ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Earth Sci.

Sec. Quaternary Science, Geomorphology and Paleoenvironment

Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/feart.2025.1585388

This article is part of the Research TopicHow Does the Architecture of Holocene Deposits Affect Land Subsidence and Saltwater Intrusion in Coastal Areas?View all 4 articles

Characterizing Holocene Sediments for Assessing Coastal-Deltaic Subsidence : The Role of Cone-Penetration Tests and Geomechanics

Provisionally accepted
Carla BuffardiCarla Buffardi1Philip MinderhoudPhilip Minderhoud2,3,4Alessandro MandoliniAlessandro Mandolini1Daniela RubertiDaniela Ruberti1*
  • 1University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, Caserta, Italy
  • 2Soil Geography and Landscape Group, Wageningen University, Wageningen, Wageningen, Netherlands
  • 3Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering, School of Engineering, University of Padua, Padua, Veneto, Italy
  • 4Department of Subsurface and Groundwater Systems, Deltares Research Institute, Utrecht, The Netherlands, Utrecht, Netherlands

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River deltas and coastal-deltaic plains are by nature subjected to land subsidence from consolidation of shallow unconsolidated Holocene sediments. The spatio-temporal potential and occurrence of shallow coastal-deltaic subsidence, by both natural and anthropogenic causes, is very dependent on geological and geotechnical Holocene stratigraphic characteristics. In this study we utilized new CPT/CPTU measurements from the Volturno coastal deltaic plain (northern Campania, Italy) to geomechanically characterize the Holocene sedimentary facies, highlighting the great potential this approach. The results reveal that although different facies associations may share similar lithologic compositions, their geotechnical behaviours may be strikingly dissimilar. The differences are attributable to varying paleo-depositional environments and sediment depositional processes that create a distinctive geomechanical fingerprint that governs their consolidation behaviour. These variable characteristics underlie, and in part explain, the spatial patterns in observed subsidence rates. The increased geomechanical insights advances our understanding on the spatio-temporal consolidation of the Holocene sedimentary sequence and its various depositional facies beyond standard lithological geotechnical characterization. In addition, it also enables further explorations, for example to simulate 3D Holocene delta growth and evolutionary sediment compaction using numerical models.

Keywords: Volturno River, Alluvial and delta-coastal plain, Southern Italy, Land Subsidence, CPT-CPTU, Sediment compaction, Facies characterization

Received: 28 Feb 2025; Accepted: 03 Jun 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Buffardi, Minderhoud, Mandolini and Ruberti. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Daniela Ruberti, University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, Caserta, Italy

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