Digital elevation model of the Naples Bay and adjacent areas (Eastern Tyrrhenian sea)

An extensive, high-resolution bathymetric survey has recently been carriedout, portraying the continental shelf-slope system of the Campania Region,in southern Italy (Eastern Tyrrhenian Sea). The relative bathymetric datawere acquired between 1997 and 2002, using multibeam systems with anaverage vertical resolution of < 0.25 % water depth and a positionaccuracy of < 10 m. The survey data were successively merged with aDigital Terrain Model (DTM) created from topographic maps of theonshore coastal area and islands of theNaples Bay, to produce a DigitalElevation Model (DEM) based on a homogeneous grid with cell-spacingof 20 m.The shaded-relief, colour scale map of the Naples Bay presented in thisstudy provides new, detailed information on the morphology of the coastalCampania Region. This continental margin displays evidence of theinterplay between tectonics and volcanism and their interference withsedimentary processes during the latest Neogene and Quaternary.The major morphological features revealed by the 3D digital maps are: 1)the system of marine canyons (Dohrn and Magnaghi) that cut thecontinental slope at a depth between 250 m and 1100 m; 2) the funnelshapedmarine slope system of the Ischia volcanic structure; 3) theonshore-offshore volcanic field of the Campi Flegrei; 4) the ruggedseafloor area (of a diameter of ca 2 km) off the town of Naples (Bancodella Montagna), caused by active uplift of small-scale volcaniclasticdiapirs (pyroclastic lumps); and 5) the debris-flow/avalanche deposits onthe inner continental shelf of the Eastern Bay of Naples, that evolved fromthe pyroclastic products of the Vesuvius