The Sea of Marmara during Marine Isotope Stages 5 and 6

International audienceMulti-proxy analyses and lithology of two cores, MRS-CS18 and MRS-CS27, from the İmralı Basin of the Sea of Marmara (SoM) provide important new information on environmental conditions, relative sea level, and sill depths of the straits of Bosporus and Dardanelles during the marine isotope stages (MIS) 5 and 6. The fossil and multi-proxy geochemical records show that lacustrine conditions prevailed in the SoM during most of MIS-6, from 173 to 134 ka BP, and that the transition to marine conditions during Termination II took place at~134.06±1.10 ka BP. MIS5 interstadials a, c, and e witnessed the formation of three sapropels (MSAP-4, MSAP-3 and MSAP-2) under suboxic to anoxic marine conditions, whereas during stadials MIS5b (~94-86) and MIS5d (~112-105 ka BP), lacustrine and marine conditions with deposition of sediments having relatively low TOC contents (