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GSSP for Calabrian Stage

Definition:

The base of the Calabrian Stage is defined as the base of the marine claystones conformably overlying the sapropelic Marker Bed "e" in the Vrica Section, Italy.

Location:

The Vrica Section is located 4km south of the town of Crotone in the Marchesato Peninsula, Calabria, Italy. Latitude: 39°02'18.61" north, longitude:17°08'05.79" east. 		GSSP for Calabrian Stage


Sedimentology:

The Vrica section consists of open sea deposits preserved in the emergent portion of a late Cenozoic sedimentary basin. The rocks are bathyal, marly and silty claystones (dark grey or blue-gray in color) with interbedded, fairly conspicuous, pale grey-pink sapropelic marker beds. Some very thin sandy horizons and a volcanic ash layer also occur within the section. Sedimentation rates through the section range from 310mm to more than 750mm per thousand years.


Primary Markers:

The base of the Calabrian Stage is defined as the base of the marine claystones conformably overlying the sapropelic Marker Bed "e" in the Vrica Section

Secondary Markers:

Foraminifera and Nannoplankton:
The following taxa are distinctive foraminifera and nannoplankton of widespread distribution.
  • LAD of Discoaster brouweri below GSSP
  • LAD of Globigerinoides obliquus extremus and Cyclococcolithus macintyrei above GSSP
  • FAD of Geophyrocapsa oceanica and Globigerinoides tenellus above GSSP
Paleomagnetics:
The top of the Olduvai normal polarity subchron is about 8 m above the GSSP

Correlation Events:

top of Olduvai magnetic subchron is about 8 m above the GSSP

Notes on Derivation of Age:

Astronomical cycles in sediments, enhanced accuracy

Additional Comments:

The base of the Quaternary System/Period, and thus the Neogene-Quaternary boundary, is formally defined by the Monte San Nicola GSSP and thus is coincident with the bases of the Pleistocene and Gelasian. The Gelasian Stage/Age was transferred from the Pliocene Series/Epoch to the Pleistocene. Ratified by IUGS on 29 June 2009.

References:

Aguirre, E. and Pasini, G., 1985. The Pliocene - Pleistocene Boundary. Episodes, 8/2, p. 116 - 120.


Bassett, M. G., 1985. Towards a "Common Language" in Stratigraphy. Episodes, 8/2, 87.


Cita, M. B., Gibbard, P. L., Head, M. J. and the ICS Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy, 2012. Formal ratification of the GSSP for the base of the Calabrian Stage (second stage of the Pleistocene Series, Quaternary System). Episodes, 35/3, 388 – 397.

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