New ESR ages for Piano San Nicola site, Gulf of Taranto, Italy

At Piano San Nicola site (Basilicata region, Southern Italy) four samples of Glycimeris sp. shells were collected from the uppermost fossiliferous stratigraphic level of one of the main Quaternary marine terraces of the Taranto Gulf, which extends across the external sector of the Southern Apennines fold-and-thrust belt, the Bradano Foredeep and the Apulian Foreland. These samples were analysed using the Electron Spin Resonance (ESR) technique, applied for the first time to this area. The obtained new chronological results provided reliable absolute ages ranging between 40.4 ±7.7 ka and 64.0 ±11.2 ka, which are in good agreement with the datings known in literature and obtained by different chronological methods as well as palaeontological inferences. The absolute ages achieved by our study represent fresh evidence supporting the chronological correlation between the marine terrace where Piano San Nicola site is located (Policoro Terrace) and the Marine Isotope Substage (MIS) 3.3.