Tephra layers in Bannock Basin (Eastern Mediterranean)

Several volcanic ash layers were identified in cores collected in the Bannock Basin (Eastern Mediterranean) during cruises BAN-84, BAN-86 and BAN-88 of the R.V. Bannock. Lithological, microscopic, mineralogical and chemical analyses together with stratigraphic position help in identifying them as tephra layers Y-1, Y-5, X-2 and W-1 of Keller et al. (GSA Bull. 89, 1978).

Tephra layer Y-1 is stiff and usually deformed, and is black to very dark brown in colour. It is mainly composed of highly vesicular micropumice with dark brown and colourless limpid glass and it has a benmoritic chemical composition, which is typical of Mt. Etna material.

Tephra layer Y-5 is composed of soft, limpid vitric shards and subordinate micropumice ranging in composition from alkaliphonolitic trachyte to latite and may be correlated with the Campanian Ignimbrite eruption which occurred about 35,000 years ago in the Phlegrean Fields (the Campanian volcanic area in Italy).

Tephra layer X-2 is olive-grey in colour, and is composed of micropumice and glass shards with a chemical composition ranging from alkali-phonolitic trachyte to latite; its source is probably the Campanian volcanic area.

Tephra layer W-1 is dark grey and made up of micropumice and glass shards with a chemical composition ranging from tephrite-phonolite to alkali-phonolitic trachyte; its source is probably the Roman volcanic area in Italy.

The volcanic layers have been identified in cores of the basin sill, in the central bulge of the basin and on the basin flanks leading up to the “cobblestone topography” of the Mediterranean Ridge; they could not, however, be identified in any core raised from beneath the anoxic hypersaline brines.

Important volcanological results are: (a) an extension of the areal distribution of Y-1, X-2 and W-1, (b) correlation of Y-1 with the Biancavilla Ignimbrite of Mt. Etna dated in previous works at about 14,000 yrs B.P., and (c) determination of the bimodal chemical composition of Y-5 showing that the latter has a composition in accordance with that of the Campanian Ignimbrite in the Phlegrean Fields.