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Biotic, petrophysical, paleomagnetic proxies combined with 14C AMS data allowed us to produce, for deep marine record of Sentinelle Valley (Sardinia Channel), a detailed integrated stratigraphic time-framework for the last 80 kyr. Major planktonic foraminiferal changes in quantitative distribution of selected climate sensitive species allowed the identification of 10 eco-biozones and the main climatic global events (Sapropel S1, Younger Dryas, Greenland Isotope Interstadial 1, Greenland Isotope Stadial 2, Heinrich events H1-H6). An accurate age-depth profile has been proposed for the studied record which spans between 2 and 83 kyr cal. BP. The adopted age model was successively confirmed by comparing the colour reflectance data of the studied record with the astronomically tuned deep marine record ODP-Site 964 from the Ionian Sea. Three turbidite event layers were chronologically constrained within the relative low stand and lowering sea level phases associated to the MIS 4 and MIS 3.

Benthic foraminifera in 250 samples collected on the Southern Campanian continental shelf were analysed. Q-mode cluster analysis resulted in the identification of six distinct foraminiferal assemblages, reflecting different environmental settings. The distribution of the assemblages shows a distinct zonation, that is manly attributed to grainsize and composition of sediment, bathymetry and to geographical distribution of the impact of the river supply. Cluster I (4-20 m), is related to the areas influenced by the rivers outflow on sandy-silt and very sandy silt substrates, dominated by the species Ammonia beccarii and Eggerella scabra; cluster II (10-30 m), associated with vegetated environments and/or sandy and gravelly sandy substrates, presents a characteristic epiphytic fauna composed by Cibicides lobatulus, Rosalina bradyi and Rosalina obtusa; cluster III (10-50 m) shows a typical infralittoral assemblage mainly related to sandy silty and very sandy silty substrates, not directly affected by the rivers outflow, with the dominance of Ammonia tepida and Elphidium granosum; cluster IV related to silty sandy substrates of the Sorrento Peninsula shelf, is chracterised by Elphidium crispum and Cibicides lobatulus; cluster V (30-100 m) is composed by silty substrates with the dominance of the opportunistic species Valvulineria bradyana while cluster VI is characterized by an outer-shelf assemblage on silty bottoms, with prevalent Cassidulina carinata.

Climate has been acknowledged as one of the main driving factors behind human development and in turn human activity may cause strong changes on marine ecosystems. Coastal areas represent very useful marine sedimentary archives to investigate the potential effects of human impact on shelf marine ecosystems. The high-resolution investigation presented here of a southern Tyrrhenian marine record from the continental shelf of the Salerno Gulf provides an unprecedented opportunity to study the main natural and human impact that have occurred in this area during the last five centuries. Evidence of an important turnover between carnivorous and herbivorous opportunistic planktonic foraminfera species is recorded after the Maunder event. In addition, after 1940 AD, a strong increase in the distribution pattern of the Globigerina bulloides species combined with a sudden increase in the abundance pattern of the benthic foraminifer Bulimina aculeata, and evident enhancement of benthic and planktonic foraminifera (as number of specimens per gram of dry sediment) can be directly associated to the effects of the construction of the Sele River dam (1934 AD).

We present a major, trace and rare earth element characterization of single glass shards from fifteen tephra layers found in the astronomically-tuned KC01B deep-sea core (Ionian Sea, Central Mediterranean-36°15.25′N, 17°34.44′E, 3642 m water depth). KC01B is considered a reference core for the Mediterranean area since it provides a new reliable astronomical tuned timescale for the last 1.112 My (Lourens, 2004). The studied deposits punctuate the marine record in a time span ranging from ca 16 ka to ca 191 ka B.P. encompassing the climatic zones Y, X, W and V. They are related to volcanic activity of the Campania Plain, Aeolian Islands, Mt. Etna and Pantelleria Island. Along with major main markers of the Central Mediterranean area such as Y-1, Y-5, and X-6, astronomically dated at 16.7 ka, 39.1 ka, and 110.5 ka, respectively, the succession contains a number of well preserved deposits which can represent useful inter-archive instruments of correlation. The Campania Plain, in particular, sourced at least nine compositionally homogeneous tephra layers prior to the Campanian Ignimbrite event. The data obtained in this work provide a new detailed analytical reference database for Ionian Sea tephrochronology and for proximal-distal correlation studies. They may help to unravel from the marine record the history of poorly known or unknown explosive activity on land since the middle Pleistocene along with chemical composition, size and dispersal of the products.

