Canali da rip currents nella spiaggia sommersa presso la foce del Fiume Sele (Golfo di Salerno, Italia) .

The GIS-based analysis and comparison of submerged beach's volumes and morphologies detected during two different bathymetric surveys at the mouth of Sele River, allowed detecting the presence of channels and lens-shape sandy bodies. They are seaward stretched, placed at the right angles to the shoreline, and can be a reasonably interpreted as rip current channels. Rip currents are fast, narrow currents fl owing seaward through the surf zone, within topographically constrained channels incised on the seabed. These currents cut the submerged sandbars system that, probably were originally continuous and parallel to the shorelines. The resulting features are small transverse sandbars. Among other things, rip currents are responsible for the continuous morphological changes of the subaerial beach and of the typical rhythmic shoreline, with alternating embayments separated by horns. The embayments are located in correspondence of rip channels, while the cups laid out at the bars edges, on which the incident waves break. The rip currents erosion on the seabed extended over subaerial beach, causing erosion processes on the dune and discontinuity in the dune system. Such embayments contribute to the coastal erosion hazard by causing 'hotspots' of erosion. Moreover, rip currents give coast signifi cant hazard to swimmers. It has been identifi ed, fi nally, an increase in volumes of sediment moved along the coast in the coastal stretch to the left mouth of Sele River; this morphosedimentary arrangement can be justifi ed as result of longshore sediment transport from NW to SE.