Submerged and buried Pleistocene river channels in the Gulf of Trieste (Northern Adriatic Sea): Geomorphic, stratigraphic and tectonic inferences

Novak, Ana; Šmuc, Andrej; Poglajen, Sašo; Vrabec, Marko

doi:10.1016/j.geomorph.2017.03.012

Cited by 18 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…1b and consists of Quaternary alluvial sediment (grey) of the Friuli plain in the north, Cretaceous-Paleogene carbonates (green) of the Classical Karst in the northeast and Paleogene marls and sandstones of the flysch (orange) of the Istria peninsula and Trieste coastline in the southern and eastern parts of the gulf. A similar geological sequence can be observed in geophysical data offshore from the gulf area where the carbonate platform is followed by a flysch succession which is overlain by a few hundred metres of Quaternary sediment deposited during the transgressive-regressive cycles (Busetti et al, 2010a, b;Cimolino et al, 2010;Vrabec et al, 2014). The youngest sedimentary sequence in the Gulf of Trieste is represented by Holocene marine sediment which has been depositing for the last 10 000 years since the onset of the Holocene transgression following the Younger Dryas (Ogorelec et al, 1981(Ogorelec et al, , 1997Lambeck et al, 2004;Covelli et al, 2006;Trincardi et al, 2011b;Zecchin et al, 2015).…”

Section: Geological Setting Of the Study Areasupporting

confidence: 61%

Thickness of marine Holocene sediment in the Gulf of Trieste (northern Adriatic Sea)

Novak

Busetti

Zgur

et al. 2018

Earth Syst. Sci. Data

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Abstract. We use various geophysical datasets (multibeam and singlebeam echosounder data, sub-bottom profiling Chirp and sonar data and very high-resolution boomer seismic data) along with published sedimentological data and depth data from nautical charts in order to create models of the depth of the seafloor and the base of Holocene marine sediment in the Gulf of Trieste. The two models are later used in order to calculate the thickness of marine Holocene sediment which has been depositing on the Late Pleistocene alluvial plain since the Holocene transgression in the Italian and Slovenian parts of the gulf. Thicker Holocene marine sedimentary sequences averaging at around 5 m are characteristic for the southeastern part of the gulf. In other parts of the gulf the Holocene marine sedimentary cover is very thin or even absent, except in close proximity to the shoreline and fluvial sediment sources, in the area of the Trezza Grande paleodelta and above topographic depressions of the Late Pleistocene base. The presented datasets available from the OGS SNAP data repository (http://doi.org/cpz2) represent a valuable reference for a wide variety of research disciplines dealing with the dynamic Earth system in the Gulf of Trieste and could be used as a valuable tool for designing sampling and geophysical campaigns in the studied area.

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Section: Geological Setting Of the Study Areasupporting

confidence: 61%

Thickness of marine Holocene sediment in the Gulf of Trieste (northern Adriatic Sea)

Novak

Busetti

Zgur

et al. 2018

Earth Syst. Sci. Data

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“…Two stations off Piran were sampled in the southern Gulf; Piran 1 is at 22 m water depth and located within the perimeter of the oceanographic buoy operated by the Marine Biology Station at Piran (45·548867°N, 13·550900°E). It is situated close to the northern margin of the Cape Madona depression elongated in a south‐west/north‐east direction, attaining 38 m water depth in the centre (Trobec et al ., ). Piran 2 is ca 1 km north of Piran 1, at 22·7 m water depth (45·563200°N, 13·537033°E) (Fig.…”

Section: Settingmentioning

confidence: 97%

A decline in molluscan carbonate production driven by the loss of vegetated habitats encoded in the Holocene sedimentary record of the Gulf of Trieste

