Page 9 - 36 Elevation of the last interglacial highstand in Sicily

ARTICLE IN PRESS
F. Antonioli et al. / Quaternary International 145– 146 (2006) 3–18
Fig. 4. Enlarged view of the data in the St. Vito Promontory area,
showing the location of deposits and features of MIS 5.5 in that area, oblique downward view of the terrace surface, upon which is deposited
which is a stable location.
Southeast, between Marsala and Mazzara del Vallo,
Ruggieri et al. (1975) published a geomorphological
map containing a first-order terrace, the so-called
Grande Terrazzo Superiore (GTS) with an inner margin
that reaches 150 m and an enormous areal coverage; this
terrace cuts the Calcareniti di Marsala (Lower Pleisto-
cene, Siciliano; Ruggieri et al., 1968). Below an
intermediate terrace of Middle Pleistocene age, the
Tyrrhenian terrace is identified by the presence of S.
bubonius at 2–3 m elevation. This deposit is on a large
terrace extending to the coast with an inner margin at
+34 m.
3.2. Sector 2
In contrast to Sector 1, between Capo Granitola and
Capo Passero, careful search in all coastal sites with
outcrop (Tre Fontane, Porto Palo, Sciacca Agrigento,
Castello di Falconara, Marina di Ragusa, Pozzallo,
Pantano Longarini, Fig. 2) did not reveal any evidence
of marine Tyrrhenian deposits. Instead, in these coastal
zones we found well-cemented sandy sediments of
considerable thickness and containing fossils indicating
they were Mio-Pliocene in age.
3.3. Sector 3
Malatesta (1985) found at Pachino a fossil beach
containing S. bubonius at +15 m. We found at +4 m at
Marzamemi a beach containing Cardium and Cerasto-
derma covered by aeolian deposits. To the north at
Avola and Lido Arenella we found between +3 and
+6 m a well-cemented fossil beach containing a non-
Senegalese fauna.
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Fig. 5. MIS 5.5 terrace at Augusta, SE Sicily. Main photo is an
a coarse conglomerate (left inset photo), containing well-preserved
examples of Strombus bubonius (right inset photo).
Near Augusta on the Monte Tauro, Di Grande and
Scamarda (1973) and Di Grande and Neri (1988)
published the finding of terraces on which are more
than one S. bubonius. We visited the sites and also found
the fossil beach containing S. bubonius. Fossils lie on a
conglomerate 1 m thick that covers the terrace over a
horizontal distance of about 70 m wide (Fig. 5), and
higher at +16 m is a band of Lithophaga holes. For
geomorphological correlation with Pachino and Augus-
ta we correlate the fossil beach of Marzamemi and
Avola with MIS 5.5. Bonfiglio (1991) reports the
presence of marine deposits up to 34 m at the site of
Coste di Gigia (Fig. 2). The correlation with MIS 5.5 is
on the basis of mammalian fauna.
Bianca et al. (1999) recognized numerous terraces
from the coast up to an elevation of +450 m in the area
of Augusta and Siracusa (including Monte Tauro).
Those authors based their chronological interpretation
of the terraces on mammals’ teeth collected from
continental deposits containing remnants of Hippopota-
mus pentlandi and Elephas mnaidrensis. Samples of teeth
have been dated with ESR geochronological techniques
(Rhodes, 1996). These deposits are covered by marine
deposits the inner margin of which reaches +32 m.
Using younger ESR ages (74.9–84.5 ka), Bianca et al.
(1999) attributed the continental deposits containing
Elephas and Hippopotamus to MIS 5.2, but attributed
the subsequent marine deposits to MIS 5.1. The 41 slope
of the terrace (MIS 5.5 for Bianca et al., 1999) in the
study area is tilted towards SE with elevations decreas-
ing from north (Augusta) to south (near Avola) (see
Fig. 2 for the sites) varing from +105 to +75 m.
3.4. Sector 4
In eastern Sicily, correlations of MIS 5.5 highstands are
based on S. bubonius discovered at 86 m (Bonfiglio and