| Summary: | This thesis includes a wealth of cave maps, as well as photos of the caves and karst morphologies. At the heart of the thesis is the important discovery of a flank margin cave with speleothem hiatuses and fossil invertebrate associations. The analysis of the structural and karst morphological elements surveyed in the main explored caves in Monti di Capo San Vito has made it possible to identify both the state of control of the processes of karstification in tectonic phases during the Plio-Pleistocene upliftings and the kinematic character of some karstified structures, linked at two speleogenetic phases. Furthermore, the surveying of karst forms on the relict sea-cliffs, and particularly the exceptional discovery and dating of marine and continental incrustations in the Rumena cave, has yielded essential advances in our knowledge of past climatic events and eustatic level changes in the Mediterranean, as well as their influence on the evolution of the coastal belt.
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