Geological Survey of the Naples Bay (CARG Project)

The results of the geological and geomorphological survey of the Naples Bay carried out by the IAMC-CNR Institute of Naples on behalf of the National Geological Survey of Italy (now ISPRA) and by the Geological Survey of the Campania Region are here presented. The geological maps produced through the marine geological survey (at scales varying from 1:50.000 to 1:10.000) are: n. 446-447 "Napoli", n. 464 "Ischia", n. 465 "Procida", n. 466 "Sorrento nord" and n. 484 "Capri". The geological survey consisted in the acquisition of multibeam and single-beam bathymetric data, Sidescan Sonar acoustic imagery, reflection seismics, sea bottom samples and piston cores. A detailed marine geological survey, at the scale 1:10.000, has also been merged with underwater geological survey (up to the - 30 m of water depth), based on a direct sampling of both rocky outcrops and mobile sea bottoms, allowing to draw key geologic and morpho-stratigraphic sections. The physiographic domains, representative of tectono-sedimentary and/or volcanic processes, include the continental shelf, the abrasional or depositional marine platforms, often in correspondence to coastal cliffs, the relic or preserved morphologies of monogenic volcanic edifices, the hummocky chaotic deposits, accumulated as a consequence of gravity instability processes. Moreover, the continental slope appears deeply incised by canyons evolving downslope to tributary channels. The CARG-MARE Project has evidenced the regional geological structure of the Naples Bay, located along the western margin of the southern Apenninic chain and representing a Pleistocenic half-graben, similarly to the peri-tyrrhenian basins, which form the seaward prolongation of the coastal plains of the Campania Region (Campania Plain and Volturno Plain).