NUOVE CONOSCENZE SULLA STRATIGRAFIA E DISTRIBUZIONE DEI DEPOSITI IGNIMBRITICI QUATERNARI NEL SOTTOSUOLO DELLA PIANA DEL SARNO (SALERNO-CAMPANIA) – ITALIA MERIDIONALE

Abstract

New knowledge about stratigraphy and the distribution of Quaternary ignimbrite deposits in the subsurface of the Sarno Plain.
(Salerno-Campania) - southern Italy. The critical reinterpretation of stratigraphic data concerning the subsurface of the Sarno Plain,
located in the south part of the Campania Plain, has produced a new picture of the stratigraphy characteristics of the Olocene and
Pleistocene volcanic terrains that fill the Plain, in particular the ignimbrite deposits. In agreement with recent volcanological studies the presence of two pyroclastic flow deposits has been pointed out in the subsurface of the Sarno Plain. As a matter of fact below the
Campanian Ignimbrite, (39.28±0.11 ky B.P.), mostly in the Campanian Gray Tuff facies, the Taurano Ignimbrite, (157.4±1.00 ky B.P.),
in the yellow tuff facies, occurs.
In addition a modest tectonic phase dislocating the Campanian Gray Tuff has also been pointed out. Moreover this tectonic phase, in
the Sarno Plain was not characterized by volcanic activity contrary to what happened in the Campania Plain northward of SommaVesuvio.
The recovery of marine deposits from the subsurface in the piedmont zone of Sarno Mountains, underlying the Taurano Ignimbrite at
depth of 35 meters below sea level, indicates the existence of a marine trasgression older (Middle Pleistocene) than the eu-tyrrhenian
period to which these deposits have been attribuited. This finding, in association with other geognostic and stratigraphic data, allows a
reduction of the geographical extension of the eu-tyrrhenian trasgression in the Sarno Plain.