Sistemi deposizionali di ambiente marino profondo ed instabilità gravitative sottomarine: esempi di studio sulla scarpata continentale della Campania in base all'interpretazione integrata di dati di geofisica marina

The continental slope off Campania represents an interesting natural laboratory in order to carry out the study of geological events and processes related to submarine gravity instabilities in deep waters, as a base to evaluate geological and environmental hazards triggered by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tectonic activity in correspondence to regional faults. One aim of this paper is to analyse some case histories of gravity submarine instabilities occurring along the continental slopes offshore Campania, located both in volcanic areas (Dohrn and Magnaghi canyons) and in sedimentary areas (southern slope of the Sorrento Peninsula and Salerno Valley). THe morphological variability of the slope offshore Campania is a direct consequence of the interactions between control factors as the Late Quaternary volcanism affecting the region, the tectonic phases lasting up to recent times and the deep sea sedimentary processes related to sediment transport along canyons and tributary channels. These processes control the occurrence of several morphologies genetically related to submarine instability (submarine slides, active and fossil submarine canyons, sea bottoms involved by active erosion in correspondence to tributary channels, channel-levee complexes, slumpings, creepings, submarine rock falls at the toe of coastal cliffs. The use of up-to-date marine geophysical techniques allows for detailed geological interpretation of marine geophysical data and correlation between geological structures cropping out at the sea bottom and in the subsurface.