Stratigraphic architecture of the Montenegro/N. Albania Continental Margin (Adriatic Sea—Central Mediterranean) Fabrizio Del Bianco a , Luca Gasperini a, ⁎, Lorenzo Angeletti a , Federico Giglio a , Giovanni Bortoluzzi a , Paolo Montagna a , Mariangela Ravaioli a , Zoran Kljajic b a Institute of Marine Sciences, ISMAR, CNR, Bologna, Italy b Institute of Marine Biology, Kotor, Montenegro abstract article info Article history: Received 25 January 2014 Received in revised form 7 November 2014 Accepted 16 November 2014 Available online 22 November 2014 Keywords: Montenegro/N. Albania continental margin Adriatic Sea seismic stratigraphy sea level changes sequence stratigraphy Dinarides The Montenegro/Northern Albania Continental Margin (MACM), in the eastern Adriatic Sea, is a convergent mar- gin at the Dinarides Chain front supplied by major fluvial systems, such as the Buna/Bojana and Drini Rivers. Anal- ysis of high-resolution seismic reflection profiles and core samples, which included paleobiologic legacy of macrofossil assemblages and radiometric dating, shows that the post Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) deposits are confined into mid-shelf basins partially bounded toward the sea by tectonic highs, such as the Kotor and Bar ridges, while the outer shelf exposes lowstand deposits locally covered by a thin veneer of Holocene mud. Pre-LGM units consist of four depositional sequences bounded by erosional surfaces of regional extent related to sea level lowstands during Marine Isotopic Stages (MIS) 10, 8, 6 and 2. This pattern is observed close to the shelf-break, at water depths of 200–220 m, where a stack of sedimentary sequences records sea level changes at the scale of 100 kyr. Position and estimated ages of buried shorelines indicate that the outer shelf subsidence rate has been about 1.12 mm/yr during the last ~350 kyr, while a morphological analysis carried out along the LGM paleoshoreline suggests that the northern sector of the MACM has been uplifted of up to several tens of me- ters during the last ~20 kyr. © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The stacking of stratigraphic sequences along continental margins reflects the interaction between several natural processes, such as sea level changes, tectonic deformation (subsidence or uplift), sediment supply and reworking by bottom currents. This is also the case of the Adriatic Sea, a Mediterranean epicontinental basin located between three orogenic belts, the Apennines to the West, the Dinarides to the East and the Alps to the North (Fig. 1). The stratigraphy of the Adriatic margin is mainly controlled by high-frequency glacio-eustatic oscilla- tions, which caused extended horizontal shifts of the coastal facies due to the low topographic gradients. During the Late Pleistocene, in partic- ular, the combined effect of eustatic fluctuations and long-term subsi- dence allowed for preservation of relatively thick sequences (Ridente and Trincardi, 2002; Maselli et al., 2010). The eastern and western Adriatic shelves are characterized by simi- lar geodynamic settings and a common history of Late Quaternary paleogeographic changes, culminated ~21 kyr in the last episode of glacio-eustatic lowstand (-120 m below the present-day datum; Clark et al., 2009). The western Adriatic shelf is characterized in its northern part by high accommodation due to the constant and high subsidence rate at the front of the Apennine Chain. In the southern Adriatic Sea (Fig. 1), compressive deformations reach the uppermost part of the stratigraphic sequence (Ridente and Trincardi, 2006). In such zones, accommodation is relatively limited, and highly variable along the margin, reflecting the growth of gentle synclines and anticlines. Recently, Maselli et al. (2010) presented a compilation of subsidence- rates in different sectors of the western Adriatic margin, from estimates carried out by several authors. These rates range from 1.2 mm/yr in the north, to 0.3 mm/yr in the central sectors. Conversely, the southern Adriatic shelf surrounding the Apulia swell is uplifting at rates in the order of 0.2–0.3 mm/yr. Unlike the Italian side, the eastern Adriatic shelf is still poorly covered by marine geological and geophysical data. In particular, seismo-stratigraphic studies are lacking along the Montenegro–N. Albania Continental Margin (hereafter called MACM), with the exception of some seismic reflection datasets collect- ed by oil companies and still mostly unpublished (Dragasevic, 1974; Oluic et al., 1982) and a preliminary study by Del Bianco et al. (2010); therefore, a thorough study of the Late Quaternary stratigraphy is missing. The MACM is a convergent margin supplied by major fluvial sys- tems, such as the Buna/Bojana and the Drini Rivers, which carry the sed- iment loads to the narrow shelf. Source areas for these sediments are Marine Geology 359 (2015) 61–74 ⁎ Corresponding author at: Istituto di Scienze Marine, CNR, Bologna, Italia, Via Gobetti 101, 40129 Bologna, Italy. Tel.: +39 0516398901; fax: +39 0516398940. E-mail address: luca.gasperini@ismar.cnr.it (L. Gasperini). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.margeo.2014.11.006 0025-3227/© 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Marine Geology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/margeo