Publication Date:
2024-01-29
Description:
The current rapid change of the Earth’s climate has resulted in an increasing interest for the past warm periods as
potential long-term scenarios of the effects of the present global warming. The last such a period occurred
129–116 ka, known as the Last Interglacial (LIG), when the continental ice volume was significantly smaller than
present, leading to a global sea-level (GSL) higher than present one. Detailed morpho-stratigraphic data, supported
by a robust U/Th chronology, from Grotta delle Capre, central Italy, provided new chronological insights
on the relative sea-level (RSL) dynamic during the LIG in the Mediterranean region. Our results indicate that, on
Tyrrhenian Sea coasts of the central Italy, after having stationed at ~9 m a.s.l., the LIG RSL fell at an elevation
〈3 m a.s.l. as early as before 123 ka, and then no longer rose above this elevation either during the later stages of
the LIG or afterwards. The results match previous studies based on U/Th dating of terrestrial limiting points from
Grotta Infreschi, ~200 km SE from Grotta delle Capre along the same Tyrrhenian Sea coasts, and are in
agreement with the Red Sea RLS and GSL records and the probabilistic LIG sea level assessments based on
globally distributed records. On the other hand, our reconstruction is not supported by implications of U/Th
dating of corals and phreatic overgrowth on speleothems from the Balearic Island of Mallorca. Such an inconsistency
in the overall knowledge around the LIG RSL reconstruction results in a high uncertainty in modelling the ice and sea-level dynamic during this warm period, which needs to be reduced through more and more highresolution, stratigraphic and chronological investigations of the morphological and sedimentary sea-level records.
Description:
Published
Description:
104321
Description:
OSA2: Evoluzione climatica: effetti e loro mitigazione
Description:
JCR Journal
Keywords:
Last Interglacial
;
relative sea level
;
U/Th chronology
;
Terrestrial limiting points
;
Mediterranean
Repository Name:
Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV)
Type:
article
