Genesis and morphological evolution of Fusaro Lagoon (Campania, southern Italy) in the Holocene

Analysis of geomorphological features of Fusaro lagoon highlighted four main evolutionary stages, between 9000 yr BP and the present. The lagoon developed in the western sector of Phlegrean Fields active volcanic area during the mid-Holocene, within a wide marine bay bounded by Monte di Cuma and Torregaveta volcanoes. This shallow bay was gradually filled with Phlegrean pyroclastics and Volturno and Clanis river sediments, thus creating an open lagoon. During the late Holocene it evolved into a partially closed lagoon, due to the development of a littoral spit with dunes and marshlands. in the Graeco-Roman period, the total closure of the lagoon took place, following the stabilization of the foreland dune. Between the Roman period and 1941 AD three channels were opened to avoid the frequent environmental crises which affect this salt-water basin. At the end of the 18th century the lagoon shape became similar to the present. Since the 1980s dredging of the bottom has been carried out, changing both the morphological and sedimentary features of the basin. Finally, the basin has been characterised by a gradual shrinking over about 350 years, by an anti-clockwise rotation and by geometric variations passing from the primitive sub-elliptic to the current sub-trapezoidal form.