Paleomagnetic dating of tectonically influenced Plio-Quaternary fan-system deposits from the Apennines (Italy)

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Michele Saroli
Marco Moro
Fabio Florindo
Michele Lancia
Pontus C. Lurcock
Jaume Dinarès-Turell

Abstract

The Roveto Valley is a narrow, elongated, NW-trending depression filled with continental Plio-Quaternary deposits that outcrop at different topographic elevations. A morpho-lithostratigraphic succession of the continental deposits has been defined in order to reconstruct the geological Quaternary evolution of the area. These deposits do not contain materials suitable for biostratigraphic dating; therefore, in order to determine their chronology, three different units were sampled for magnetostratigraphic investigations. Paleomagnetic results demonstrated that standard demagnetization techniques are effective in removing secondary remanence components and in isolating the characteristic remanent magnetization, allowing us to determine, for each cycle, whether it was deposited before or after the Brunhes-Matuyama geomagnetic reversal at 781 ka. Preliminary rock magnetic analyses indicated that magnetite is the main magnetic carrier and that hematite, which gives the pink colour to the matrix, is in the superparamagnetic grain-size range and thus does not retain any paleomagnetic remanence.

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How to Cite
Saroli, M., Moro, M., Florindo, F., Lancia, M., Lurcock, P. C. and Dinarès-Turell, J. (2015) “Paleomagnetic dating of tectonically influenced Plio-Quaternary fan-system deposits from the Apennines (Italy)”, Annals of Geophysics, 58. doi: 10.4401/ag-6740.
Section
Letters
Author Biography

Michele Saroli, Università degli Studi di Cassino e del Lazio Meridionale, Cassino, Italy; Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Rome,

Sezione Roma 2, postdoctoral researcher

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