The Middle-Late Quaternary littoral deposits of Western Sicily coastal belt (southern Italy): sedimentology and geomorphology

A multidisciplinary study has been carried out on the littoral deposits located along the western Sicily coastal belt, central Mediterranean region, with the aim of unravelling their origin and evolution through analysis of their lithology, texture, sedimentary structures, and geomorphological features. The deposits crop out between the towns of Trapani and Marsala and are distributed from the present-day coastline up to 120 m above sea level, forming four major discrete ridges in the landscape, each of separated by topographic depressions with flat or slightly concave upwards surfaces. The ridges ranging between 5 to 30 m in height, display a NNE-SSW trend almost parallel to the present-da…