Late Quaternary evolution of the Metaponto coastal plain, southern Italy, inferred from geomorphological and borehole data

Abstract

A multidisciplinary study of a sector of the Ionian coastal belt, southern Italy, mainly based on two new boreholes approximately 25 m (MSA) and 20 m (MSB) deep, was carried out in the frame of a wider geoarchaeological project. Stratigraphic and Paleoecological data, together with geomorphological observations, have been used in order to define the Late Quaternary morpho-sedimentary evolution and its relationships with tectonic and climate forcing. The analyses of core sediments and geomorphic interpretations allowed us to reconstruct the changes in depositional setting and physical landscape starting from the MIS 5.5. To this scope, new data about sedimentary facies, benthic foraminifera and ostracod assemblages, and a set of 14C ages spanning from about 33 to 15 kyr BP are here presented. All these data revealed a strong modification of the depositional setting within the coastal plain, as inferred by the presence of marine, transitional, and continental deposits, and suggest an anomalous position of sea-level reference points. Such anomalies are clustered in two homogenous arrays that can be explained only admitting a significant tectonic uplift in recent times (i.e. about 4 mm/yr over the last 15,000 years).