Annual Report 2007 of the Rupelian/Chattian Boundary Stratotype Working Group

Tasks of the Italian scientific community were to search for GSSPs of the Lower-Upper Oligocene Transition. Investigations on both transitions have been undertaken by a number of researchers from several Italian Universities (i.e. Padua, Ferrara, Urbino, Milan) and CNR Institutes as well as from some European and USA Universities and Institutions of the “ALANO NET” and by the numerous scientists of the OLIS Working Group coordinated by Coccioni (University of Urbino).
The paper on “Integrated stratigraphy of the Oligocene pelagic sequence in the Umbria-Marche basin (Northeastern Apennines, Italy): A potential GSSP for the Rupelian/Chattian boundary” by Coccioni and others, was finally accepted for publication (after several revisions) on the Geological Society of America Bulletin in September 2007. Following this acceptance the formal proposal designating the Monte Cagnero (MCA) section as GSSP for the Rupelian/Chattian boundary, out of the three sections studied, is in preparation.

Report by Isabella Premoli Silva, Chairwoman