Late Quaternary morphological evolution of a continental margin based on emerged and submerged morphostructural features: the south-eastern Tyrrhenian margin (Italy)

Identification of physiographic elements along the Tyrrhenian margin between Cape Palinuro and Cape Bonifati was carried out by interpretation of acoustic profiles. These elements are the expression of both Plio-Quaternary extensional tectonism (related to the subsidence of the Tyrrhenian Sea) and Appennine chain uplift (with its late compressive phenomena). All these tectonic events, which took place until recent times, produced northward and seaward stair-like blocks as well as relief and basin systems. The shelf-slope system bordering the Sapri basin, with high structural control, underwent clearcut erosion since its genesis, as testified by gravitative processes producing slumps and turbiditic flows. These sediments are collected in the basin which represents the gravitative base-level for this part of the shelf-slope system. In contrast, the southern sector of the investigated margin, where structural control is less evident, clearly indicates progradation and aggradation, facilitated by abundant elastic supplies from the rivers cutting the northern Calabrian margin.