Large calderas are among the Earth's major volcanic features. They are associated with large magma reservoirs and elevated geothermal gradients. Caldera-forming eruptions result from the withdrawal and collapse of the magma chambers and produce large-volume pyroclastic deposits and later-stage deformation related to post-caldera resurgence and volcanism. Unrest episodes are not always followed by an eruption; however, every eruption is preceded by unrest. The Campi Flegrei caldera (CFc), located along the eastern Tyrrhenian coastline in southern Italy, is close to the densely populated area of Naples. It is one of the most dangerous volcanoes on Earth and represents a key example of an active, resurgent caldera. It has been traditionally interpreted as a nested caldera formed by collapses during the 100–200 km3 Campanian Ignimbrite (CI) eruption at ∼39 ka and the 40 km3 eruption of the Neapolitan Yellow Tuff (NYT) at ∼15 ka. Recent studies have suggested that the CI may instead have been fed by a fissure eruption from the Campanian Plain, north of Campi Flegrei. A MagellanPlus workshop was held in Naples, Italy, on 25–28 February 2017 to explore the potential of the CFc as target for an amphibious drilling project within the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) and the International Continental Drilling Program (ICDP). It was agreed that Campi Flegrei is an ideal site to investigate the mechanisms of caldera formation and associated post-caldera dynamics and to analyze the still poorly understood interplay between hydrothermal and magmatic processes. A coordinated onshore–offshore drilling strategy has been developed to reconstruct the structure and evolution of Campi Flegrei and to investigate volcanic precursors by examining (a) the succession of volcanic and hydrothermal products and related processes, (b) the inner structure of the caldera resurgence, (c) the physical, chemical, and biological characteristics of the hydrothermal system and offshore sediments, and (d) the geological expression of the phreatic and hydromagmatic eruptions, hydrothermal degassing, sedimentary structures, and other records of these phenomena. The deployment of a multiparametric in situ monitoring system at depth will enable near-real-time tracking of changes in the magma reservoir and hydrothermal system., This research has been supported by the European Consortium for Ocean Research Drilling (ECORD) through the ECORD/ICDP MagellanPlus Workshop Series Programme (grant no. 2017.2376/4/AF).

A high-resolution integrated stratigraphy is presented for the Late Quaternary in the southern-eastern Tyrrhenian Sea. It is based on calcareous plankton taxa (planktonic foraminifera and nannoplankton) distribution, δ 18 O G lobigerinoides ruber record, tephrostratigraphy and radiometric dating methods ( 210 Pb and 137 Cs, AMS 14 C) for a composite sediment core (from the top to the bottom, C90-1m, C90 and C836) from the continental shelf of the Salerno Gulf. High sedimentation rates from ca 1 cm/100 y for the early Holocene, to 3.45 cm/100 y for the middle Holocene to 8.78 cm/100 y from late Holocene and to 20 cm/100 y for the last 600 AD, make this area an ideal marine archive of secular paleoclimate changes. Quantitative distributional trend in planktonic foraminifera identify seven known (1F–7F) eco-biozones, and several auxiliary bioevents of high potential for Mediterranean biostratigraphic correlation. Recognised were: the acme distribution of Neogloboquadrina pachyderma r.c. between 10.800 ± 0.400 ka BP and 5.500 ± 0.347 ka BP, a strong increase in abundance of Globorotalia truncatulinoides r.c. and l.c. at 5.500 ± 0.347 ka BP and at 4.571 ± 0.96 ka BP, respectively, an acme interval of Globigerinoides quadrilobatus (between 3.702 ± 0.048 ka BP and 2.70 ± 0.048 ka BP) and the acme/paracme intervals of T. quinqueloba (acme between 3.350 ± 0.054 ka BP and 1.492 ± 0.016 ka BP; paracme between 1.492 ± 0.016 ka BP and 0.657 ± 0.025 ka BP; acme beginning 0.657 ± 0.025 ka BP). These results, integrated with trends of selected calcareous nannofossil species ( Florisphaera profunda, Brarudosphaera bigelowii, Gephyrocapsa oceanica and Emiliania huxleyi ) and δ 18 O G. ruber signature, are consistent with the most important pre-Holocene and early Holocene paleoclimatic and paleoceanographic phases i.e., the Bolling–Allerod, the Younger Dryas and the time interval of Sapropel S1 deposition in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. These features revealed the high potential of this shallow water environment for high-resolution stratigraphy and correlation for the western Mediterranean. In addition, the chemical characterization of seven tephra layers supplied further data about the age and the dispersal area of some well-known Campi Flegrei explosive events, inferring the possible occurrence of explosive activity at Vesuvius around the middle of the 6th century, and contributing to refine the tephrostratigraphic framework for the last 15 ka in the south-eastern Tyrrhenian Sea.

