Sedimentary sequences in the Gulf of Lion: A record of 100,000 years climatic cycles

Results obtained from integrating lithology, palynology, micropaleontology, seismic stratigraphy, stratigraphic simulation, support the hypothesis that the basic depositional pattern records a 100 000-years glacioeustatic (interglacial/glacial) cycle. As previously suggested by Aloïsi [Aloïsi, J.C., 1986. Sur un modèle de sédimentation deltaïque: contribution à la connaissance des marges passive, Thèse de Doctorat d'Etat. Université de Perpignan, 162 pp], prisms PI corresponds to deposition at high sea level and prisms PII to deposition during low sea level at glacial maxima. Five sequences of paired prisms capped by five major erosion surfaces have been identified and modelled showing that the corresponding glacioeustatic cycles (the last five cycles at least) are recorded on the shelf of the western part of the Gulf of Lion.