Spatial Extent of vertical tectonic motions in northern Sicily using Holocene and Last Interglacial sea level markers: a case study between Acquedolci e Capo d'Orlando.

Vertical position of sea-level, related deposits and morphologies (e.g., last interglacial, LIG, 125ka,) provide useful markers to utilize with this purpose (LAMBECK et alii, 2004; FERRANTI et alii, 2006, ANTONIOLI et alii, 2009). Using published (ANTONIOLI et alii, 2006) and new data we provide a review of the northern coast of Sicily uplift rates. The markers used in this study are: terraces inner margin, tidal notches, etc., and, for the last millennia archaeological markers and fossil beaches and vermetid reef. Data on vertical movements calculated for the coastal area developing in the north-Sicilian continental margin indicate that, from East to West, a strong variation of vertical ra…

Estimation of historical vertical displacement at the Capo d’Orlando coast (Northern Sicily) based on submerged grinding wheels of Greek age

MILLSTONES COASTAL QUARRIES AS INDICATOR OF RELATIVE SEA LEVEL CHANGES

The Italian coasts shows numerous archaeological remains which reveals the activities that were carried out along the coast for thousands of years of history. In order to use archaeological structures for coastal studies, an accurate estimate of their relationship to the sea level at the time of construction is required (Lambeck et al 2004, Antonioli et al 2007, Auriemma & Solinas 2009). Millstone coastal quarries are only documented in southern Italy; they are carved on beachrock, calcarenites and other sedimentary rock easy to be exploited. Few archaeological information have been published about quarries for millstones extraction; they are documented since around 2500 yr BP (Amouretti, 1…

SEA LEVEL CHANGES DURING THE HOLOCENE IN MALTA AND BARI, CENTRAL MEDITERRANEAN

During the last decade several papers have been published to estimate the relative sea-level change from coastal archaeological indicators in many locations of the Italian coasts and the Mediter-ranean Sea. Anyway, the use of the archaeological information has been poorly focused for Middle Ages and the Bronze Age, due to a few of available coastal installations for these periods. In this paper, we focus on two areas of the Mediterranean, namely the coasts of Malta island and Bari, in Apulia (Southern Italy), that displays coastal archaeological markers of the Bronze age and Middle ages, respectively. The elevation of the selected markers were compared against the latest model prediction of…

Timing of the emergence of the Europe-Sicily bridge (40-17 cal ka BP) and its implications for the spread of modern humans

The submerged sill in the Strait of Messina, which is located today at a minimum depth of 81 m below sea level (bsl), represents the only land connection between Sicily and mainland Italy (and thus Europe) during the last lowstand when the sea level locally stood at about 126 m bsl. Today, the sea crossing to Sicily, although it is less than 4 km at the narrowest point, faces hazardous sea conditions, made famous by the myth of Scylla and Charybdis. Through a multidisciplinary research project, we document the timing and mode of emergence of this land connection during the last 40 kyr. The integrated analysis takes into consideration morphobathymetric and lithological data, and relative sea…