Establishment of high-resolution tephrostratigraphic correlations between marine (ODP Sites 964, 967 and 969) and terrestrial (Tenaghi Philippon) climate records in the Eastern Mediterranean region: towards determining leads and lags in abrupt climate change during MIS 12 and 11
Final Report Abstract
The first, detailed distal tephra correlations in the Eastern Mediterranean region for the Middle Pleistocene have been established based on cryptotephra analysis of long terrestrial and marine records. Specifically, 71 cryptotephra layers have been identified in the Tenaghi Philippon record from the SE Balkan Peninsula, and in the records from Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Sites 964 (Ionian Basin), 967 (Eratosthenes Seamount, south of Cyprus) and 969 (Mediterranean Ridge, south of Crete) from the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. Geochemical fingerprinting based on electron and ion microprobe analysis of single glass shards allowed the assignment of these tephras to specific volcanic regions, and in many cases also to specific volcanoes and eruptive events. In total, 29 tephras originate from the Italian volcanic regions (22 from the Campanian Volcanic Zone, six from the Aeolian islands, and one from Roccamonfina volcano), whereas 25 tephras originate from the Aegean volcanic arc (23 from Santorini, and two from Kos or Milos volcanoes), and two from the Anatolian volcanic provinces. Moreover, two tephras are from an undefined source from either the Aeolian Islands or the Aegean Volcanic Arc other than Santorini, and another 13 layers have a yet unknown source, but most likely originate from the Aegean volcanic arc. Our results have significantly refined the existing knowledge on Eastern Mediterranean volcanism during the Middle Pleistocene. First, they document for the first time the wide distribution of the Cape Therma 1 tephra from Santorini, both to the north (at Tenaghi Philippon) and also to the west (ODP Site 954 in the Ionian Basin). This suggests that tephras from the Aegean Volcanic Arc may be found in settings against the prevailing wind directions. Second, our analysis has demonstrated that the Tenaghi Philippon record hosts tephras from multiple sources (including the Italian and Aegean Arc volcanoes), in contrast to all the other yet available Middle Pleistocene records from SE Europe. This highlights the significance of this archive for linking tephrostratigraphies across the Eastern Mediterranean region. Third, our results also document a number of tephras of unknown origin at all studied sites, which highlights the knowledge gap on Middle Pleistocene volcanism in the Eastern Mediterranean region. By extension, it also underscores the importance for further work on both proximal and distal sites to the volcanic centers, particularly in light of the need to align the numerous long paleoclimate IODP and ICDP records that currently emerge in this region. Finally, our tephrostratigraphic data have allowed the establishment of the first direct land-sea correlations for the Middle Pleistocene in the Eastern Mediterranean region, contributing to a better understanding of the spatiotemporal pattern of climate and environmental variability. More specifically, our results document (i) the synchronous existence of dense forests on both the Balkan and Italian Peninsulas, high sea-surface temperatures and high dust input in the Mediterranean Sea during the late MIS 13 interglacial, and (ii) the coeval presence of open forest biomes under cool and dry conditions in the Balkan Peninsula, and low sea-surface temperatures and high dust input in the Mediterranean Sea during the early MIS 10 glacial.
Publications
- 2018. The cryptotephra record of the Marine Isotope Stage 12 to 10 interval (460–335 ka) at Tenaghi Philippon, Greece: Exploring chronological markers for the Middle Pleistocene of the Mediterranean region. Quaternary Science Reviews 200, 313-333
Vakhrameeva, P., Koutsodendris, A., Wulf, S., Fletcher, W., Appelt, O., Knipping, M., Gertisser, R., Trieloff, M., Pross, J.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2018.09.019) - 2019. Eastern Mediterranean volcanism during Marine Isotope Stages 9 to 7e (335–235 ka): Insights from cryptotephra layers at Tenaghi Philippon, Greece. Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research 380, 31-47
Vakhrameeva, P., Wulf, S., Koutsodendris, A., Tjallingii, R., Fletcher, W.J., Appelt, O., Ludwig, T., Knipping, M., Trieloff, M., Pross, J.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvolgeores.2019.05.016) - 2020. Advancing Santorini’s tephrostratigraphy: new glass geochemical data and improved marine-terrestrial tephra correlations for the past ~360 kyrs. Earth-Science Reviews 200, 102964
Wulf, S., Keller, J., Satow, C., Gertisser, R., Kraml, M., Grant, K.M., Appelt, O., Vakhrameeva, P., Koutsodendris, A., Hardiman, M., Schulz, H., Pross, J.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2019.102964) - 2021. Land-sea correlations in the Eastern Mediterranean region over the past c. 800 kyr based on macro- and cryptotephras from ODP Site 964 (Ionian Basin). Quaternary Science Reviews 255, 106811
Vakhrameeva, P., Koutsodendris, A., Wulf, S., Portnyagin, M., Appelt, O., Ludwig, T., Trieloff, M., Pross J.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2021.106811)
