6 by Frederik Hilgen1, Hayfaa Abdul Aziz1,2, David Bice3, Silvia Iaccarino4, Wout Krijgsman2, Klaudia Kuiper1,5, Alessandro Montanari6, Isabella Raffi7, Elena Turco4, and Willem-Jan Zachariasse1 The Global boundary Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) of the Tortonian Stage (Upper Miocene) at Monte Dei Corvi 1 Stratigraphy/Paleontology, Dept. of Earth Sciences, Utrecht University, The Netherlands (Email:
[email protected]) 2 Paleomagnetic Lab. “Fort Hoofddijk”, Dept. of Earth Sciences, Utrecht University, The Netherlands 3 Department of Geology, Carleton College, Northfield MN 55057, USA 4 Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Universita degli Studi di Parma, Parma, Italy 5 Department of Isotope Geochemistry, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands 6 Osservatorio Geologico di Coldigioco, 62020 Frontale di Apiro, Italia 7 Dip. di Scienze della Terra, Univ. “G. D’Annunzio”, 66013 Chieti Scalo, Italy The GSSP of the Tortonian Stage, which per definition ballot, a formal recommendation of SNS was submitted to the Sec- marks the base of the Tortonian and, hence, the bound- retary General of the ICS in spring 2003. Official acceptance by the ICS and ratification by the IUGS Executive Committee were ary between the Serravallian and Tortonian Stages of obtained later that year. the Middle and Upper Miocene Subseries, has recently been defined and ratified by the IUGS. The boundary stratotype-section is Monte dei Corvi (Italy) where the Background and motivation Tortonian GSSP is now formally at the mid-point of the sapropel of small-scale sedimentary