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Measurements of U/Th disequilibrium by mass spectrometry with a plasma source were used for the dating of shells collected on the lower marine terrace to the west of Nice. The dates obtained (129 AE 30 ka) arranged with palaeoclimatic data indicate that this terrace corresponds to the MIS 5.5 (Tyrrhenian pro parte) and can be correlated with the level with Strombus bubonius located to the east of Nice. Thus, a profile of almost 70 km can be restored with precision from altimetric measurements of the deposits and from sedimentological indicators of the sea level. This profile passes from the tectonic foreland of Provence to the front of the Nice Alpine Range after skirting the Pliocene Var Basin. It thus crosses major structural limits. As expected, the deformation of the lower Tyrrhenian terrace consists of a west-to-east uplift with two boundaries: (1): the ''Var Fault'' located under the Pliocene Basin; and(2): the border fault of the Nice Range. On a regional scale, the uplift appears closely related to the Nice Range activity. It decreases to the east, in the Flyschs zone, then increases again up to the Apennines chain. To cite this article: M.

Nearly 13,000 years ago, the warming trend into the Holocene was sharply interrupted by a reversal to near glacial conditions. Climatic causes and ecological consequences of the Younger Dryas (YD) have been extensively studied, however proxy archives from the Mediterranean basin capturing this period are scarce and do not provide annual resolution. Here, we report a hydroclimatic reconstruction from stable isotopes (δ18O, δ13C) in subfossil pines from southern France. Growing before and during the transition period into the YD (12 900–12 600 cal BP), the trees provide an annually resolved, continuous sequence of atmospheric change. Isotopic signature of tree sourcewater (δ18Osw) and estimates of relative air humidity were reconstructed as a proxy for variations in air mass origin and precipitation regime. We find a distinct increase in inter-annual variability of sourcewater isotopes (δ18Osw), with three major downturn phases of increasing magnitude beginning at 12 740 cal BP. The observed variation most likely results from an amplified intensity of North Atlantic (low δ18Osw) versus Mediterranean (high δ18Osw) precipitation. This marked pattern of climate variability is not seen in records from higher latitudes and is likely a consequence of atmospheric circulation oscillations at the margin of the southward moving polar front.