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The Molise Apennine, located in the northern sector of the southern Apennine arc, is characterized by the presence of several Quaternary intra-montane basins of tectonic origin (Isernia, Carpino-le Piane, Sessano, Boiano, Sepino) (Fig. 1). Their evolution has been strongly influenced by the development of fault systems related to the post-collisional extensional tectonics that have affected these sectors of the chain since the Late Pliocene-Early Pleistocene, and since Middle Pleistocene, was controlled by extensional fault systems with a general NW-SE trend (AMATO et alii, 2011). The Boiano and Sepino basins, located within a narrow NW- SE deformation belt, are filled with huge Quaternary successions of marshy to lacustrine, volcanoclastic and alluvial deposits (AMATO et alii, 2010). Middle Pleistocene-Holocene chrono-stratigraphical and environmental data were available for the Boiano infilling successions (ISPRA, in press). In order to better understand the chrono-stratigraphical features of the Boiano basin deeper infilling and its environmental and tectonic evolution, an integrated geomorphological, stratigraphical, geochronological, tephrostratigraphical, pollen and structural approach was carried out.

In the framework of the revision of Italian geomorphological legend (CARG Project) published in 1994 by the National Geological Service, the AIGeo-Working Group Coastal Morphodynamic (WGCM) dealt with the revision of the legend concerning the landforms of the coast. The aims of the work were the updating of the symbology on the basis of the post-1994 results in the geomorphological researches and creating a legend more vocated to the solution of the problems of applied geomorphology and more suitable to be managed in GIS environment. The WGCM started from the critical analysis of the classifications of coastal landforms proposed during the last century and it continued through a scientific discussion on the work that the members of the group performed by means of 12 case studies in which a correlation between landforms, processes and, dynamics was made. The geomorphological legend proposed by the WGCM has to be considered as a starting point and a work in progress. It remains, indeed, open so that new data can be added and updated as required.

The purpose of this study was to delineate eroded zones in a representative sample area of southern Italy, using SOM as a key indicators. To do that, was to test the use of laboratory VIS-NIRSWIR spectroscopy as fast and accurate technique to develop an empirical model for predicting SOM. A calibration model between SOM and soil spectral reflectance measurements was developed using a PLSR statistical method. (VISCARRA ROSSELL et alii, 2006). Finally, a geostatistical approach was employed to map spatial pattern of SOM, obtained from the laboratory measurements and the ones predicted from the soil spectral reflectance data, that consequently provide a characterize spatial variability of the soil erosion severity.

The map is aimed at illustrating the relationships between landscape evolution and human occupation in the Isernia basin since the Middle Pleistocene. We carried out a detail scale geological–geomorphological investigation integrated with archaeological data. Overall data suggest enhanced landscape modification related to the long-term evolution of the Isernia basin. Moreover, during the Middle Pleistocene an alluvial plain environment was present, as testified also by the famous Lower Palaeolithic site of Isernia La Pineta dated to ca. 600 ky. From 600 ky onwards, extensional tectonics and related valley incision reshaped the Isernia basin, with the formation of terraced surfaces and the deposition of a travertine plateau. Archaeological findings from the Lower Palaeolithic up to the Chalcolithic Age testify to pre- and protohistoric settlements on these surfaces. In historical times, Romans settled on the Isernia terrace ridge taking advantage of the outcropping travertines to support wall foundations and to extract construction material.

Two boreholes, both about 16 m-deep, have been drilled in the Garigliano Plain, a coastal-alluvial plain located at the boundary between southern Latium and northern Campania, Italy. The drill holes have been planned and carried out in the southern part of the plain, near to the bordering ridge of Mount Massico. The multidisciplinary analyses performed on sediment samples from both cores revealed the presence of several marine and continental sedimentation environments, transitional facies and volcanic rocks. All these data, together with the stratigraphic correlation between the two logs, allowed the reconstruction of the sedimentary and morphological evolution of the plain during the Late Quaternary. Further, such an evolutionary sequence has been used as a comparison scheme with regard to other coastal plains of the Tyrrhenian side of central and southern Italy to stress similar or different behaviours among them on a distance of about 400 km of coastal belt. Some remarkable differences have been actually enlighten, with particular reference to the MIS 5.5 and the Holocene. The occurrence in both cores of products of the Campanian Ignimbrite – a ~ 40 ka pyroclastic unit – and associated reworked deposits (about five metres-thick in both cases), has been here reported for the first time in the subsurface of the southern part of the Garigliano Plain. In addition, a tephra layer has been detected at −14.50 m of depth (i.e. 13.50 m a.s.l.) in the northernmost core. This layer has been 40Ar/39Ar dated at 124.5 ± 0.5 ka. In the upper part of the same drill core, deposits interpreted as lagoonal-swamp facies have been recognized. On the basis of 14C dating, we can attribute the starting stage of such a sedimentation to the effects induced by the Post-glacial sea-level rise at about 8000 yr BP. These chronological constraints permitted us to obtain from the paleoecological, palynological, and granulometric analyses of the sampled successions helpful and precise information about sea-level changes along that coastal belt.

