Late Quaternary buried lagoons in the northern Campania plain (southern Italy): evolution of a coastal system under the influence of volcano-tectonics and eustatism

Nicoletta Santangelo(*), Giuliano Ciampo(*), Valentino Di Donato(*), Paola Esposito(*), Paola Petrosino(*), Paola Romano(*), Elda Russo Ermolli(**), Antonio Santo(***), Francesco Toscano(*) & Igor Villa(****)
(*) Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra - Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, Largo S. Marcellino, 10 - 80138 Napoli, Italia - nicsanta@unina.it (**) Dipartimento di Arboricoltura botanica e Patologia vegetale, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, Via Università, 100 - 80055 Portici (NA), Italia. (***) Dipartimento di Ingegneria geotecnica, idraulica ed ambientale, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II - Piazzale Tecchio, Napoli, Italia. (****) Institut für Geologie Universität Bern, Baltzerstrasse 1-3, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland and Dipartimento di Scienze Geologiche e Geotecnologie, Università di Milano Bicocca, 20126 Milano, Italy.

The Campania Plain is a wide coastal plain characterized by a huge quaternary sedimentary record more than two thousand meters thick. In order to analyze the most superficial portion of the infilling succession an 80 m-long core was drilled in the northern sector of the plain. The upper part of the core is entirely made up of an ignimbrite formation (Campania Ignimbrite, 39 ka), lying unconformably above marine sediments alternating with volcanic products. Macro- and micro-paleontological analysis together with tephrostratigraphy and 39Ar/40Ar dating allowed the paleoenvironmental evolution of the studied area to be reconstructed. The paleogeography during OIS 7 and 5 was characterized by the presence of lagoon systems. These are now located 28 km inland from the present coastline and buried at -40 and -18 m with respect to the present sea level, as a consequence of tectonic subsidence. Two major periods of volcanic activity were recorded in the core prior to Campania Ignimbrite emplacement, confirming the existence of important phases of volcanic activity in the plain during the end of the Middle Pleistocene. The SME multiproxy record represents the first continuous record of volcanic products emplaced in the last 200 ka north of the Campania volcanic sources.

Tyrrhenian (OIS 5e), paleogeography, paleoecology, tephrostratigraphy.