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We present field and core observations, nannofossil biostratigraphy, and stable oxygen isotope fluctuations in foraminiferal tests to describe the geology and to construct an age model of the Lower Pleistocene Nojima, Ofuna, and Koshiba Formations (in ascending order) of the middle Kazusa Group, a forearc basin‐fill succession, exposed on the northern Miura Peninsula on the Pacific side of central Japan. In the study area, the Nojima Formation is composed of sandy mudstone and alternating sandy mudstone and mudstone, the Ofuna Formation of massive mudstone, and the Koshiba Formation of sandy mudstone, muddy sandstone, and sandstone. The Kazusa Group contains many tuff beds that are characteristic of forearc deposits. Thirty‐six of those tuff beds have characteristic lithologies and stratigraphic positions that allow them to be traced over considerable distances. Examination of calcareous nannofossils revealed three nannofossil datum planes in the sequences: datum 10 (first appearance of large Gephyrocapsa), datum 11 (first appearance of Gephyrocapsa oceanica), and datum 12 (first appearance of Gephyrocapsa caribbeanica). Stable oxygen isotope data from the tests of the planktonic foraminifer Globorotalia inflata extracted from cores were measured to identify the stratigraphic fluctuations of oxygen isotope ratios that are controlled by glacial–interglacial cycles. The observed fluctuations were assigned to marine isotope stages (MISs) 49–61 on the basis of correlations of the fluctuations with nannofossil datum planes. Using the age model obtained, we estimated the ages of 24 tuff beds. Among these, the SKT‐11 and SKT‐12 tuff beds have been correlated with the Kd25 and Kd24 tuff beds, respectively, of the Kiwada Formation on the Boso Peninsula. The Kd25 and Kd24 tuff beds are widely recognized in Pleistocene strata in Japan. We used our age model to date SKT‐11 at 1573 ka and SKT‐12 at 1543 ka.

A detailed paleomagnetic record of the upper Olduvai polarity transition was obtained from a 106.72 m-long sediment core drilled in southern Yokohama City, located on the northern Miura Peninsula, on the Pacific side of central Japan. The core spans the upper part of the Nojima Formation and the lowermost part of the Ofuna Formation, both of which correspond to the middle Kazusa Group (Lower Pleistocene forearc basin fill). The record was reconstructed using discrete specimens taken throughout mudstone and/or sandy mudstone sequences in the Nojima Formation. In this record, the virtual geomagnetic pole (VGP) fluctuation accompanying the polarity transition was determined to occur between depths of 66.99 and 63.60 m. These depths have been dated at 1784.4 and 1779.9 ka, respectively, and the duration of the polarity transition is estimated to be 4.5 kyr using an age model based on a δ 18 O record from that core. The VGP paths during the transition do not appear to show any preferred longitudinal bands. However, the VGP positions cluster in five areas: (A) eastern Asia near Japan, (B) the Middle East, (C) eastern North America (North Atlantic), (D) off southern Australasia, and (E) the southern South Atlantic off South Africa. The primary locations of the observed VGP clusters coincide with the areas on the Earth's surface that possess a strong downward flux of the vertical component of the present geomagnetic non-axial dipole field. The relative paleointensity rapidly decreased approximately 1 kyr before the beginning of the polarity transition and gradually recovered to its initial level in 12 kyr.

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