New insights from the MIS 5 Fronte GSSP candidate Section (Taranto, Italy)

We present new data collected at the Fronte locality near Taranto, where the Upper Pleistocene marine sedimentary succession is continuously exposed. Above a fossiliferous calcarenite yielding the “Senegalese” fauna, and abundant Cladocora, the 230Th/U age of which is consistent with Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 5, a 6.25 m thick pelitic unit is characterized by lithologically homogeneous marine sediments in which stable oxygen isotope, micropaleontological and palynological analyses suggested a long and undisturbed sedimentary interval across the Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 5.5 peak (plateau) (Negri et al., 2015). Two cores drilled in 2015 at the top of the cliff where the section crops out, show the same lithological succession sampled in the field. These cores were investigated for the geomagnetic palaeosecular variation and relative palaeointensity recorded in these sediments. Interestingly, the Paleomagnetic record contains several brief excursions of shallowed inclination. The most significant of these reaches inclinations of below 10°, suggesting a correlation with the Blake event (Negri et al., 2016). To further clarify the age of the sedimentary succession, two branches of Cladocora recovered at the top of the fossiliferous calcarenite have been U-series dated (coral aragonite) revealing an age of about 80Ka (further refining is ongoing while we are writing this abstract) while new benthic foraminiferal analyses in the pelitic unit above it, confirmed a frankly marine microfauna. According to these new data the whole MIS 5 or so appears to be constrained by the calcarenite, This suggest a climatic change switching the sedimentation from carbonate platform to pelite. The data so far collected which are consistent with the old data reported by dai Pra and Stearns (1977) indicate that at the Fronte section a record of the Termination II and the whole MIS 5 occur. This evidences the need to detail further the time interval recorded through a new set of U/Th dating and eventually the finding of appropriate stratigraphic indicators which may strengthen the potential of the section as GSSP.