Climatostratigraphic Scheme of the Black Sea Pleistocene and its Correlation with the Oxygen-Isotope Scale and Glacial Events

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Abstract
New evidence from the Asov Sea-Black Sea region shows that after the Cobb Mountain magnetic event (1.1 myr) there were 8 saline water events, with Mediterranean molluscs penetrating into the Asov Sea (five times farther than the western Manych Strait), and 7 or 10 cold freshwater events. During the freshening phase, the Caspian Sea molluscan fauna penetrated into the Black Sea; each time the Caspian mollusc assemblage was characterized by a new species of Didacna. Thus, some 18–20 bioclimatostratigraphic units can be distinguished in the Asov Sea-Black Sea section for the last 1 myr. Their numerical age is estimated by some dozen thermoluminescence dates and 12 magnetic-polarity datum planes. The Karangatian s. lato corresponds to the interval 300,000–50,000 yr, the Uzunlarian to 580,000–300,000 yr, and the Chaudian to 1,100,000–600,000 yr. The Karangatian and Tyrrhenian marine terraces correspond to marine isotope stages 5 and 7, the Uzunlarian and Milazzian to stages 11–15, and the Chaudian and Sicilian to stages 16–28. The number and ages of glacial-interglacial cycles in continental Europe are identical to the climatic cycles in the Black Sea and Mediterranean.