Last Interglacial sea-level proxies in the western Mediterranean

Abstract

Abstract. We describe a database of Last Interglacial (Marine Isotopic Stage 5) sea-level proxies for the western Mediterranean region. The database was compiled reviewing the information reported in 199 published studies and contains 396 sea-level data points (sea-level index points and marine- or terrestrial-limiting points) and 401 associated dated samples. The database follows the standardized WALIS template and is available as Cerrone et al. (2021b, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5341661).

Stratigraphy and chronology of the Cala Mosca site, SW Sardinia (Italy)

“…These are both observed to lie above the present sea level and interpreted to be formed due to a double sea level fluctuation within MIS 5e (Hearty, 1986; Hearty et al, 2007). This interpretation is similar to that observed in other semi-stable areas of the Mediterranean region (Cerrone et al, 2021, and references therein).…”

“…It hosts well-exposed MIS 5e coastal deposits (Pascucci et al, 2014;Sechi et al, 2020), and it is generally considered tectonically stable (Antonioli et al, 2006;Ferranti et al, 2006;Rovere et al, 2016;Vacchi et al, 2016), evinced by lowintensity seismicity (Rovida et al, 2020;Gorshkov et al, 2021). The marine sequence of Cala Mosca (southwest Sardinia, Italy) is one of the well-known MIS 5e marker sites and has been considered the Tyrrhenian locus typicus since the beginning of the last century (Cerrone et al, 2021). Since then, it has been used as a proxy to calibrate the Pleistocene sea-level curve and to support the tectonic stability of Sardinia (Lambeck et al, 2004;Antonioli et al, 2006Antonioli et al, , 2007Antonioli et al, , 2017Rovere et al, 2016).…”

Climatic control on the formation of marine-notches in microtidal settings: New data from the northwestern Mediterranean Sea

“…The coastal area is tectonically stable as suggested by the negligible historical seismicity (Billi et al, 2011;Noquet, 2012). Tectonic stability is further confirmed by the present elevation of the last interglacial shoreline (e.g., ~125 ka, Cerrone et al, 2021) while GPS-derived vertical rates suggest that the Marseille bay is presently characterized by stability to minor subsidence (<0.5 mm a -1 , Noquet et al, 2016).…”

The Depositional Environments in the Cilento Offshore (Southern Tyrrhenian Sea, Italy) Based on Marine Geological Data

“…From the end of the isotopic stage 5a, the sea, despite the cyclical oscillations, is constantly lowering up to the isotopic stage 2, when it was located at a depth of about 120 m in the Mediterranean Sea [16,[81][82][83][84][85][86][87][88][89][90]. During this phase of "forced regression" [24,[91][92][93][94], the progradational wedges of the Cilento offshore were deposited, allowing for a platform widening in the order of several kilometers.…”