Magnetostratigraphy of a Lower-Middle Triassic boundary section from Chios (Greece)

The Marmarotrapeza Formation at Chios Island (northern Aegean Sea, Greece) is renowned for its Lower-Middle Triassic boundary sections in a marine Tethyan setting. Two sections have been sampled bed by bed to develop a magnetostratigraphic framework for the ammonoid and conodont biostratigraphy. The boundary sections occur within a lower normal (A+)-reverse (B−)-upper normal (C+) polarity sequence. The Lower-Middle Triassic boundary, placed at the first occurrence of the ammonoid genera Aegeiceras ugra Diener, Paracrochordiceras spp., Paradanubites depressus Fantini Sestini and Japonites sp., and close to the first appearance of the conodont species Gondolella timorensis Nogami, occurs in normal polarity zone Chios C+. The overall mean direction of the reversal-bearing characteristic component, whose early acquisition is suggested by a tilt test, is D = 271.2°, I = 33.2° (α95 = 11.7°, k = 112.5, N = 3). The inferred paleolatitude of the sampling sites is about 18°N, consistent with either an African or stable European affinity, although the declinations suggest large-scale counter-clockwise rotations with respect to Africa or stable Europe since the Early-Middle Triassic.