Page 3 - Vaccher-Furlani-alii_2018
P. 3

© Società Geologica Italiana, Roma 2018                                     CONGRESSO SGI-SIMP 2018



                  Semi-submerged sea caves in the central Mediterranean sea: the Geoswim database

                          Vaccher V.* , Furlani S. , Biolchi S. , Busetti A. , Venturini E.  & Antonioli F. 2
                                                          1
                                                                                1
                                                                    1
                                     1
                                               1
                                 1  Department of Mathematics and Geosciences, University of Trieste
                                                  2  ENEA, UTMEA, Rome
            * Corresponding email: valeria.vaccher@gmail.com

            Keywords: coastal karst, Geoswim, coastal geomorphology, Mediterranean Sea.

               The Mediterranean Sea is bordered by about 23.000 km of rocky coast that host several types of scenic
            coastal landforms, such as sea caves, sea stacks, arches, etc. An overview of the researches on these landforms
            in the Mediterranean area was provided by Furlani et al (2014). Sea caves are one of the most characteristic and
            fascinating coastal landforms along rocky coasts. In the Mediterranean Sea there are thousands of sea caves
            that develops along the coastline. Sea caves represent a basic landform both for studies on coastal processes,
            such as sea level change or coastal karst, and as touristic attractor in coastal areas.
               A sea cave is composed by one or more chambers originated by different processes and are totally or
            partially occupied by the sea. Waves and marine processes contribute to the genesis and development of sea
            caves.
               In this work, we present field data collected on semi-submerged sea caves surveyed during the swim and
            snorkel campaigns of the Geoswim project (Furlani, 2012) in North-Eastern Adriatic Sea (NE Italy, Slovenia
            and NW Croatia), Mt. Conero area (Marche, Italy), Gozo and Comino islands (Malta), Egadi Archipelago
            and Ustica Island (Sicily, Italy), Capo Caccia (Sardinia, Italy) and the island of Paros (Greece). Till now, the
            database contains data of about 122 semi-submerged caves and represents the only large-scale database of this
            kind of data.
               Field data were joint to published data or sea cave registers. The study areas are mainly composed by
            carbonate rocks, in fact 83% of the studied sea caves develop on limestones or dolomites, while the remaining
            17% on volcanic rocks.
               From a first analysis of field data, there is a heterogeneous distribution of all the sea caves. Some areas show
            higher concentration of sea caves rather than other areas. This is due to local structural, lithological and sea
            conditions. During the surveys at Favignana Island (Egadi Archipelago) a new sea cave was found out. This
            discover has a precious ecological significance as the cave represent an ideal habitat for the monk seal.

            Furlani, S. (2012): The Geoswim project: snorkel- survey along 250 km of the Southern and Western Istrian Coast. Alpine
               and Mediterranean Quaternary, 25(2), 7-9.
            Furlani, S., Pappalardo, M., Gomez-Pujol, L. & Chelli, A. (2014): The rock coast of the Mediterranean and Black Seas.
               In: Kennedy, D.M., Stephenson, W.J., Naylor, L.A. Eds., Rock Coast Geomorphology: A Global Synthesis. Geological
               Society, London Memoirs, 40, 89-123.



























                                                           678
   1   2   3