We report evidences of active seabed doming and gas discharge few kilometers offshore from the Naples harbor (Italy). Pockmarks, mounds and craters characterize the seabed. These morphologies represent the top of shallow crustal structures including pagodas, faults and folds affecting the present-day seabed. They record upraise, pressurization and release of He and CO2 from mantle melts and decarbonation reactions of crustal rocks. These gases are likely similar to those that feed the hydrothermal systems of the Ischia, Campi Flegrei and Somma-Vesuvius active volcanoes, suggesting the occurrence of a mantle source variously mixed to crustal fluids beneath the Gulf of Naples. The seafloor swelling and breaching by gas upraising and pressurization processes require overpressures in the order of 2–3 MPa. Seabed doming, faulting and gas discharge are manifestations of non-volcanic unrests potentially preluding submarine eruptions and/or hydrothermal explosions.

The Little Ice Age (LIA) is the last episode of a series of Holocene climatic anomalies. There is still little knowledge on the response of the marine environment to the pronounced cooling of the LIA and to the transition towards the 20th century global warming. Here we present decadal-scale coccolithophore data from four short cores recovered from the central Mediterranean Sea (northern Sicily Channel and Tyrrhenian Sea), which on the basis of 210Pb activity span the last 200–350 years. The lowermost part of the record of one of the cores from the Sicily Channel, Station 407, which extends down to 1650 AD, is characterized by drastic changes in productivity. Specifically, below 1850 AD, the decrease in abundance of F. profunda and the increase of placoliths, suggest increased productivity. The chronology of this change is related to the main phase of the Little Ice Age, which might have impacted the hydrography of the southern coast of Sicily and promoted vertical mixing in the water column. The comparison with climatic forcings points out the importance of stronger and prolonged northerly winds, together with decreased solar irradiance.

We present decadal-scale calcareous nannofossil data from four short cores (Station 272, 37° 17' N, 12° 48' E, 226 m depth; St 342, 36° 42' N, 13° 55' E, 858.2 m depth; St 407, 36° 23' N, 14° 27' E, 345.4 m depth; C90-1M, 40° 36' N, 14° 42' E, 103.4 m depth) recovered in the central Mediterranean Sea (northern Sicily Channel and Tyrrhenian Sea), which, on the basis of 210Pb activity span the last 200–350 years. Assemblages are dominated by placoliths, mostly Emiliania huxleyi, while, at least in the Sicily Channel sediments, Florisphaera profunda was an important part of the coccolithophore community. The paleoenvironmental reconstruction, based on ecological preference of species and groups, suggests that the Tyrrhenian core C90-1M maintained higher productivity levels over recent centuries, with respect to the Sicily Channel sites, possibly because of more pronounced winter phytoplankton blooms, in agreement with modern primary productivity variations over the last ten years. The lowermost part of the record of one of the cores from the Sicily Channel, Station 407, which extends down to 1650 AD, is characterized by drastic changes in productivity. Specifically, below 1850 AD, the decrease in abundance of F. profunda and the increase of placoliths, suggest increased productivity. The chronology of this change is related to the main phase of the Little Ice Age, which might have impacted the hydrography of the southern coast of Sicily and promoted vertical mixing in the water column. The comparison with climatic forcings points out the importance of stronger and prolonged northerlies, together with decreased solar irradiance. The identification of the LIA in the northern Sicily Channel cover the Bond cycle BO that was missing in a previous study of Holocene climatic anomalies in the Sicily Channel. Finally, we suggest that major abundance changes in reworked nannofossil specimens, recorded in the Tyrrhenian core C90-1M, might be linked to variations in terrigenous supply from land. Paradoxically, higher amounts of reworking correspond to dry periods. We argue that soil and rock vulnerability is enhanced during times of prolonged drought and vegetation cover loss.