Description: In the past few years, a wealth of paleomagnetic data gathered from Neogene sediments consistently showed that since ca. 10 Ma the Calabria terrane coherently drifted [~]500 km ESE-ward from the Sardinian margin, and rotated 15{degrees}-20{degrees} clockwise (CW) as a rigid microplate between 2 and 1 Ma. Here we report on a high-resolution paleomagnetic investigation of the Crotone forearc basin of northern Calabria. The integrated calcareous plankton biostratigraphy indicates early Pliocene (Zanclean) to late early Pleistocene (Calabrian) ages for 29 successful paleomagnetic sites and/or sections. Unexpectedly, four domains undergoing distinct rotations are documented. Two blocks have undergone a CW rotation statistically undistinguishable, for both timing and magnitude, from the rigid Calabria rotation documented in the past. Two additional [~]10-km-wide blocks yielded a 30.8{degrees} {+/-} 22.5{degrees} and 32.0{degrees} {+/-} 9.2{degrees} post-1.2 Ma counterclockwise rotation, likely due to left-lateral shear along two NW-SE fault zones. We infer that since advanced early Pleistocene times, after the end of the uniform CW rotation, left-lateral strike-slip tectonics disrupted the Calabria terrane, overwhelming a widespread extensional regime accompanying the Calabria drift since late Miocene times. Seismological evidence reveals that only the southern part of the Ionian slab subducting below Calabria is continuous, while beneath northern Calabria a slab window between 100 and 200 km depth is apparent. We suggest that the partial breakoff of the Ionian slab after 1 Ma induced the fragmentation of the Calabria wedge, and that strike-slip faults from the Crotone basin decoupled "inactive" northern Calabria from southern Calabria, still drifting towards the trench.

Description: At least two transient events of extreme global warming occurred superimposed on the long-term latest Paleocene and early Eocene warming trend in the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum (PETM) (or ETM1 ~55.5 Ma) and the Elmo (or ETM2 ~53.6 Ma). Other than warmth, the best known PETM is characterized by (1) significant injection of 13C-depleted carbon into the ocean-atmosphere system, (2) deep-sea carbonate dissolution, (3) strong biotic responses, and (4) perturbations of the hydrological cycle. Documentation of the other documented and suspected "hyperthermals" is, as yet, insufficient to assess whether they are similar in nature to the PETM. Here we present and discuss biomagnetostratigraphic data and geochemical records across two lower Eocene successions deposited on a continental margin of the western Tethys: the Farra and Possagno sections in the Venetian pre-Alps. We recognize four negative carbon isotope excursions within chron C24. Three of these shifts correlate to known or suspected hyperthermals: the PETM, the Eocene thermal maximum 2 (~53.6 Ma), and the informally named "X event" (~52.5 Ma). The fourth excursion lies within a reverse subchron and occurred between the latter two. In the Farra section, the X event is marked by a ~0.6 per mil negative carbon isotope excursion and carbonate dissolution. Furthermore, the event exhibits responses among calcareous nannofossils, planktic foraminifera, and dinoflagellates that are similar to, though less intense than, those observed across the PETM. Sedimentological and quantitative micropaleontological data from the Farra section also suggest increased weathering and runoff as well as sea surface eutrophication during this event.

Description: A high-resolution paleomagnetic and rock magnetic study has been carried out on sediment cores collected in glaciomarine silty-clay sequences from the continental shelf and slope of the southern Storfjorden trough-mouth fan, on the northwestern Barents Sea continental margin. The Storfjorden sedimentary system was investigated during the SVAIS and EGLACOM cruises, when 10 gravity cores, with a variable length from 1.03 m to 6.41 m, were retrieved. Accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) 14C analyses on 24 samples indicate that the cores span a time interval that includes the Holocene, the last deglaciation phase and in some cores the last glacial maximum. The sediments carry a well-defined characteristic remanent magnetization and have a valuable potential to reconstruct the paleosecular variation (PSV) of the geomagnetic field, including relative paleointensity (RPI) variations. The paleomagnetic data allow reconstruction of past dynamics and amplitude of the geomagnetic field variations at high northern latitudes (75°-76° N). At the same time, the rock magnetic and paleomagnetic data allow a high-resolution correlation of the sedimentary sequences and a refinement of their preliminary age models. The Holocene PSV and RPI records appear particularly sound, since they are consistent between cores and they can be correlated to the closest regional stacking curves (UK PSV, FENNOSTACK and FENNORPIS) and global geomagnetic model for the last 7 ka (CALS7k.2). The computed amplitude of secular variation is lower than that outlined by some geomagnetic field models, suggesting that it has been almost independent from latitude during the Holocene.