The present paper illustrates the results of an integrated study of a large landslide located on the southern slope of Mount la Civita (Molise, Southern Apennine), an E-W elongated, SSE dipping and 890-m-high monocline carbonate ridge. The upper part of the slope affected by the landslide is largely controlled by strata attitude while its basal part is marked by a strike-slip fault causing the tectonic juxtaposition of the carbonate successions against predominantly clayey flysch units. An integrated study, including geological, geomorphological and geotechnical investigations, was carried out to determine the features of the landslide and to plan further investigation and monitoring. In particular, from 2002 to 2004, Differential Global Positioning System monitoring and core drillings, coupled with inclinometer measurements, were carried out to determine the landslide's kinematics, extent, depth to the surface of rupture and rates of movement. Inclinometer data revealed the presence of the rupture surface at a depth of about 20 m. DGPS monitoring allowed rates of movement up to several tens of centimetres per year to be recorded. The nearby village of Civitanova del Sannio can still be considered at risk due to the landslide, as recent remedial works, consisting mainly of very shallow re-shaping of the slope by blasting and partial filling of trenches, did not succeed in stopping its movement. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.

The Sele river plain is located along the western Tyrrhenian margin of the southern Apennine Chain and is confined seaward by a straight sandy coast formed during the Last Interglacial and the Holocene. The coastal plain is characterised by beach-dune ridges which interfinger landwards with lagoon and fluvio-palustrine deposits. This belt, which progressively grew up, represents the evolution of a barrier-lagoon system alternatively shifting landwards and seawards. The knowledge on the Holocene evolution of the Sele river coastal plain, along the coast of the Poseidonia-Paestum archaeological area, was improved by the drilling of two new cores and the collection of several archaeo-tephro-stratigraphic data. The area experienced the Holocene marine transgression which cut high cliffs in the travertine deposits. During the second half of the Holocene, the shoreline shifted seawards and a lagoon-beach bar system (Fossa Lupata-Laura) formed. The archaeological remains (VI cent. B.C.) and the Agnano Monte Spina tephra layer (4.1 ky BP) constrain chronologically this morpho-sedimentary system. After the VI cent. B.C., and mostly after the deposition of the 79 A.D. tephra layer, the shoreline shifted seawards and an additional beach ridge formed, while the flat area at the back (Fossa Lupata) was rapidly aggraded and dried up.

The Boiano basin (ca. 500 m a.s.l.) is located between the carbonate Matese and Montagnola di Frosolone massifs and the adjacent Sannio hills (Fig. 1). It is a 4 km large tectonic intramountain depression, elongated 20 km in a NW-SE direction, and nowadays drained by the Biferno river. The deformation history of this basin is characterized by several compression phases occurred between Miocene and Pliocene, followed first by strike-slip tectonics and then, since Middle Pleistocene, by extensional tectonics (DI BUCCI et alii, 2002, with references). Main faults show a NW-SE trend and several of them are still active and responsible for the historical and present seismicity. Even if the tectonic evolution of the basin was investigated in detail, little is known about the stratigraphy and chronology of its Quaternary infilling. Only in the SE sector of the basin (Campochiaro area) it is ascertained that the infilling consists of at least 200 m of fluvial-lacustrine deposits of Middle Pleistocene to Holocene age (RUSSO & TERRIBILE, 1995). Other chrono-stratigraphical constraints come from S. Massimo (Fig.1), along the NW side of the Matese massif, where residual strips of fluvio-lacustrine sediments, cropping out at 300 m above the present plain, were 40Ar/39Ar dated to 0.6 Ma (DI BUCCI et alii, 2005).