The ebb-tidal delta of the Venice Lagoon, Italy

Very high-resolution seismic lines were collected offshore the Venice Lagoon in the framework of the Co.Ri.La `New very high resolution seismic methods to study the Venice Lagoon subsoil' project. The 140 km boomer profiles led to the identification of a convex-upward, lens-shaped body just outside the Lido inlet, one of the three lagoon inlets, which has been interpreted as an ebb-tidal delta. The comparison between the seismostratigraphic setting of this deposit, as revealed by the seismic lines, and the analyses of historical bathymetric maps highlighted the key role of human interventions in the formation and evolution of the Lido inlet ebb-tidal delta. To preserve the lagoon environment but also to ensure a navigable way, human interventions at the Lido inlet, performed since the fourteenth century, caused profound variations in the inlet dynamics, leading to a progressive increase in the sediment dispersion from the lagoon interior towards the sea. The ebb-tidal delta of the Lido inlet is thus a very recent feature compared with the formation of the Venice lagoon and formed mainly as a consequence of the construction of the two jetties that have bound the inlet from AD 1886 to the present day.