Aim of the present study, which is part of the E.U. Commission SELF II Research Project, is the reconstruction of the Pleistocene and Holocene tectonic trends in a Mediterranean coastal area. The study is focused on the upper Pleistocene to Holocene tectonic history of NW Sicily. The emerged and submerged coastal zone of a selected area (St. Vito lo Capo, NW Sicily) was studied, by using jointly different sectoral approaches and carrying out geological and geomorphological surveys. The studied area shows morphological evidence of a succession of marine terraces, which is uncommon for the Mediterranean region. These evidences of the coastal evolution, which are currently located both above and below the present sea level, were ascribed to the Middle and Upper Pleistocene, by using morphological (notches and terraces) and stratigraphical criteria, supported by radiometric dating. A detailed study of the longitudinal profiles of the most recently emerged marine terraces, ascribed to isotope stage 5e, revealed the presence of six sectors characterized by different rates of crustal uplift during the post Tyrrhenian age. The rates of uplift calculated for each of these post-Tyrrhenian age sectors allowed to recognize that the error related to tectonic uplift, in the reconstruction of eustatic fluctuations relative to the last 10 kyr from submerged speleothems and vermetid reefs, is negligible.

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