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Late Quaternary Eolian Deposition in Central Italy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Biancamaria Narcisi*
Affiliation:
ENEA - C.R. Casaccia, C.P. 2400, 00100, Rome, Italy, E-mail: narcisi@casaccia.enea.it

Abstract

Records of eolian quartz from two continuous sediment sequences drilled in Lagaccione and Lago di Vico volcanic lakes in central Italy contribute to the knowledge of eolian deposition in the central Mediterranean during the last 100,000 years. The chronology is based on 14C and 40Ar/39Ar dating and tephra analysis. Pollen data provide the paleoenvironmental framework and enable correlation between the cores. Eolian inputs were high during the steppe phases corresponding to oxygen isotope stages 4 and 2. Low inputs correspond to the forest phases of the last interglacial and the middle Holocene. Eolian inputs have increased in the late Holocene. Patterns of eolian deposition in central Italy resemble the Antarctic dust record from the Vostok ice core. The Italian patterns may also correspond with hydrological changes registered in North Africa. The main source of dust loading over the Mediterranean now, North Africa, may have played an important role in dust supply throughout the last climatic cycle.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
University of Washington

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