et al. 2018

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Carbonate sediments in non‐vegetated habitats on the north‐east Adriatic shelf are dominated by shells of molluscs. However, the rate of carbonate molluscan production prior to the 20th century eutrophication and overfishing on this and other shelves remains unknown because: (i) monitoring of ecosystems prior to the 20th century was scarce; and (ii) ecosystem history inferred from cores is masked by condensation and mixing. Here, based on geochronological dating of four bivalve species, carbonate production during the Holocene is assessed in the Gulf of Trieste, where algal and seagrass habitats underwent a major decline during the 20th century. Assemblages of sand‐dwelling Gouldia minima and opportunistic Corbula gibba are time‐averaged to >1000 years and Corbula gibba shells are older by >2000 years than shells of co‐occurring Gouldia minima . This age difference is driven by temporally disjunct production of two species coupled with decimetre‐scale mixing. Stratigraphic unmixing shows that Corbula gibba declined in abundance during the highstand phase and increased again during the 20th century. In contrast, one of the major contributors to carbonate sands – Gouldia minima – increased in abundance during the highstand phase, but declined to almost zero abundance over the past two centuries. Gouldia minima and herbivorous gastropods associated with macroalgae or seagrasses are abundant in the top‐core increments but are rarely alive. Although Gouldia minima is not limited to vegetated habitats, it is abundant in such habitats elsewhere in the Mediterranean Sea. This live–dead mismatch reflects the difference between highstand baseline communities (with soft‐bottom vegetated zones and hard‐bottom Arca beds) and present‐day oligophotic communities with organic‐loving species. Therefore, the decline in light penetration and the loss of vegetated habitats with high molluscan production traces back to the 19th century. More than 50% of the shells on the sea floor in the Gulf of Trieste reflect inactive production that was sourced by heterozoan carbonate factory in algal or seagrass habitats.

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“…The post-LGM sea-level rise induced significant changes in the sedimentary environments of the northern Adriatic Sea with terrestrial environments transitioning in paralic and later shallow marine environments [22,[42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56]. In the Gulf of Trieste, where our study area is located (Figure 1), the Late Pleistocene alluvial plain transitioned into a paralic environment until open marine conditions finally prevailed approximately 10,000 years ago [22,42,44,45,[55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62][63][64].…”

Section: Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The hinterland of the Bay of Koper is composed of Eocene turbidites (flysch) comprising interbedded sandstones and marlstones, which are overlain by Quaternary alluvial and paralic sediments in the valleys of Rižana and Badaševica (Figure 1b; [65,66]). Offshore the Eocene succession is unconformably overlain by Quaternary terrestrial and paralic sediments topped by Holocene marine sediments [55,56,59,62,[67][68][69][70][71]. The Quaternary succession in the Bay of Koper, which was recognized as a submerged fluvial valley of the Rižana river (Figure 1b, [68][69][70][71]), is up to a few tens of meters thick and is composed of a lower alluvial part and an upper paralic part; however, alternations of terrestrial and paralic sedimentary environments have also been observed [68,72].…”

Section: Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sound Velocity in a Thin Shallowly Submerged Terrestrial-Marine Quaternary Succession (Northern Adriatic Sea)

Novak

Šmuc

Poglajen³

et al. 2020

Water

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Estimating sound velocity in seabed sediment of shallow near-shore areas submerged after the Last Glacial Maximum is often difficult due to the heterogeneous sedimentary composition resulting from sea-level changes affecting the sedimentary environments. The complex sedimentary architecture and heterogeneity greatly impact lateral and horizontal velocity variations. Existing sound velocity studies are mainly focused on the surficial parts of the seabed sediments, whereas the deeper and often more heterogeneous sections are usually neglected. We present an example of a submerged alluvial plain in the northern Adriatic where we were able to investigate the entire Quaternary sedimentary succession from the seafloor down to the sediment base on the bedrock. We used an extensive dataset of vintage borehole litho-sedimentological descriptions covering the entire thickness of the Quaternary sedimentary succession. We correlated the dataset with sub-bottom sonar profiles in order to determine the average sound velocities through various sediment types. The sound velocities of clay-dominated successions average around 1530 m/s, while the values of silt-dominated successions extend between 1550 and 1590 m/s. The maximum sound velocity of approximately 1730 m/s was determined at a location containing sandy sediment, while the minimum sound velocity of approximately 1250 m/s was calculated for gas-charged sediments. We show that, in shallow areas with thin Quaternary successions, the main factor influencing average sound velocity is the predominant sediment type (i.e. grain size), whereas the overburden influence is negligible. Where present in the sedimentary column, gas substantially reduces sound velocity. Our work provides a reference for sound velocities in submerged, thin (less than 20 m thick), terrestrial-marine Quaternary successions located in shallow (a few tens of meters deep) near-shore settings, which represent a large part of the present-day coastal environments.

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Submerged and buried Pleistocene river channels in the Gulf of Trieste (Northern Adriatic Sea): Geomorphic, stratigraphic and tectonic inferences

Cited by 18 publications

References 32 publications

Thickness of marine Holocene sediment in the Gulf of Trieste (northern Adriatic Sea)

Thickness of marine Holocene sediment in the Gulf of Trieste (northern Adriatic Sea)

A decline in molluscan carbonate production driven by the loss of vegetated habitats encoded in the Holocene sedimentary record of the Gulf of Trieste

Sound Velocity in a Thin Shallowly Submerged Terrestrial-Marine Quaternary Succession (Northern Adriatic Sea)

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