Glass chemistry in volcaniclastic sediments of ODP Leg 107, Site 650, sedimentary sequence: provenance and chronological implications

A detailed chemical investigation of volcanic glass fragments from volcaniclastic strata (6 tephras, 1 volcanic debris flow, 12 volcanic turbidites) of ODP Leg 107, Site 650, sedimentary sequence, leads to a varied pattern in terms of both provenance and age constraints. The six analyzed tephra strata indicate a provenance from at least three different volcanic provinces: Aeolian, Campanian, and Sicilian Channel (Pantelleria Island). The older tephra strata (021, 018, 012) have a large amount of "orogenic" rhyodacite/rhyolite deposits that may be attributed to the Aeolian province, although no subaerial coeval volcanic activity of similar composition has so far been documented in the Aeolian Arc. Tephra 007 is related to the Pantelleria Island activity and, particularly, to an ignimbrite episode dated circa 130 ka. Tephra strata 005 and 003, have a clear Campanian provenance, and are correlated with analogous tephra layers, observed in the Tyrrhenian and Ionian seas, dated circa 107 and 60 ka respectively. In the oldest portion of the sequence (from 1.3 to 0.13 Ma), the volcaniclastic sediments were only derived from the Aeolian domain whereas in the latest 130 ka, the Campanian influx becomes much more predominant. Therefore, a general K-enrichment trend is observed in the temporal sequence of all the analyzed samples (almost 700 point analyses) which may be related both to a variation in the source area and to the specific Pleistocene magmatic evolution of the peri-Tyrrhenian volcanic provinces. © 1994.