Late Quaternary climatic variations on the Latium and Campanian Margin of the Tyrrhenian Sea

A multidisciplinary investigation was carried out on two cores, MC 82-12 (Palinuro intraslope basin) and ML 83-21 (Pontinia intraslope basin), recovered during a cruise carried out in 1983, in the eastern part of the Tyrrhenian Sea, funded by C.N.R. Quantitative analyses of planktonic foraminifers, along with oxygen and carbon stable isotopes analyses, and mineralogical and petrological studies on tephra layers allowed to recognize and date, by means of isotopic stratigraphy, the main climatic events of the Late Quaternary: the Last Glacial Maximum, the Younger Dryas event, as well as Termination IA and IB. The planktonic assemblages recognized in the two cores correlate well between them and with the oxygen isotopic signal, even if there are some discrepancies, related to oceanographic factors other than temperature influencing the foraminifers distribution.