Interactions between Late Quaternary volcanic and sedimentary processes in the Naples Bay, Southern Tyrrhenian sea

Gemma Aiello (*) & Ennio Marsella (*)
(*) Istituto per l'Ambiente Marino Costiero (IAMC), Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), Sede di Napoli, Calata Porta di Massa, Porto di Napoli - 80133 Napoli, Italy. Corresponding Author: Tel. 39-81-5423820. Fax: 39-81-5423888. Email: gemma.aiello@iamc.cnr.it

The interactions between Late Quaternary volcanic and sedimentary processes in the Naples Bay, Southern Tyrrhenian sea, are here discussed through the results of the marine geological survey at the scale 1:25.000. The example of the geological map n. 465 "Isola di Procida", herein presented, has put in evidence the stratigraphy of marine Quaternary deposits and related volcanic seismic units. The volcanic deposits cropping out in the Procida island have been explained as the result of eruptions of local eruptive centres. The geological survey carried out onshore indicates the occurrence of several pyroclastic units linked to the eruptive activity of the Ischian and Phlegrean volcanic complexes, interstratified with the products erupted by local volcanic centres. The occurrence in the pyroclastic sequences of Ischia and Procida islands of several marker horizons and their stratigraphic correlations have allowed to reconstruct the volcanological evolution of the two islands and the interactions with sedimentary processes at the scale of the whole Tyrrhenian margin. Four geological maps at the scale 1:25.000 covering the whole Naples Bay have been reconstructed based on the interpretation of marine geological and geophysical data. The stratigraphic relationships between the seismic units and the eruptive deposits have testified the activity of several monogenetic volcanic centers, whose products are interstratified with marine and continental deposits of the Late Quaternary depositional sequence.

Southern Tyrrhenian sea, Naples Bay, Procida island, marine geological maps, Late Quaternary depositional sequence.