Parco Naturale Regionale Costa Otranto - S.Maria Leuca - Bosco Tricase

Geological researches made it possible to identify the lithostratigraphic, tectonic and geo-environmental factors that determined the development of Badisco's karst system. The study of the shapes, sediments and active phenomena enabled the researchers to establish the chronology of the caves' development stages, which within Salento's geological history showed some time references. The speleogenesis can be referred to phreatic pre-quaternary stages, while the enlargement is connected to a recent dissolution stage due to condensation of airflows. The filling with clastic rocks coming from Vulture can be attributed to the middle-late Pleistocene. Favorable hydrogeological conditions might have led human beings to move there during the dry periods of the late Pleistocene and Holocene.

• Author/s: M. Delle Rose, I. Mattioli