  Timing analysis of a ~95 ks long XMM-Newton observation of the Seyfert 1
galaxy MCG-6-30-15 is presented. Model-independent tools have been used with
the intent of resolving the different components that produce the observed flux
and spectral variations down to timescales as short as ~300 s. We find that the
fractional variability is possibly due to a variable power law component in the
hard band, and a slower thermal component at softer energies, but the data do
not rule out effects due to the warm absorber. The most relevant result of this
work is the first detection of a significant enhancement of the fractional
variability in the ~4.7-5.8 keV energy band compared to the underlying
continuum. This represents one of the strongest, model-independent, pieces of
evidence to date for the presence of redshifted relativistic matter accreting
into the black hole. During the brightest flare of the observation, a
soft-to-hard time lag of ~600 s is measured. A very significant increase of the
iron line intensity is observed ~3000 s after this flare. In the framework of a
disk-corona model and assuming the soft-to-hard time lag is due to
Comptonization, these findings make it possible to estimate the electron
density and the dimensions of the flare region and the disk-flare distance.
