Holocene coastal uplift and coseismic deformation at Capo Vaticano (western Calabria)

Detailed mapping of geomorphological and biological sea-level markers around the Capo Vaticanopromontory (western Calabria, Italy), has documented the occurrence of four Holocene paleo-shorelines raised at different altitudes. The uppermost shoreline (PS1) is represented by a deeply eroded fossilifer-ous beach deposit, reaching an elevation of ∼2.2 m above the present sea-level, and by a notch whose roof is at ∼2.3 m. The subjacent shoreline PS2 is found at an elevation of ∼1.8 m and is represented bya Dendropoma rim, a barnacle band and by a wave-cut platform. Shoreline PS3 includes remnants ofvermetid concretions, a barnacle band, a notch and a marine deposit, and reaches an elevation of ∼1.4 m.The lowermost paleo-shoreline (PS4) includes a wave-cut platform and a notch and reaches an elevationof ∼0.8 m. Radiocarbon dating of material from individual paleo-shorelines points to an average upliftrate of 1.2–1.4 mm/yr in the last ∼6 ka at Capo Vaticano. Our data suggest that Holocene uplift was asymmetric, with a greater magnitude in the south-west sector of the promontory, in a manner similar tothe long-term deformation attested by Pleistocene terraces. The larger uplift in the south-western sectoris possibly related to the additional contribution, onto a large-wavelength regional signal, of co-seismic deformation events, which are not registered to the north-east. We have recognized four co-seismic upliftevents at 5.7–5.4 ka, 3.9–3.5 ka, ∼1.9 ka and <1.8 ka ago, superposed on a regional uplift that in the area, isoccurring at a rate of ∼1 mm/yr. Our findings places new constrains on the recent activity of border faults south of the peninsula and on the location of the seismogenic source the 1905 destructive earthquake.