Eustatic variations and subsidence in Northern Adriatic in the last 130,000 years

The project wants to gather new data on Upper Pleistocene and Holocene sea level evolution in the Northern Adriatic Sea. The research investigates: i) the relations between eustacy and tectonic subsidence in the last 130,000 years; ii) relative and absolute sea level variations during the post-LGM transgression and, particularly, in the middle and late Holocene. The investigation regards the coastal sector between the present Po river mouth and Istria, comprising the Venetian-Friulian coastal plain, the rocky coast between Monfalcone and Abbazia (HR) and the sea bottom in Italian territorial waters. The study area covers a coastline of about 400 km in Italy, Slovenia and Croatia. A georeferenced database (DB) gathers all the sites with direct or indirect information on past sea levels: those already known and published as well as the new ones identified and studied in the project. The DB contains corings, wells, geomorphological sites and archaeological sites. The elevations of these elements is derived from DTM and digital cartography; in specific points a survey with a topographic GPS is carried out. In order to define the long-term subsidence, the coastal-lagoonal sediments of the MIS 5e highstand (the so-called “Tyrrhenian period” 132-116 ka BP) are considered. Due to postdepositional deformations, along the Italian Norhern Adriatic coast they are now buried at depths of 40-120 m. The ratio of the burial depth vs. age provides the mean subsidence rate (mm/year). These rates, which are largely due to crustal deformation and, with a minor component, to sediment compaction, represent an average estimate of the so-called “tectonic subsidence”. Within the project 3 new long cores are scheduled up to a depth of 120 m. Their facies, paleontological and magnetic characterization will support new important information. Regarding the post-LGM transgression, geomorphological, stratigraphical and geoarchaeological indicators are investigated. Geomorphological indicators such as shore systems now inland in the Venetian-Friulan Plain due to highstand delta progradation, notches in calcareous rocks and tidal flats in rias are mapped and dated in Karst and Istria coast. Corings of Holocene lagoonal sediments in the Venetian-Friulian area and in Istrian rias will be analysed, with hand augers cross sections down to 10 m depth. In May 2012 the oceanographic cruise NAD2012 was carried out in Northern Adriatic on board of research vessel Urania. This cruise led to collect about 1200 Mi of CHIRP seismoacoustic profiles and allowed to accomplish the geological survey of the Slovenian shelf. Geoarchaeological indicators of sea level since Protohistory, such as piers, docks, fish-ponds and living floors which interfinger with lagoonal sediments, are considered. The relative abundance of such elements relative to the Roman times is well known; in the project there will be an effort for extending these data to Prehistory and the Middle Ages. The project, sponsored by the University of Padova in 2010, will last in 2013; at the moment it involves researchers from CNR-ISMAR Bologna, CNR-IGG Padova, ENEA Rome, University of Trieste, Geological Survey of Slovenia, Harpashea Inc