Pliocene-Pleistocene Paleoenvironmental History of the Western Mediterranean: A Synthesis of ODP Site 653 Results

Micropaleontological and oxygen isotopic studies of ODP Site 653 provide a nearly continuous and detailed record of the Pliocene-Pleistocene paleoenvironmental history of the Tyrrhenian Sea. Although the planktonic fauna and flora indicate that relatively warm conditions prevailed in the Mediterranean during the early Pliocene, the oxygen isotopic and paleontologic records show that this was not a period of "stable' climatic conditions. The Pleistocene δ18O record contains two modes of variability, a feature typical of open ocean records. The lower Pleistocene is dominated by low amplitude glacial/interglacial cycles, whereas the upper Pleistocene contains high amplitude fluctuations