Tephrochronological dating of varved interglacial lake deposits from Piànico‐Sèllere (Southern Alps,Italy) to around 400 ka

The sediment record from the Piànico palaeolake in the southern Alps is continuously varved, spans more than 15 500 years, and represents a key archive for interglacial climate variability at seasonal resolution. The stratigraphic position of the Piànico Interglacial has been controversial in the past. The identification of two volcanic ash layers and their microscopic analysis provides distinct marker layers for tephrochronological dating of these interglacial deposits. In addition to micro‐facies analyses reconstructing depositional processes of both tephra layers within the lake environment, their mineralogical and geochemical composition has been determined through major‐element electron probe micro‐analysis on glass shards. Comparison with published tephra data traced the volcanic source regions of the Piànico tephras to the Campanian volcanic complex of Roccamonfina (Italy) and probably the Puy de Sancy volcano in the French Massif Central. Available dating of near‐vent deposits from the Roccamonfina volcano provides a robust tephrochronological anchor point at around 400 ka for the Piànico Interglacial. These deposits correlate with marine oxygen isotope stage (MIS) 11 and thus are younger than Early to Middle Pleistocene previously suggested by K/Ar dating and older than the last interglacial as inferred from macrofloral remains and the geological setting. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effects of detrital carbonate on stable oxygen and carbon isotope data from varved sediments of the interglacial Piànico palaeolake (Southern Alps,Italy)

Contamination with detrital matter is a well‐known bias in δ¹⁸O records from lake carbonates but quantitative information of this effect is yet lacking. Therefore, we developed a new methodological approach combining isotope analyses with microfacies, X‐ray diffraction and micro‐X‐ray fluorescence data and applied this in a case study for the Piànico interglacial lake record in order to provide a quantitative estimate of the effect of detrital carbonate on stable δ¹⁸O and δ¹³C data. The Piànico record contains a long series of distinct and well‐preserved calcite varves and is correlated to Marine Isotope Stage 11. Intercalated in the varve sequence are detrital layers triggered by surface erosion events. These detrital layers are mainly composed of dolomite, thus reflecting the mineralogical signature of the catchment. Microfacies analyses of a 9350 varve year interval allows the identification of detrital layers down to sub‐millimetre scale and a precise selection of three different types of samples for isotope analyses: (1) pure endogenic calcite varves (five varves per sample) without detrital contamination; (2) individual detrital layers; and (3) ‘mixed’ samples including five calcite varves and up to four thin detrital layers. Detrital samples show the isotopic signature of the catchment dolomite and are up to 5.7‰ enriched in δ¹⁸O values with respect to endogenic calcite samples. In mixed samples, the degree of isotopic enrichment is directly related to the amount of detrital contamination; δ¹⁸O of bulk carbonates is significantly biased when the detrital component amounts to more than 5% of the sample. It is also shown that samples containing detrital material have an influence on the calculation of the covariance between δ¹³C and δ¹⁸O. Covariance is high (r = 0.76) when the correlation coefficient is calculated on the base of all samples, but absent (r = ?0.43) when samples containing detrital dolomite are excluded. It has been demonstrated that microfacies analysis is a quick tool to avoid or reduce detrital contamination in bulk carbonate samples during sample selection. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.