International Correlation of the Lower Pleistocene of Japan

Abstract

Combined paleomagnetic and biostratigraphic works have been carried out on the Cenozoic sedimentary rocks of Japan, chiefly in the Boso Peninsula (Nakagawa et al., 1969) and Choshi Peninsula (Sakai et al., 1970), Chiba Prefecture, Kinki District (Ishida et al., 1969), Shiga, Kyoto, Osaka, and Hyogo Prefectures, Uonuma area (Nitobe and Yamanoi, 1970), Niigata Prefecture, and Aizu Basin (Manabe et al., 1969), Fukushima Prefecture. Many reports have been published on the geomagnetic and biostratigraphic frameworks made on the deep-sea sediment cores (for example, Hays et al., 1969). On the other hand, a preliminary paleomagnetic and biostratigraphic investigation was made on the rocks from the proposed strasotype of the lower limit of the Pleistocene in Southern Italy by Nakagawa et al. (1970). The results of these investigations made it possible to correlate the Lower Pleistocene of Japan with those in Southern Italy and with the deep-sea sediment cores of the equatorial Pacific. A tentative correlation of the Lower Pleistocene is shown in Fig. 1.