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The western Calabria region is characterized by high relief rocky coasts alternating with large plains, such as the St Eufemia plain. The Holocene history of this plain has been reconstructed by integrating morphostratigraphic, chronostratigraphic and palaeoenvironmental analyses. A new core, 20-m long, drilled in the modern plain and chronologically constrained through ten 14 C datings, proved to cover the last 9500 years. Micropaleontological and sedimentological analyses, coupled with palynological investigation, allowed the evolution of the environments to be reconstructed in detail. During the early Holocene, an open lagoon established along the coast over the alluvial environment left by the late Pleistocene sea level low stand. At ca. 8600 yr BP the growth of barrier ridges drove the development of marshy areas, bounded at their back by a Pleistocene marine terrace +30/40 m high. Humid conditions, with small lakes and wetlands, persisted in the narrow coastal plain along the middle-late Holocene. Between 2500 and 1500 yr BP, the increase in the alluvial and littoral sedimentation triggered the final phase of coastline progradation. Comparison between the sedimentary evolution of the St Eufemia plain and the Holocene sea-level rise history sheds lights on the tectonic behavior of this coastal sector which seems to have experienced a more intense uplift in the early Holocene and a tendency to stability in the middle-late Holocene.

con carta Geologica in scala 1:60000.

Several boreholes were studied in detail through different analytical methods in order to highlight the Holocene relative sea-level changes and the paleogeographical evolution of the southern sector of the Sele river coastal plain (Tyrrhenian Sea, southern Italy). Stratigraphic and paleontological analyses identified a transition from floodplain strata to brackish water, lagoon and upper shoreface deposits. The present setting of the outermost plain strip was interpreted as the result of a barrier-lagoon system which first migrated landward and then seaward during the Holocene. After being exposed to continental conditions during the Last Glacial regression, the study area gradually reached brackish water conditions at the beginning of the Holocene. Shortly before 6.7 ka cal BP the coastline reached its maximum retreat, reaching 1.6 km inland from the present shore. Subsequently, the barrier-lagoon system mainly prograded until marshy conditions were established, which partially persisted until very recent times. Four biological sea-level markers were sampled, and their ages, constrained by AMS 14C dating, span between 6.77 and 7.98 ka cal BP. Altitudes (m above mean sea level) of the collected samples were corrected taking into account the uncertainties of the vertical position with respect to the palaeo sea level. Vertical tectonic displacements were evaluated through the comparison between relative sea-level data and the Holocene predicted sea-level curve, as well as with the available morphotectonic and stratigraphic data. The results suggest negligible rates of vertical tectonic displacements during the Holocene, at least along the southern sector of the Sele river coastal plain.

Allo scopo di evidenziare eventuali variazioni paleobatimetriche dell'area flegrea, sono state condotte indagini paleoecologiche analizzando le associazioni a Foraminiferi, Ostracodi, e la malacofauna dei sedimenti marini olocenici del Terrazzo de La Starza. Lo studio ha permesso di distinguere tre intervalli: a) intervallo caratterizzato da associazioni estremamente povere e con evidenti segni di dissoluzione. Ambiente di deposizione piuttosto instabile con apporti episodici di detrito grossolano. Paleobatimetria compresa tra 10 e 20 m; b) intervallo caratterizzato da una maggiore diversificazione delle faune e dalla comparsa degli ostracodi. Ambiente di deposizione caratterizzato da fondi sabbiosi con apporti pelitici e da bassa energia. Profondità compresa tra i 15 e i 20 m; c)intervallo caratterizzato da associazioni tipiche di fondi mobili e da energia molto bassa. La profondità aumenta dai 20-30 m alla base dell'intevallo fino ai 40-50 m al top. La successione è chiusa da un intervallo a sedimentazione di tipo continentale senza evidenze, tra i sedimenti marini e quelli continentali, di hiatus o erosione; ciò indicherebbe un rapido sollevamento connesso con antiche fasi del bradisismo flegreo.

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In the literature, there are many studies concerning ostracods in the Italian seas. Among the most relevant are the evergreen monograph of Müller (1894) about the ostracods from the Gulf of Naples, the publications of BONADUCE et al., 1976 and BREMAN,1976 about the Adriatic Sea, PURI et al., 1964, again about the Gulf of Naples and BONADUCE et al., 1977 about the southern Tyrrhenian Sea. In addition, different authors centered their research in smaller areas of the Italian coasts (MONTENEGRO et al., 1998; SCIUTO & ROSSO, 2002; ARBULLA et al., 2004; SCIUTO, in progress;) proposed a synthesis of the most abundant and more easily identifiable ostracods from the Italian shelves, linking their occurrence to some environmental factors such as bathymetry and substrate. Ten different ostracod assemblages were observed in relation to the type of substrate, and nine bathymetric assemblages were detected. Evident changes of the autochthonous ostracod fauna were recorded at 50-60 m, 90-100 m and 125-150 m, corresponding to the infralittoral-circalittoral, inner-middle circalittoral and middle-outer circalittoral boundaries respectively. More recently, AIELLO & BARRA (2010) have published a checklist of the Italian marine ostracods, reporting 377 ostracod species from the screening of 84 papers. In this contribution, we present an updated database of the ostracod species pertaining to the infralittoral and circalittoral zones, together with those occurring in lagoon, intertidal, submarine cave and deep water settings. Furthermore, we intend to highlight the links between the ostracod assemblages...

Integrated sedimentological and micropalaeontological analyses of Montesecco Clays cropping out along the Molise Apennines foothills allow to reconstruct the depositional setting and major palaeoenvironmental changes within the Molise Periadriatic Basin (Apenninic foredeep) during the Late Pliocene and Early Pleistocene. Sedimentological and palaeocological data from four reference stratigraphic sections document an overall shallowing-upward tendency within Montesecco Clays, which is also confirmed by compositional data analysis of microfaunal assemblages. Lower Montesecco Clays (Ururi and Trigno sections) accumulated from the middle epibathyal/bathyal to lower circalittoral zone, while upper Montesecco Clays (Guglionesi and Colle Favaro-Petacciato sections) contain a microfauna indicative of an outer circalittoral to infralittoral environment. As documented by previous subsurface data, the palaeoecological analysis suggests increasing depths in the Molise Periadriatic Basin from NW to SE.

The post-Miocene marine succession of the «Apricena horst» is described with the purpose to verify the chronostratigraphic constraints for the type-locality of the Pirro Nord Faunal Unit. The stratigraphic succession has been subdivided in four units bounded by ubiquitous unconformities with evidence of subaerial exposure. The two basal units (dated late Zanclean to at most early Piacenzian) are formally grouped in the Lago di Varano Fm. that on the whole consists of sediments ranging from lagoonal to circalittoral environments. Within the lowermost unit, a megabreccia is interpreted as the product of a tsunami event. The third unit, Gelasian in age, is informally cited as Calcari a Briozoi Fm. The last unit, the Lower Pleistocene Serracapriola Fm., consists of siliciclastic deltaic sediments and represents the closure of the marine cycle. Conspicuous lateral facies and thickness changes, and the frequency of unconformities are the consequence of an intense synsedimentary tectonic activity developed in the frame of the southern Apulia foredeep closure. In the study area, such activity is documented by two E-W trending normal faults which, during Zanclean and at least the earliest Gelasian, controlled the Pliocene horst-graben system of the Apricena-Poggio Imperiale area.