Tephrostratigraphy study for the last 18,000 14C years in a deep-sea sediment sequence for the South Adriatic

A detailed tephrostratigraphy supported by accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) C-14 dating and isotopic and geochemical analyses has been carried out for a deep-sea core collected from the Southern Adriatic Sea, which spans the last 18 C-14 kyr. Fourteen ash layers have been recognized in the marine core and the origin was determined by comparing their age and geochemistry with tephra detected in terrestrial deposits. The geochemical signatures of marine ash layers indicate a prevailing Campanian and subordinate Etnean and Eolian provenances. Collectively, they are attributed to sources in the Phlegraean Fields (LAM-Lagno Amendolare; LN 1/LN2-GM1; C-2/NYT-Neapolitan Yellow Tuff, C-1-Agnano Pomici Principali; AMS/PF-Agnano Monte Spina; AST-Astroni), Somma-Vesuvius (L9-Pomici di Base; L8-Greenish), Mount Etna (Et1-Y1-Biancavilla Ignimbrite), Lipari (E-1-Gabellotto-Fiumebianco) and Palinuro seamount (Pal 1). Some of these eruptions have been detected for the first time in marine cores (Astroni, LAM, L9, L8), and three were detected and dated by marine tephra (LN1, LN2, and Pal 1) providing new more precise stratigraphic markers for the last 18 kyr in the South Adriatic marine record. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.