Marine transform faults and associated fracture zones (MTFFZs) cover vast stretches of the ocean floor, where they play a key role in plate tectonics, accommodating the lateral movement of tectonic plates and allowing connections between ridges and trenches. Together with the continental counterparts of MTFFZs, these structures also pose a risk to human societies as they can generate high magnitude earthquakes and trigger tsunamis. Historical examples are the Sumatra-Wharton Basin Earthquake in 2012 (M8.6) and the Atlantic Gloria Fault Earthquake in 1941 (M8.4). Earthquakes at MTFFZs furthermore open and sustain pathways for fluid flow triggering reactions with the host rocks that may permanently change the rheological properties of the oceanic lithosphere. In fact, they may act as conduits mediating vertical fluid flow and leading to elemental exchanges between Earth's mantle and overlying sediments. Chemicals transported upward in MTFFZs include energy substrates, such as H 2 and volatile hydrocarbons, which then sustain chemosynthetic, microbial ecosystems at and below the seafloor. Moreover, up-or downwelling of fluids within the complex system

Paleo-climatic and -oceanographic studies are essentially motivated by elementary societal and scientific needs for understanding our planet, in particular the amplitude of natural variability with the purpose of discriminating between natural and human-made change and predicting the effect of anthropogenic impacts on the future global climatic system.By collecting and compiling quantitative paleoclimatic information of the principal parameters from the Mediterranean region, both on land and in the ocean, in various climate periods: (i) warm climate intervals of the Pleistocene including the Holocene (our current interglacial period) and (ii) times of abrupt climate shift, in particular from cold to warming periods, such as deglaciation(s) and the glacial millennial-scale variations, we hope to contribute to a better understanding of the forcing mechanisms behind the temporal and spatial patterns observed, provide information useful for model improvement and validation and hopefully help to predict how future climate may affect the Mediterranean area.

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