Holocene coastal environments near Pompeii before the A:D: 79 eruption of Mount Vesuvius, Italy

Studies of some 70 bore holes around ancient Pompeii, on thesouthwestern slope of the Somma-Vesuvius volcano, allow the reconstructionof Holocene environments earlier than the A.D. 79eruption. This eruption produced about 10 km3 of pyroclastic materialthat buried the Roman cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum, andStabiae and promoted a shoreline progradation of 1 km. The Sarnocoastal plain, in a post-Miocene sedimentary basin, has been affectedby Somma-Vesuvius volcanic activity since the late Pleistocene.At the Holocene transgressive maximum, the sea reachedan area east of ancient Pompeii and formed a beach ridge(Messigno, 5600 and 4500 14C yr B.P.) more than 2 km inlandfrom the present shore. Progradation of the plain due to high volcanicsupply during the following highstand resulted in a new beachridge (Bottaro-Pioppaino, 3600 14C yr B.P.) 0.5 km seaward of theMessigno ridge. Ancient Pompeii was built as the shoreline continuedto prograde toward its present position. Deposits of theA.D. 79 eruption blanketed the natural levees of the Sarno River,marshes near the city and on the Sarno’s floodplain, the morphologicalhighs of Messigno and Bottaro-Pioppaino beach ridges, and theseashore. That shore was probably 1 km landward of the presentone.