Scree slope deposits during cold-damp climatic phase in the early Middle Ages in the Gulf of La Spezia (Liguria, Italy)

Abstract

In the coast of the eastern promontory of the Gulf of La Spezia (Liguria, Italy), it was identified a scree slope which is partially buried and partially reworked by a following translational landslide. An examination of the morphological and fabric characteristics of the scree slope revealed that it is made up of three stacked layers (a, b, c) of which the lowest (a) corresponds to a talus slope, the middle layer (b) to the accumulation of materials from debris flows and the highest (c) to the combined action of debris flows and localized falls from the overlying walls. The age 14C attributed to a wood sample (Fagus sp.) found inside the scree slope enabled us to associate its formation, and indirectly the formation of the landslide which partially reworks it, to the cold and damp climatic phase that characterised the early Middle Ages (V cent.-VIII cent. A.D.).