HOLOCENE SEA-LEVEL RISE RECORDED BY A RADIOCARBON-DATED MUSSEL IN A SUBMERGED SPELEOTHEM BENEATH THE MEDITERRANEAN-SEA

Fossil shells of the boring mussel Lithophaga lithophaga provide a mea ns for dating changes in relative sea level. These bivalves, being amo ng the first colonizers of bare calcareous substrates, can mark the ea rliest stages of marine submergence of caves. Here we report data conc erning the deepest submerged speleothem presently sampled in a tempera te area, at 48 m below present sea level off the west coast of Italy ( Mediterranean Sea). A fossil mussel shell beneath encrusting layers fr om later marine colonists gave an AMS age of 9580 +/- 35 C-14 yr B.P. (10,253 +/- 72 cal yr B.P.). (C) 1996 University of Washington.