Analyses of a large-scale depositional clinoformal wedge along the Italian Adriatic coast

Abstract

The processes controlling the formation of the late Holocene high-stand systems tract along the central Adriatic coast – a prograding clinoformal sediment wedge – have been diagnosed using a large-scale behavior-oriented numerical model. This model is based on time-averaged marine sediment dynamics, allowing it to represent processes acting over millennial time spans. River-derived sediment is redistributed by the combined action of littoral, shoreface and shelf processes. In this application the numerical model successfully simulates both the overall geometry of the deposits and the internal time-line stratigraphy. The simulation of this prograding clinoform with the numerical model clearly shows that the growth of these deposits depends on the combined effect of a strong and persistent coast-parallel advection and cross-shelf dispersion related to a large number of sediment re-entrainment events. This means that this clinoform is in the process of forming a new shelf surface with an offshore profile that is in adjustment with the present wave and current climate along with the relative stability of sea level over the past six millennia.