Surface and subsurface of the Metaponto Coastal Plain (Gulf of Taranto—southern Italy): Present-day- vs LGM-landscape

The Metaponto Coastal Plain (MCP), in southern Italy, stretches 60 km-long and 5 km-wide along the Gulf of Taranto in the Ionian Sea, and is presently subject to strong anthropogenic pressure. A multidisciplinary study reviewed the geomorphology, lithostratigraphy and sedimentology of the MCP and its subsurface. Incorporating both borehole and radiocarbon-dating information in the review, this paper focuses on comparisons and differences between present-day and buried Late Pleistocene landscapes (LGM and MIS 3). The modern coastal plain is the top of a late Holocene coastal wedge prograding on a very narrow-shelf, that is connected to a deep basin (the Ionian Sea) by a steep slope. This scenery likely resembles those produced during earlier late Quaternary relative highstands and is in marked contrast with that produced during the last sea-level fall and lowstand, and buried in the MCP subsurface. The last scenery corresponds to the LGM landscape, where river-valleys deeply dissected a previous highstand coastal wedge (MIS 3) whose remnants represented interfluve areas. Thanks to resonance properties of the subsurface, this buried landscape was obtained in a 3D visualization, highlighting location and shape of incised valleys and interfluve areas during the LGM.