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- Title: Miocene stratigraphy – An Integrated Approach
- Author: Alessandro Montanari, Gilles S. Odin, R. Coccioni
- Publisher: Elsevier
- Pages: 713
This volume results from the enthusiastic involvement of Alessandro Montanari and Rodolfo Coccioni in the geology of the Italian Apennine area. This region is exceptional due to the presence of pelagic sediments deposited in quiet environments together with volcanic explosive activity which is the source of frequent interbedded volcaniclastic layers. These features make the area very suitable for documenting the geological history through the application of a multi-faceted approach that is the base of modem integrated stratigraphy.
The ‘Miocene Project’ has a great deal in common with stratigraphic geochronology, a subject in which I am particularly involved as the leader of the Subcommission on Geochronology of the International Commission on Stratigraphy. For this reason and for having collaborated in a similar research project in the past- the Eocene/Oligocene boundary — Alessandro and Rodolfo asked for my collaboration in this project.
In this volume, I have been careful to follow certain rules. These rules result from my involvement in the search for establishing a unified ‘calendar’ of the historical geology, which is the main object of chronostratigraphy. This ‘calendar’ is a succession of Stages and groups of Stages; the latter are conventional units which combine empirical observations with subjective choices both of which need rigor if they are to be meaningful and long-lived.
In my view, the use of the Global Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) concept supported by the International Commission on Stratigraphy for siting Stage-boundaries is not an attempt to provide different definitions of units; these units usually exist and have been defined, although imperfectly, by their historical stratotypes. These are bodies of rocks containing stratigraphical signals of different type. The role of the GSSPs is to fix more precisely the fuzzy or multiple definitions of the Stage boundaries. The precision required, and attainable, is on the scale of about tens of ka in the Miocene.
Hence, chronostratigraphic units can be regarded as conventional units based on real bodies of rocks and the boundaries between them may be denoted by an error bar which corresponds to the ‘thickness’ of the boundary. Today, it is necessary that this thickness is reduced to the resolution obtainable by the best stratigraphical tools.