PALEOMAGNETIC SECULAR VARIATION TIME CONSTRAINT OF LATE NEOGENE GEOLOGICAL EVENTS IN SEDIMENT FROM THE EASTERN MARGIN OF THE TYRRHENIAN SEA

The continuous and relatively high sedimentation rate of cored sediment from the Gulf of Salerno in the western Mediterranean Sea preserves small-scale changes of Earth's magnetic field behavior (Paleomagnetic Secular Variation [PSV]) during the last approximately 25,000 years. The age of the sediment is based on tephrochronology, 14C dates, and correlation to European PSV curves (Thouveny and Williamson, 1988) and relative intensity in sediment cored from the Mediterranean Sea (Tric et al., 1992). Besides extending the Holocene PSV record for the last approximately 12,000 years in the Western Mediterranean Sea (Vigliotti, 2006), the field behavior matches quite well with PSV records for Lac du Bouchet in Switzerland (Creer, 1988).

Comparing the sedimentation rate established by PSV dating in the Gulf of Salerno with the rate in a core recovered about 300 m away that was dated by 14C and used for paleoclimate research (Buccheri et al., 2002), it was found that there is very good overall agreement between the two records. However, the precision of the dating, depending on the chronologic method used, varies at times. Work in progress using additional high sedimentation and continuous marine cores from the region is designed to extend in time the PSV record for the Western Mediterranean Sea.