The Priabonian GSSP: a golden spike to drive

• Main Authors: Agnini C., Backman J., Boscolo-Galazzo F., Condon D., Fornaciari E., Galeotti S., Giusberti L., Grandesso P., Lanci L., Luciani V., Monechi S., Muttoni G., Pälike H., Pampaloni M. L., Papazzoni C. A., Pignatti J., Premoli Silva I., Raffi I., Rio D., Rook L., Sahy D., Spofforth D. J. A., Stefani C.
• Other Authors: Petti Fabio M., Innamorati Giulia, Carmina Bernardo, Germani Daniela, Agnini, C., Backman, J., Boscolo-Galazzo, F., Condon, D., Fornaciari, E., Galeotti, S., Giusberti, L., Grandesso, P., Lanci, L., Luciani, V., Monechi, S., Muttoni, G., Pälike, H., Pampaloni, M. L., Papazzoni, C. A., Pignatti, J., Premoli Silva, I., Raffi, I., Rio, D., Rook, L., Sahy, D., Spofforth, D. J. A., Stefani, C.
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: English
• Published: Società Geologica Italiana 2019
• Subjects: GSSP; Priabonian; chronostratigraphy; Paleogene; Planktonic foraminifera
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/11573/1297993

The base of the Priabonian Stage is one of the two stage boundaries in the Paleogene Period that remains to be formalized. The Priabonian Stage is named after the village of Priabona (eastern Lessini Mountains of northeastern Italy) where the historical stratotype is located. A working group composed of different expertise and nationalities has, during the last decade, focused on providing an appropriate candidate section and a shared, acceptable definition for this chronostratigraphic boundary. Here we present the most updated dataset available from the Alano di Piave section. This section was unanimously considered, by the Priabonian working group in 2012, as the perfect candidate for the Priabonian GSSP. The integrated stratigraphic approach that has been carried out in this sedimentary section has provided a unique bio-magneto-chemo-cyclostratigraphic framework that is the fundamental prerequisite for a GSSP. According to the guidelines of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS), stages should be defined by their lower boundary, which is identified in a specific stratigraphic layer in a reference section, the GSSP. The ICS guidelines suggest first to identify a level in the section that can be characterized by a marker event of optimal correlation potential. In 2012, the working group voted by majority a tuff layer, the Tiziano bed, as the level by which to define the base of the Priabonian Stage. The Bartonian/Priabonian transition contains several events with high correlation potential (e.g., biostratigraphy, magnetostratigraphy) over wide geographic distances which forms several bio- magnetostratigraphic markers around the boundary rather than a single point. Thus, multiple primary markers exist to approximate the Priabonian Stage in and away of the Alano di Piave section. These markers include the shortly-spaced extinctions of the large acarininid group and of the genus Morozovelloides (planktonic foraminifera), the Base of common Cribrocentrum erbae and the Top of Chiasmolithus grandis ...