Annual Coastal Boulder Mobility Detected in 2017–2021 Remote Sensing Imagery and Its Relation to Marine Storms (Gulf of Taranto, Mediterranean Sea)

Abstract

Landward displacements of coastal boulders are geomorphological signatures of sea flooding and erosion processes. In this study, using open-access resources that do not require the integration of specialist software, the 2017 to 2021 annual mobility of medium, coarse, and very coarse boulders spread over about 100 km of the eastern coast of the Gulf of Taranto (Italy, Mediterranean Sea) was explored. The boulder displacement data obtained from remote sensing imagery were verified and refined by means of geomorphological field investigation. The main results are the following: (1) A large interannual variability in the boulder mobility was found; (2) storm Detlef, which crossed over the Mediterranean during 11–13 November 2019, was recognized as the cause of a massive displacement phenomenon; and (3) the marine weather conditions driving the investigated morphodynamic process were inferred.