of these dunes is inaccurate. The optical chronology suggests dune formation during MIS 5 in association with a sea level lower than today but higher than the glacial sea-level lowstand.