A 90,000–200,000 yrs marine tephra record of Italian volcanic activity in the Central Mediterranean Sea

A detailed tephrochronological study was undertaken in three deep-sea cores collected in the Tyrrhenian and Ionian Seas. The age and the origin of the marine tephra were inferred from oxygen isotope records of foraminifera and from major element compositions of glass-shards. Seventy-one eruptions were detected in the time interval 90,000–200,000 yrs during which the volcanoes of the Roman and Campanian regions and of the southern Italy were in activity. This is attested by the consistency of the geochemical compositions of both marine and terrestrial deposits. Most of the marine tephra consisted in trachytes and phonolites characterizing a Roman and Campanian origin. Several tephra were proposed as key-horizons for proximal and distal sediments. Among them, one tephra originating from Mount Etna (149,300 yrs) and five tephra from Pantelleria island (130,000 yrs, 163,600 yrs, 192,500 yrs, 197,400 yrs and 198,400 yrs) were northerly dispersed. Several other key horizons originated from the Campanian or Roman provinces were detected as far as 1000 km from the vents.