Venice lagoon was once dry land stretching 30 miles inland, study finds

Researchers led by Samuele Ongaro of the University of Southampton combined seismic data and sediment cores to reconstruct the northern Adriatic over 10,000 years. Published in Quaternary Science Reviews, the study shows today's Venice lagoon was dry land, and Trieste was hills above swamps. Seas rose in fits, sometimes 25mm a year, before stabilising 6,000 years ago.