The Alano section: the candidate GSSP for the Priabonian Stage

The deep-water hemipelagic Alano section is located in the Southern Alps of northern–eastern Italy close to the village of Alano di Piave in the type area of the Priabonian. Since 2005, the section has been presented as the potential Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) for the late Eocene Priabonian Stage at several meetings of the International Subcommission on Palaeogene Stratigraphy (ISPS). Because of the favourable qualities of the section, we have been asked to produce the data necessary for the formal definition of the GSSP. In 2011, Agnini et al. published most of the documentation needed (lithostratigraphy, calcareous plankton biostratigraphy, magnetostratigraphy, and chemostratigraphy, including oxygen and carbon isotopes and carbonate content). The Agnini et al. (2011) paper also contained a motivated proposal for the definition of the Priabonian at the base of a prominent crystal tuff layer, the Tiziano bed, located at the 63.57 m level in the Alano section. ...