Late Quaternary incision and deposition in an active volcanic setting: The Volturno valley fill, southern Italy

Abstract

Extensive illustration of depositional facies, ostracod and foraminiferal assemblages, and Late Quaternary stratigraphic architecture is offered for the first time from beneath the modern coastal plain of Volturno River, the longest river in southern Italy. Proximity to an active volcanic district, including quiescent Vesuvius Volcano, provides an easily identifiable stratigraphic marker (Campania Grey Tuff or CGT), up to 55m thick, emplaced 39kycalBP by a large-volume explosive pyroclastic eruption. Identification of top CGT to a maximum depth of 30m allows tracing out the shape of a 15–20km wide Late Quaternary palaeovalley incised by Volturno River into the thick ignimbritic unit immediately after its deposition. A terraced palaeotopography of the valley flanks is reconstructed on the basis of core data. Above the basal fluvial deposits, the early Holocene transgressive facies consist of a suite of estuarine (freshwater to brackish) deposits. These are separated from overlying transgressive barrier sands by a distinctive wave ravinement surface. Upwards, a distinctive shallowing-upward succession of middle–late Holocene age is interpreted to reflect initiation and subsequent progradation of a wave-dominated delta system, with flanking strandplains, in response to reduced rate of sea-level rise. The turnaround from transgressive to highstand conditions is identified on the basis of subtle changes in the meiofauna. These enable tracking of the maximum flooding surface into its updip (lagoonal/estuarine) counterpart, thus highlighting the role of refined palaeontological criteria as a powerful tool for high-resolution sequence-stratigraphic studies.