Claudio Pellegrini

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Verified

Claudio verified their affiliation via an institutional email.

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• PhD in Earth Sciences
• Researcher at Italian National Research Council

The 350-m-thick succession of the Po River lowstand wedge (Italy) associated with the Last Glacial Maximum (deposited over ∼17 k.y) contains stratal architecture at a physical scale commonly attributed to much longer time scales, with complex, systematically varying internal clinothem characteristics. This study investigated clinothem stacking patt...

The Pliocene–Quaternary history of the south-western Adriatic margin, represented by a complex contourite depositional system, records the palaeoceanography of the basin and the interactions between oceanographic processes and the uneven slope morphology that resulted from tectonic deformation. Three main stages can be recognized: (1) during the Pl...

Even in a system whose stratal record is well expressed, it can be challenging to confidently differentiate sequence boundaries from other erosional surfaces because of lateral changes in stratal patterns due to variations in accommodation and sediment-supply rates and routes. Identifying a sequence boundary, as originally defined by Mitchum et al....

Tidal channels are crucial for the functioning of wetlands, though their morphological properties, which are relevant for seafloor habitats and flow, have been understudied so far. Here, we release a dataset composed of Digital Terrain Models (DTMs) extracted from a total of 2, 500 linear kilometers of high-resolution multibeam echosounder (MBES) d...

High-resolution bathymetry provides critical information to marine geoscientists. Bathymetric big data help characterise the seafloor and its benthic habitats, understand sedimentary records, and support the development of offshore engineering infrastructures. From 27 September to 20 October 2022, the new CNR research vessel Gaia Blu explored the s...

High-resolution bathymetry provides critical information to marine geoscientists. Bathymetric big data help characterise the seafloor and its benthic habitats, understand sedimentary records, and support the development of offshore engineering infrastructures. From September 27th to October 20th, 2022, the new CNR Research Vessel GAIA BLU explored...

Depositional processes recorded by shelf deposits may vary widely along‐strike, depending largely on the mode of delivery and deposition of sediments to the basin. In fine‐grained systems in particular, depositional processes are difficult to reconstruct with standard facies analysis of sediment cores due to the ostensibly featureless and homogenou...

The Bølling-Allerød interstadial (14,700–12,900 years before present), during the last deglaciation, was characterized by rapid warming and sea level rise. Yet, the response of the Arctic terrestrial cryosphere during this abrupt climate change remains thus far elusive. Here we present a multi-proxy analysis of a sediment record from the northern S...

During the Quaternary, the Eastern Mediterranean Sea (EMS) experienced cyclical events of stagnation driven by natural climate variability. The resulting deoxygenation left well-preserved evidence in the sedimentary record as organic carbon-rich deposits referred to as sapropels. Although drastic modifications in the degree of densewater formation...

Deltas are the locus of river-borne sediment accumulation, however, their role in sequestering plastic pollutants is still overlooked. By combining geomorphological, sedimentological, and geochemical analyses, which include time-lapse multibeam bathymetry, sediment provenance, and μFT-IR analyses, we investigate the fate of plastic particles after...

The Bølling-Allerød interstadial (14.7-12.9 kyr BP), during the last deglaciation, was characterized by rapid retreat of ice sheets and significant sea level rise (Meltwater Pulse 1A, MWP-1A; 14.7-14.3 kyr BP). Yet, the response of the terrestrial cryosphere during this period of abrupt climate change remains elusive. Here we present a multi-proxy...

This chapter illustrates the major anthropic impacts shaping the geological, biological, and biogeochemical dynamics of the Mediterranean Sea. A syntheric descriptions (i) of the main modifications of deep sea floor integrity and coastal landscapes is complemented by an in-depth picture of critical changes in the biogeochemical dynamics of major nu...

This chapter starts with a brief summary of the geological processes that resulted in the formation of the Mediterranean Sea. The main content of the chapter focuses on the description of the different processes that control recent sedimentation at the seafloor in coastal areas and in the deep sea, on how submarine volcanoes are formed and evolve a...

This chapter describes the tectonic processes at the origin of the Mediterranean Sea and a particular paleo-environmental event (the Messinian salinity crisis) that resulted in the almost complete desiccation of the Mediterranean Sea. It also presents the morphological characteristics of the basin floor and introduces the tectonic and climatic proc...

During the Quaternary, the Eastern Mediterranean Sea (EMS) experienced cyclical events of stagnation driven by natural climate variability. The resulting deoxygenation left well-preserved evidence in the sedimentary record as organic carbon-rich deposits referred to as sapropels. Although drastic modifications in the degree of dense-water formation...

It has been suggested that the seafloor may be a sink for the plastic debris that enters the ocean. Therefore, the collection of data in the seafloor sediments regarding the co-presence of microplastics (MPs) and contaminants associated to plastic is considered a relevant topic. However, the number of studies addressing their possible correlation i...

The Po-Adriatic region offers an excellent case for reconstructing sediment provenance and transport pathways of a multi-sourced sediment-routing system. Through a comprehensive set of ∼1400 geochemical data, a model for provenance and sediment flux was built based on distinct compositional fingerprints of 53 fluvial systems and their comparison to...

