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The volcanic history of Mt. Etna is mainly known from studies of subaerial deposits and stratigraphy. However, little is known about the offshore deposits, which can provide a more detailed insight into geological and sedimentological processes affecting the flanks of Mt. Etna. During RV Meteor Cruise M178, eight gravity cores were taken offshore across the continental margin east of the volcanic edifice to re-evaluate the volcanic history of pre-historic eruptions and mass wasting events in the area. In total, we investigated 87 marine tephra layers in order to build a marine tephrostratigraphic framework. Based on major element compositions of glass shards, sediment componentry, and petrographic characteristics, 27 layers were identified as primary pyroclastic flow and fall deposits, i.e., directly related to an explosive volcanic eruption. However, most of the remaining tephra layers are interpreted to represent deposits of secondary density currents and are not necessarily related to a volcanic eruption. The marine dataset is complemented by twelve onshore samples taken from major explosive eruptions. Applying geochemical fingerprinting of volcanic glass shard compositions, we correlated eleven marine tephra deposits to seven well-known Mt. Etna eruptions (FV, FF, FG, FL, FS, TV, and M1 eruptions) within the last 12 kyr, which provide valuable time markers in the marine sediment record. Furthermore, we correlated ten marine tephra layers between the marine cores (four individual eruptions) and identified another six primary layers in single cores. In total, we discovered 17 widespread volcanic events in the marine record, including four previously unknown eruptions between 10 and 7.7 ka, which indicate that Mt. Etna was more active than previously thought during this time period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pumice fall deposits found in the Nebrodi Mountains and along the Alcantara River, close to the town of Randazzo (NE Sicily), have been studied to derive information about their volcanic source and age. The geochemical Na-alkaline affinity of juvenile products, benmoreite to trachyte, clearly indicates they originated from Etna volcano (Sicily). Major (EMPA) and trace (LA-ICP-MS) element compositional data on matrix glasses indicate that the investigated deposits have a compositional affinity consistent with the tephra deposits of unit D produced by the Ellittico caldera-forming eruptions between ca. 17 and 19 cal ka BP. Furthermore, their compositions correspond to the distal tephra equivalent found in some lacustrine and marine cores in Central Italy (Y-1, TM-11), Tyrrhenian Sea (Et-1; MD10α) and Adriatic Sea (Pal94-66-358; Pal94-8-353). We applied the principal components analysis (PCA), a statistical tool able to reduce the variability of a complex system, to compare the compositions of the proximal samples with the possible distal counterparts found in drill cores of the Mediterranean area. On the basis of northward dispersal of the studied deposits and their geochemical features, we suggest they represent a previously unreported sub-Plinian/Plinian eruption of Ellittico volcano producing medial-distal pumice fall deposits in the Nebrodi Mountains and close to Randazzo, named here the D1c layer. The discovery of these deposits helps solve the problem of distal correlations of the northerly dispersed tephra from Etna related to unit D, for which no definitive attribution with proximal units was given in previous studies. The results presented here add to the knowledge of the eruptive history of the volcano and contribute to expanding the proximal geochemical glass dataset for distal tephra correlation in the Mediterranean region during the Late Glacial period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The AND-2A drillcore (Antarctic Drilling Program—ANDRILL) was successfully completed in late 2007 on the Antarctic continental margin (Southern McMurdo Sound, Ross Sea) with the aim of tracking ice proximal to shallow marine environmental fluctuations and to document the 20-Ma evolution of the Erebus Volcanic Province. Lava clasts and tephra layers from the AND-2A drillcore were investigated from a petrographic and stratigraphic point of view and analyzed by the 40Ar–39Ar laser technique in order to constrain the age model of the core and to gain information on the style and nature of sediment deposition in the Victoria Land Basin since Early Miocene. Ten out of 17 samples yielded statistically robust 40Ar–39Ar ages, indicating that the AND-2A drillcore recovered ≤230 m of Middle Miocene (∼128–358 m below sea floor, ∼11.5–16.0 Ma) and >780 m of Early Miocene (∼358–1093 m below sea floor, ∼16.0–20.1 Ma). Results also highlight a nearly continuous stratigraphic record from at least 358 m below sea floor down hole, characterized by a mean sedimentation rate of ∼19 cm/ka, possible oscillations of no more than a few hundreds of ka and a break within ∼17.5–18.1 Ma. Comparison with available data from volcanic deposits on land, suggests that volcanic rocks within the AND-2A core were supplied from the south, possibly with source areas closer to the drill site for the upper core levels, and from 358 m below sea floor down hole, with the “proto-Mount Morning” as the main source. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]