Sea level changes and vertical crustal deformations in the central Mediterranean since Roman time from coastal archaeological sites
by
M. Anzidei
Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Roma, Italy
Coauthors: K. Lambeck(2), F. Antonioli(3), A. Benini(4), M. Dragoni(5), A. Esposito(1), A. Tallarico(6). (1) Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Roma, Italy. (2) University of Camberra, Australia. (3) ENEA Italy. (4) Università della Tuscia, Dip. Scienze antiche Italy. (5) Università di Bologna, Dip. Di Fisica, Italy. (6) Università di Bari, Italy.

Here we show new results on sea level changes since the Roman age in the central Mediterranean, based on coastal archaeological evidence of fish tanks, harbours and quarries. These data bridge the gap between the geological and the instrumental indicators of the sea level changes, providing new insights on the eustatic, isostatic and tectonic/volcanic contribution on the observed sea level variations. A comparison with tide-gauge records from nearby locations and with geologically-constrained model predictions of the glacio-isostatic contributions establishes that the onset of modern sea level rise occurred in recent time at ~200 ± 100 years before present.

We stress the geophysical importance of such maritime archaeological sites and we focus on a set of sites located in southern Spain, in Sardinia, from Tuscany to Southern Latium, in southern Calabria, in the volcanic areas of the Aeolian islands and Phlaegrean Fields. The ground deformation of the volcanic island of Basiluzzo (Aeolian islands, Italy), inferred from the subsidence of a submerged roman age wharf, was addressed and modelled to a cooling magma chamber emplaced during the formation of the island, since 50.000 years ago. We discuss the main results obtained in tectonic and volcanic areas and provide an estimation of the contribution of eustatism to the sea level change observed at the investigated sites.

Date received: September 23, 2004

Copyright © 2004 by the author(s). The author(s) of this document and the organizers of the conference have granted their consent to include this abstract in Atlas Conferences Inc. Document # caon-63.