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Webmaster: Johanna Lofi
Last update: 3-12-2003

EURODELTA: THE PO-ADRIATIC SYSTEM



EURODELTA is an EU-funded Concerted Action designed to improve our understanding of the depositional processes affecting Mediterranean prodeltas. Eurodelta will provide a sound basis on which to assess the potential impacts of any change in the key factors (natural and anthropogenic) that may disturb prodeltas.
The main goals of EURODELTA are to:
  • understand the architecture and growth patterns of prodeltas
  • improve predictions of prodelta modifications in the future
  • define how (and how much) sediment escapes to deeper basins

Prodeltas are important as:
  • stratigraphic archives of short-term environmental changes and human impacts on river catchments and coastal zones
  • preferential sinks for river-borne pollutants
  • areas of potential sediment failure affecting the coastal zone
  • areas of intense exploitation (trawling, cables, pipelines, platforms)
Eurodelta (EU contract number: EVK3-CT-2001-20001) involves 14 partners from 9 EU contries working on Mediterranean and Black Sea prodeltas.

This web site deals primarily with data and interpretations from studies carried out on the Po plain and Adriatic shelf system as part of the Eurodelta project

Definition: Prodeltas are defined as shelf areas offshore river mouths that are characterised by significant mud accumulation below storm wave base.
THE PO-ADRIATIC SYSTEM

The Adriatic shelf is a shallow semi-enclosed basin that corresponds to a foreland domain surrounded by fold-and-thrust belts on the East (Dinarides), North (Southern Alps) and West (Apennines). The Adriatic basin is structurally connected to the Po plain that underwent high rates of subsidence and sediment compaction during the Plio-Quaternary and is filled in its upper part by fluvio-deltaic deposits.



Two main sediment sources are most relevant in the modern Adriatic:

  • the Po river, draining a catchment of about 75,000 km2, is the main sediment entry point
  • the Apennine rivers, draining smaller catchments characterised by very high sediment yield, act altogether as a (sort of) linear source.


    • The Adriatic prodelta deposit is up to 30 m thick along a shore-parallel belt from the Po to the area South of the Gargano Promontory, and is characterised by a subaqueous progradational geometry.

    Prograding sigmoids reflect fluctuations in sediment supply, climatic/anthropic impacts in catchment areas, and basinal energy regime. Fluctuations in sediment flux to the basin result in diagnostic geometries within the Adriatic prodelta wedge and can be quantified by establishing chronological constraints from sediment cores.
    SCIENTIFIC QUESTIONS

    The study of the Adriatic prodelta systems prompts the following questions:
    • How do strata form in prodelta systems?
    • How far away does a prodelta system reflect the impact of a delta lobe switch?
    • How does the oceanographic regime shape prodelta facies and architecture?
    • How can refined geochronology help reconstructing paleoenvironmental changes in prodelta and related catchments?
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