Le Pléistocène supérieur marin (Tyrrhénien) en Crète nord-orientale (Grèce) / The Marine Upper Pleistocene (Tyrrhenian) in north-eastern Crete (Greece)

Abstract

Abstract Coastal regions in north-eastern Crete offer numerous outcrops of Tyrrhenian formations. Their study reveals sediments corresponding to three main high sea stands during the last interglacial with intercalations of aeolianite. The three transgressions are correlated with isotope stages 5.5 (125 ka), 5.3 (120 ka) and 5.1 (80 ka). Strombus bubonius Imk, the index fossil of the Tyrrhenian, is present in the two earlier deposits. During the marine episodes, rapid sea level variations are evidenced by vermetid coatings on more deep fades sediments and by notches in the underlying bedrock. The Tyrrhenian stratigraphy of Crete throws a new light on Tyrrhenian stratigraphy of the Peloponese where references to the Eutyrrhenian and Neotyrrhenian are frequent in the the literature. The outcrops attributed to the second show the same morphostratigraphic features as those of the second Cretan transgression and, consequently, can be attributed to the 5.3 isotope stage.