Reply to comment by Riccardo Caputo and Marcello Bianca on “Late Cenozoic uplift of southern Italy deduced from fluvial and marine sediments: Coupling between surface processes and lower-crustal flow” by Rob Westaway and David Bridgland; improved uplift modelling of the Gulf of Taranto marine terraces

Abstract

The well-developed Pleistocene marine terrace staircase along the Gulf of Taranto coastline, southern Italy, has been extensively studied over many decades. The rivers in this region have also formed long-timescale terrace staircases. Our paper “Late Cenozoic uplift of southern Italy deduced from fluvial and marine sediments: coupling between surface processes and lower-crustal flow” (Quaternary International 175, 86–124) presented original field observations aimed at testing contradictory hypotheses for the mode of origin of this marine terrace staircase and developed age models for the marine and fluvial successions. We also proposed, on the basis of physics-based numerical modelling, that the Quaternary uplift of this region is primarily the isostatic response to erosion and has thus been driven by climate (which has forced the erosion), despite the location within a plate-boundary zone. However, Bianca and Caputo (Quaternary International 204, 98–102) have questioned our use of the data and disputed the logic of our numerical modelling. Notwithstanding minor corrections and updating, from which we present revised uplift modelling, we uphold the substantial content of our original paper as valid and consider it to be a tenable interpretation of the terrace record in the study region. We also discuss underlying issues, including strategies for age-control and the causes of fluvial terrace development.