Morphological evidence for late quaternary tectonic activity along the coast of Gaeta (Central Italy)

The study of morphological evidence for palaeo sea-levels observed along the southern Lazio coastline NW of Gaeta showed the occurrence of tectonic movements in the time interval between Marine Isotope Stages (MIS) 11 and 3. On the basis of the heights, location and age of marine terraces and wave cut notches, both above and below current sea levels, examined in the various contiguous coastal zones, some considerations were made regarding the rates of differential rises and falls occurring at structural discontinuities in the past 400,000 years, especially between 150,000 years BP and the present-day. In particular, we distinguished a phase of generalised uplift in the coastal sector between MIS 11 and 5,5, followed by a more or less continuous fall phase between marine isotope substage 5.5 and stage 3, interrupted by a weak uplift with different rates between MIS 5.3 and 5.1. The dynamic model proposed, which differs from what has so far been hypothesised in the literature, is based on analysing all the forms observed along the coast north of Gaeta (Lazio, central Italy), whether those known from the literature or those indicated for the first time in this study.