Multiple paleovalley systems of late Quaternary age have been widely explored in previous research from the Gulf of Manfredonia on the basis of seismic data, but only limited information is available on their proximal (onshore) segments. Through an integration of sedimentary, paleoecological (mollusks, benthic foraminifers, ostracods), and geochemi...

Preserving adaptive capacities of coastal ecosystems, which are currently facing the ongoing climate warming and a multitude of other anthropogenic impacts, requires an understanding of long-term biotic dynamics in the context of major environmental shifts prior to human disturbances. We quantified responses of nearshore mollusk assemblages to long...

Depositional systems accumulating under the combined influence of along-slope currents and downslope sediment-gravity flows are frequent in several continental margins. Despite being well-documented in terms of how these opposing depositional processes shape the margin architecture, many aspects related to their interaction and distinctive characte...

Continental shelves host 90% of modern Organic Carbon (OC) burial and play a key role in the sequestration of terrigenous OC over geological timescales. The efficiency of OC burial in these systems, however, varies greatly depending on the duration of exposure to oxic-suboxic conditions during sediment transport. In this study, we use observatio...

The objectives: Allow the easiest access to ready to use satellite data analytics for seafloor and the coastal zone New concepts and methods shall be developed, validated and included which exceed the current state of the art to provide more precise information than currently available and improve monitoring capabilities on seafloor and bathymetr...

This study presents novel findings on the Pliocene and Quaternary evolution of the Gela Basin (Strait of Sicily, Mediterranean Sea), an area recording the interaction between tectonics, climate change at Milankovitch and sub-Milankovitch timescales, and dynamic water masses exchange between the eastern and western Mediterranean Sea. The calibration...

This special issue dealing with the recent advances on modern and ancient clinoform‐stratified sedimentary successions arises from a European Geoscience Union (EGU) session “Clinoform drivers and stratigraphic products in siliciclastic and carbonate successions”, Vienna, April 2018. Clinoforms and clinothems represent a dominant architectural style...

Hydrocarbon seepage is overlooked in the marine environment, mostly due to the lack of high-resolution exploration data. This contribution is about the set-up of a relocatable and cost-effective monitoring system, which was tested on two seepages in the Central Adriatic Sea. The two case studies are an oil spill at a water depth of 10 m and scatter...

Reconstructions of ancient delta systems rely typically on a two‐dimensional (2D) view of prograding clinothems but may miss their three‐dimensional (3D) stratigraphic complexity which can, instead, be best documented on modern delta systems by integrating high‐resolution geophysical data, historical cartography, core data and geomorphological reco...

Clinoforms with a range of scales are essential elements of prograding continental margins. Different types of clinoforms develop during margin growth, depending on combined changes of relative sealevel, sediment supply and oceanographic processes. In studies of continental margin stratigraphy, trajectories of clinoform “rollover” pointsare often u...

Clinoforms are basinward‐dipping and accreting palaeo‐bathymetric profiles that record palaeo‐environmental conditions and processes; thus, clinothems represent natural palaeo‐archives. Here, we document shelf‐edge scale clinoform sets which prograded through the entire width of an epicontinental marine basin (ca. 400 km), eventually encroaching on...

Even in a system whose stratal record is well expressed, it can be challenging to confidently differentiate sequence boundaries from other erosional surfaces because of lateral changes in stratal patterns due to variations in accommodation and sediment-supply rates and routes. Identifying a sequence boundary, as originally defined by Mitchum et al....

Dense shelf waters have been recognised as a key factor in transporting sediment and organic matter across continental slopes; however, the effect of their circulation on continental shelves is still overlooked. The Adriatic Sea is one of the areas in the Mediterranean where dense shelf water forms and flows as a bottom-hugging gravity current alon...

River systems evolve in response to the construction of dams and artificial reservoirs, offering the possibility to investigate the short-term effects of base level oscillations on fluvial architecture. A major effort has been dedicated to the understanding of river response downstream of large dams, where deep channel incisions occur in response t...

Al­though fa­cies and stratal geome­tries of con­ti­nen­tal mar­gin suc­ces­sions can be de­fined in de­tail based on sub­sur­face and out­crop stud­ies, most stud­ies lack the high-res­o­lu­tion age con­trol needed to con­strain the time scale of for­ma­tion of such suc­ces­sions and in­fer their ex­ter­nal forc­ing mech­a­nisms. Our work on the P...

Rendiconti online Società Geologica Italiana

The Plio-Pleistocene sedimentary succession of the western continental margin that surround the Southern Adriatic basin mainly consists of contourite depositional systems. The architectural stacking pattern of the contourites-linked bodies is sometimes interrupted by the presence of large-scale mass-transport complexes (MTCs). MTCs are spatially di...

Climate-driven changes in marine biodiversity during the latest Quaternary ice ages are poorly understood. This is largely because lowstand (glacial) records of marine communities are difficult to study due to their offshore location. Thanks to extensive sampling efforts in both proximal and distal parts of the Adriatic Sea, we now have an opportun...