The stratigraphic setting of continental shelves of Southern Italy investigated through seismic stratigraphy: techniques, methodologies and case studies from Campania and Basilicata offshore (southern Tyrrhenian sea)

The stratigraphic setting of continental shelves of Southern Italy is here studied and investigated through seismo-stratigraphic techniques and methodologies, focussing on case histories located in Campania and Basilicata offshore (Southern Tyrrhenian sea, Italy). Seismo-stratigraphic techniques and methodologies are examined, referring, in particular, to the Naples, Agropoli and Maratea areas (Campania and Basilicata regions). In the Campania offshore the stratigraphic architecture of the volcaniclastic basins of the Volturno Basin, Ischia offshore and Naples Bay is shown in detail and interpreted through the concepts of seismic stratigraphy. Regional geological concepts have also been utilized for a better land-sea interpretation of the seismic units filling the observed sedimentary basins. A correlation with land geology of Southern Apennines has been attempted to obtain a better geological comprehension of the interpreted structures. In the Volturno Basin (northern Campania) the trending of the seismic units is controlled by the Massico structural high, bounding the basin towards the north-west and controlling depositional geometries typical of a NE-SW striking fan complex. Deep lithostratigraphic well data tied to the seismic lines have highlighted the pyroclastic layers and the conglomeratic strata of the lagoon and delta environments, evolving upwards towards marine sediments. Complex strata patterns have been revealed by seismic data in the Quaternary basin filling, overlying the Meso-Cenozoic carbonatic basement and the related flysch deposits.Seismo-stratigraphic evidence on buried volcanic structures and overlying Quaternary marine deposits are here presented to reconstruct the stratigraphic setting of the south-eastern continental shelf of the Ischia island (Naples Bay) and to draw attention to the new implications on the marine geophysics and volcanology of the volcanic complex. In the eastern Ischia offshore relic volcanic edifices, representing the remnants of hydro-magmatic volcanic vents, mostly formed by hialoclastites and indicating an emplacement in a subaqueous environment have been investigated through high resolution seismics.The stratigraphic architecture of the Capri Basin and of the Salerno Valley, tectonically-controlled and located southwards of the Capri-Sorrento master fault