A hitherto unknown distal volcanic ash layer has been detected in a sediment core recovered from the southeastern Levantine Sea (Eastern Mediterranean Sea). Radiometric, stratigraphical and sedimentological data show that the tephra, here termed as S1 tephra, was deposited between 8,970 and 8,690 cal yr BP. The high-silica rhyolitic composition excludes an origin from any known eruptions of the Italian, Aegean or Arabian volcanic provinces but suggests a prevailing Central Anatolian provenance. We compare the S1 tephra with proximal to medial-distal tephra deposits from well-known Mediterranean ash layers and ash fall deposits from the Central Anatolian volcanic field using electron probe microanalyses on volcanic glass shards and morphological analyses on ash particles. We postulate a correlation with the Early Holocene 'Dikkartin' dome eruption of Erciyes Dag volcano (Cappadocia, Turkey). So far, no tephra of the Central Anatolian volcanic province has been detected in marine sediment archives in the Eastern Mediterranean region. The occurrence of the S1 tephra in the south-eastern part of the Levantine Sea indicates a wide dispersal of pyroclastic material from Erciyes Dag more than 600 km to the south and is therefore an important tephrostratigraphical marker in sediments of the easternmost Mediterranean Sea and the adjacent hinterland.

Sample depth of S1 tephra in sediment core GeoTU_SL112 is 2.60 m, the age determinations are published in doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.713713.

Supplement to: Hamann, Yvonne; Wulf, Sabine; Ersoy, Orkun; Ehrmann, Werner; Aydar, Erkan; Schmiedl, Gerhard (2010): First evidence of a distal early Holocene ash layer in Eastern Mediterranean deep-sea sediments derived from the Anatolian volcanic province. Quaternary Research