A stalactite record of four relative sea-level highstands during the Middle Pleistocene Transition

• Published in: Quaternary Science Reviews
• Main Authors: Stocchi, Paolo, Antonioli, Fabrizio, Montagna, Paolo, Pepe, Fabrizio, Lo Presti, Valeria, Caruso, Antonio, Corradino, Marta, Dardanelli, Gino, Renda, Pietro, Frank, Norbert, Douville, Eric, Thil, François, de Boer, Bas, Ruggieri, Rosario, Sciortino, Rosanna, Pierre, Catherine
• Other Authors: Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ), Utrecht University Utrecht, Agenzia Nazionale per le nuove Tecnologie, l’energia e lo sviluppo economico sostenibile (ENEA), Istituto di Science Marine (ISMAR ), Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), Observatoire Astronomique de l'Université de Genève (ObsGE), Université de Genève = University of Geneva (UNIGE), Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra e del Mare Palermo (DiSTeM), Università degli studi di Palermo - University of Palermo, Universität Heidelberg Heidelberg, Géochrononologie Traceurs Archéométrie (GEOTRAC), Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement Gif-sur-Yvette (LSCE), Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris-Saclay-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris-Saclay-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research Utrecht (IMAU), University of Nova Gorica, Biogéochimie-Traceurs-Paléoclimat (BTP), Laboratoire d'Océanographie et du Climat : Expérimentations et Approches Numériques (LOCEAN), Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle (MNHN)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut Pierre-Simon-Laplace (IPSL (FR_636)), École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS-PSL), Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7 (UPD7)-École polytechnique (X)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS-PSL), Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7 (UPD7)-École polytechnique (X)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle (MNHN)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut Pierre-Simon-Laplace (IPSL (FR_636)), Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7 (UPD7)-École polytechnique (X)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2017
• Subjects: Interglacial(s); Pleistocene; Sea Level changes; Paleogeography; Western Europe; Speleothems; Corals; Stable isotopes; U-Th dating; 87Sr/86 41 Sr ages; Geomorphology; coastal; [SDU.ENVI]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Continental interfaces; environment; [SDU.STU.CL]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Climatology; Antarctic; Antarc*; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-01584253; https://hal.science/hal-01584253/document; https://hal.science/hal-01584253/file/56.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2017.08.008

International audience Ice-sheet and sea-level fluctuations during the Early and Middle Pleistocene are as yet poorly understood. A stalactite from a karst cave in North West Sicily (Italy) provides the first evidence of four marine inundations that correspond to relative sea-level highstands at the time of the Middle Pleistocene Transition. The speleothem is located ∼97 m above mean sea level as result of Quaternary uplift. Its section reveals three marine hiatuses and a coral overgrowth that fixes the age of final marine ingression at 1.124 ± 0.2, thus making this speleothem the oldest stalactite with marine hiatuses ever studied to date. Scleractinian coral species witness light-limited conditions and water depth of 20–50 m. Integrating the coral-constrained depth with the geologically constrained uplift rate and an ensemble of RSL scenarios, we find that the age of the last marine ingression most likely coincides with Marine Isotope Stage 35 on the basis of a probabilistic assessment. Our findings are consistent with a significant Antarctic ice-sheet retreat.