Invited reply to the Comment on: “Geomorphological, paleontological and 87Sr/86Sr isotope analyses on early Pleistocene paleoshorelines to define the uplift of Central Apennines (Italy)”

Abstract

In response to the comment of Cosentino and Fubelli (2007) on the stratigraphy of the Middle Valley of Tiber River basin (MVT) and on the chronological attribution of the uppermost paleoshorelines (UPS), we recall that we performed a detailed sampling campaign to date the youngest marine deposits underlying or laterally related to the UPS, through the 87Sr/86Sr method. Unfortunately, we cannot have taken advantage from the new stratigraphic data of the comment, being that all these data are still unpublished. On the sections presented in the comment, which concern only the southernmost tract of the UPS alignment, we do not know exactly how close these sections are to the UPS and how accurate the stratigraphic relationships are. This is due to the absence in the comment of detailed geographic locations of sections and of any stratigraphic scheme or geological map that might help link the data presented in Mancini et al. (2007) with the new ones. In general, the age of the new proposed sections are considered older (Gelasian) than our age estimate (1.65–1.50 Ma, i.e. late Santernian) for the UPS.