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

Abstract

The relict beach deposit of the Cala Mosca marine terrace is considered an important section of Marine Isotopic Stage (MIS) 5e (ca. 125 ka) sea-level highstands. Analysis of the stratigraphy and sediments of the deposit indicates the presence of a composite marine terrace comprising two superimposed marine units, luminescence dated to the MIS 5e (137 ± 7, 134 ± 7 ka) and MIS 5c (92 ± 6 ka) substages. The stratigraphic superimposition of the two highstands, both placed ~5 m above present sea level, agrees with other areas along the Sardinia coasts. The evident superimposition of two sea-level highstands and development of the composite terrace cannot be accounted solely by high-frequency sea-level oscillation that occurred within MIS 5 for the Mediterranean Sea. This suggests controversial, but significant, regional versus local tectonic activity occurred during the Late Pleistocene.

Gravelly Beach Deposits as a Proxy for Relative Sea-Level Changes in Microtidal Wave-Dominated Shoreline Systems: Examples from the Hinterland of the Taranto Gulf (Middle Pleistocene, Basilicata, Southern Italy)

“…So, the architecture of the outcropping deposits can be explained only assuming that the succession developed during a cycle of relative sea-level change. Therefore, the "terraced surface" of previous authors, i.e., the topographic surface topping both the delta and the beach deposits, cannot be attributed to a single episode of relative sea-level stillstand, but it corresponds to the surface of a composite marine terrace sensu [29,30]. Different deposits must be sampled to date the delta top and the beach top.…”

“…The authors concluded that these terraced marine-deposits record more than a single relative sea-level change in the succession located below each terraced surface, even in the subsurface of the present-day coastal plain; therefore, terraced surfaces topping these deposits could not be genetically linked to the whole succession located below each of these surfaces but, eventually, they could be related to the last of those cycles vertically recorded in the local sedimentary succession [2,4,25,26]. Moreover, the "imbrication" of coastal wedges of different ages, i.e., a series of coastal bodies that cyclically developed one in front of the other at a different time, is worldwide documented and is characterized on top by an apparently single-terraced surface (a composite-terraced surface) [27][28][29][30]. [2] in the vicinity of the area of the present study.…”

Paleoecological reconstruction during the Holocene in the Middle Branch of Bue Marino Cave (Sardinia, Italy)

“…Among all dating methods, luminescence dates the last exposition to the sunlight of minerals such as quartz and feldspar before burial and, thus, the deposition time (Lian and Roberts, 2006). The method has been successfully applied to Holocene to Middle Pleistocene Sardinian deposits using quartz and potassium-rich feldspar (K-feldspar) minerals (Casini et al, 2020;Cocco et al, 2019;Pascucci et al, 2014Pascucci et al, , 2022Sechi et al, 2013Sechi et al, , 2018aSechi et al, , 2018bSechi et al, , 2020Sechi et al, , 2023Zucca et al, 2014). Recently, Andreucci et al (2017) successfully applied the luminescence method to date wind blow sediment filling the Bue Marino cave, which is part of a vast karst complex of the Gulf of Orosei.…”