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The middle Eocene climatic optimum event in the Contessa Highway section, Umbrian Apennines, Italy

Luigi Jovane¹, Fabio Florindo^,2, Rodolfo Coccioni³, Jaume Dinarès-Turell⁴, Andrea Marsili⁵, Simonetta Monechi⁶, Andrew P. Roberts⁷ and Mario Sprovieri⁸

¹ Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Via di Vigna Murata 605, 00143 Rome, Italy, and Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Bologna, Via Berti Pichat 8, 40127, Bologna, Italy
² Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Via di Vigna Murata 605, 00143 Rome, Italy
³ Istituto di Geologia e Centro di Geobiologia, Università degli Studi di Urbino "Carlo Bo," Campus Scientifico, Località Crocicchia, 61029 Urbino, Italy
⁴ Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Via di Vigna Murata 605, 00143 Rome, Italy
⁵ Istituto di Geologia e Centro di Geobiologia, Università degli Studi di Urbino "Carlo Bo," Campus Scientifico, Località Crocicchia, 61029 Urbino, Italy
⁶ Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università degli Studi di Firenze, Via La Pira 4, 50121 Florence, Italy
⁷ National Oceanography Centre, University of Southampton, European Way, Southampton SO14 3ZH, UK
⁸ Istituto Ambiente Marino Costiero, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), Calata Porta di Massa (Interno Porto di Napoli), 80133 Naples, Italy

We report a high-resolution paleomagnetic investigation constrained by new qualitative and semiquantitative analyses of planktic and benthic foraminifera, nan-nofossil assemblages, integrated with oxygen and carbon isotope measurements, for the middle Eocene Scaglia limestones of the Contessa Highway section, central Italy. Calcareous plankton assemblages enable recognition of several biostratigraphic events from planktic foraminiferal zone P11 to the lower part of zone P15 and from calcareous nannofossil zone NP15 to the upper part of zone NP17, which results in refinement of the magnetobiostratigraphy of the Contessa Highway section. Correlation of the paleomagnetic polarity pattern with the geomagnetic polarity time scale provides a direct age interpretation for strata around the middle Eocene Scaglia limestones of the Contessa Highway section, from chrons C21n (47 Ma) through to subchron C18n.1n (38.5 Ma). Bulk carbon isotope values indicate a distinct carbon isotopic shift at 40 Ma that is interpreted to represent the first evidence in the Northern Hemisphere of the middle Eocene climatic optimum, which has recently been observed as a stable isotope anomaly in multiple records from the Indian-Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean. This demonstrates a global response of the carbon cycle to the proposed transient increased pCO₂ levels during the late middle Eocene and consequent global CO₂-driven climate change.

Key Words: Eocene • middle Eocene climatic optimum • MECO • magnetostratigraphy • biostratigraphy • stable isotope stratigraphy • Contessa Highway section • Italy

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