My most interesting studies were conducted on Faro Lake, a peculiar coastal basin located on the north-eastern tip of the Sicily Island (Central Mediterranean). Faro Lake, together with Ganzirri Lake, is part of the Peloro Cape Lagoon System, an oriented natural reserve at only 9 Km from the centre city of Messina.
The two lakes most probably originated between 3000 and 2500 b.C. from a previously existing coastal lagoon. This, in turn, derived from fluvial detritus that was transported by marine currents until forming sandy dunes which enclosed part of the sea at the mouth of the Straits of Messina. The coastal lagoon later broke up into four smaller lakes, two of which eventually merged to form Ganzirri lake, another one was artificially drained about two centuries ago, whereas Faro Lake underwent only minor changes.
Faro Lake (38° 16’ N, 15° 38’ E) features a surface area of about 263,600 m², and a greater diameter of 665 m. Its estimated water volume is of about 2.500.000 m3. It is connected via a shallow channel to the Straits of Messina, a stable upwelling system driven by the strong tidal currents flowing between the Ionian and the Tyrrhenian seas (Brandt et al. 1997), which strongly influences the lake ecology (Saccà et al. 2008). Another channel connects it to Ganzirri Lake.
While Ganzirri Lake is a relatively shallow coastal basin (not more than 6.5 m deep), Faro Lake features a steep sloping bottom that declines to a central region reaching a maximum depth of 30 m. Considering the correspondence of the shorelines of the lake with half graben faults, a tectonic event is the most likely explanation for the remarkable depth of this basin.