Reconstructing ancient coastal landscapes and sea-level stands in Southern Italy (Cilento coast): a geostatistical approach

This research aims to obtain coastal paleo-environmental reconstructions through the analysis of direct and indirect paleo sea-level markers (SLMs, i.e., SLIPs, TLPs, MLPs) by GIS-aided geostatistics.  

In this work, we used classical SLMs combined with a caves inventory in the Cilento area in the Campania Region (Southern Italy). In this area, mainly characterized by carbonatic rocks, numerous emerged and submerged caves are present along active and fossil cliffs as evidenced in the papers of Antonioli et al., 1994 and Esposito et al., 2002.  

As reported in Ferranti, 1998 and Florea et al., 2007, coastal caves can be considered positively correlated to the glacial-hydro-eustatic sea-level oscillations, especially on the carbonatic substratum.  

Therefore, caves cannot be classified as sea-level markers (SLMs) strictu sensu, anyway, they can be considered as a mark of ancient sea-level position, especially when the occurrence of floor elevation is well-distributed all along the coast (in the case of areas characterised by homogeneous tectonic behaviour). In detail, in this work, the floor elevation of the cave entrances was correlated with tidal notches, wave-cut platforms, Lithophaga burrows, and marine deposits deriving both from previous knowledge and new direct and indirect surveys carried out through classic geomorphological investigations and using robotic technologies and remote sensing.  

All collected data were used to produce a specific geodatabase “PALEOScape (PALEO SeasCAPE)” (Sorrentino et al., 2023) structured based on international standards for sea-level studies. Caves information was obtained from an existing caves’ Inventory (Federazione Speleologica Campana; Russo et al., 2005) integrated by field surveys. Thanks to the well-documented tectonic stability of the area, it was possible to ascribe at the same age SLMs having the equal altimetric position.

These records were analysed by a geostatistical approach by correlating the cave entrances to known sea-level stands increasing the information available on paleo sea-level stands along the examined coast.

By integrating this approach with a new method for semi-automatic landform recognition and classification, it was possible to reconstruct ancient coastal landscapes related to known sea level stands, but also to some new altimetric positions not previously reported in the area.

REFERENCES

Antonioli, F., Cinque, A., Ferranti, L., & Romano, P. 1994. Emerged and Submerged Quaternary Marine Terraces of Palinuro Cape (Southern Italy). Memorie Descrittive Carta Geologica d’Italia, 52, 237–260.

Federazione Speleologica Campana https://www.fscampania.it/catasto-2/catasto/  

Ferranti, L. 1998. Underwater cave systems in carbonate rocks as semi-proxy indicators of paleo-sea levels. Il Quaternario-Italian Journal of Quaternary Sciences, 11(1), 41-52.

Florea, L. J., Vacher, H. L., Donahue, B., Naar, D. 2007. Quaternary cave levels in peninsular Florida. Quaternary Science Reviews, 26(9-10), 1344-1361.

Russo, N., Del Prete, S., Giulivo, I., Santo, A. 2005. Grotte e speleologia della Campania : atlante delle cavità naturali. Elio Sellino Editore.

Sorrentino, A., Maratea, A., Mattei, G., Pappone, G., Tursi, M. F., Aucelli, P. P. 2023. A GIS-based geostatistical approach for palaeo-environmental reconstructions of coastal areas: the case of the Cilento promontory (southern Italy). In 2023 IEEE International Workshop on Metrology for the Sea; Learning to Measure Sea Health Parameters (MetroSea) (pp. 488-493). IEEE.