Relative sea level changes and paleogeographical evolution of the southern Sele plain (Italy) during the Holocene V. Amato a, * , P.P.C. Aucelli b , G. Ciampo c , A. Cinque c , V. Di Donato c , G. Pappone b , P. Petrosino c , P. Romano c , C.M. Rosskopf a , E. Russo Ermolli d a Dip. S.T.A.T., Università del Molise, c.da F. Lappone, 86090 Pesche, Isernia, Italy b Dip. S.Am., Università degli Studi di Napoli Parthenope, Italy c Dip. Scienze Della Terra, Università Federico II di Napoli, Italy d Dip. Arboricoltura Botanica e Patologia Vegetale, Università Federico II di Napoli, Italy article info Article history: Available online 8 February 2012 abstract Several boreholes were studied in detail through different analytical methods in order to highlight the Holocene relative sea-level changes and the paleogeographical evolution of the southern sector of the Sele river coastal plain (Tyrrhenian Sea, southern Italy). Stratigraphic and paleontological analyses identified a transition from floodplain strata to brackish water, lagoon and upper shoreface deposits. The present setting of the outermost plain strip was interpreted as the result of a barrier-lagoon system which first migrated landward and then seaward during the Holocene. After being exposed to continental conditions during the Last Glacial regression, the study area gradually reached brackish water conditions at the beginning of the Holocene. Shortly before 6.7 ka cal BP the coastline reached its maximum retreat, reaching 1.6 km inland from the present shore. Subsequently, the barrier-lagoon system mainly prograded until marshy conditions were established, which partially persisted until very recent times. Four biological sea-level markers were sampled, and their ages, constrained by AMS 14 C dating, span between 6.77 and 7.98 ka cal BP. Altitudes (m above mean sea level) of the collected samples were corrected taking into account the uncertainties of the vertical position with respect to the palaeo sea level. Vertical tectonic displacements were evaluated through the comparison between relative sea-level data and the Holocene predicted sea-level curve, as well as with the available morphotectonic and stratigraphic data. The results suggest negligible rates of vertical tectonic displacements during the Holocene, at least along the southern sector of the Sele river coastal plain. Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The Holocene relative sea level rise controlled the evolution of coastal environments, especially in alluvial-coastal plains, marine embayments, river mouths and rocky coasts, all over the Mediter- ranean basin (i.e. Pirazzoli, 1996; Galili et al., 2005; Antonioli et al., 2007; Amorosi et al., 2009; Primavera et al., 2011). All studies have shown that the Holocene sea level rise firstly caused a general marine transgression and, successively, a strong progradation of shorelines. The coastal transgression is linked to the rapid sea level rise that started after the Last Glacial Maximum, while the coastal progradation is linked to the decrease in the rate of sea level rise and to the increase in the sediment load of rivers, especially during historical times (last 2.5 ka). The Sele river alluvial-coastal plain was affected by the same morpho-sedimentary behavior, with a transgressive trend during the early Holocene and a prograda- tional trend of shorelines starting from middle Holocene (Cinque, 1986; Brancaccio et al., 1987 , 1988; Barra et al., 1998, 1999; I.S.P.R.A., 2009, and references therein). Although eustatic global and local models represent a powerful tool for reconstructing the Holocene palaeogeography, it is necessary to improve the knowledge on the local geological components of Relative Sea Level (RSL) changes. It is worth taking into account all parameters driving RSL: eustatic changes, vertical tectonic displacements and isostatic rebound. While the first parameter is global and time-dependent, the latter two may vary with location, but quite often the Late Pleistocene-Holocene vertical displacements are poorly known due to the scanty presence of chrono-stratigraphic constraints. Two kinds of approaches might be used to infer vertical tectonic rates: geomorphologic/morphotectonic analyses, and/or stratigraphic analyses of exposed and buried deposits. Antonioli et al. (2009) provided a method to evaluate vertical tectonic displace- ments along the Italian coasts during the Holocene, by comparing * Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: vincenzo.amato@unimol.it (V. Amato), ermolli@unina.it (E. Russo Ermolli). Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Quaternary International journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/quaint 1040-6182/$ e see front matter Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2012.02.003 Quaternary International 288 (2013) 112e128