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Swath bathymetry and seismic reflection profiles collected by the Italian Antarctic Program (PNRA WEGA and MOGAM projects), combined with Australian (CSIRO) oceanographic measures (Williams et al., 2010) and benthic fauna sampling (Post et al., 2010), in the offshore of the George Vth Land, document evidence of bottom water cascading currents and turbidity currents inside continental slope canyons. The continental slope is incised by canyons heading to shelf edge sills and bounding sedimentary ridges of Miocene age. Dense shelf water forms in coastal polynya and is exported off the shelf break to form the Adélie Land branch of the Antarctic Bottom Water (ALBW, Rintoul et al., 2008). This bottom water is detected by CTD and mooring measurements up to about 3200m of depth, in the Jussieu canyon and further to the west. The speed of the ALBW is enough to transport fine sand and silt from shallow to deep water as documented by sea bed sediments. Similar bottom currents activity is recorded also during Quaternary glacial and interglacials (Caburlotto et al., 2009, Macrì et al., 2005) with source in the George V Land rocks and in the continental shelf (Damiani et al., 2006). The meandering charater of the Jussieu canyon and the sediment wave field on its eastern ridge, would suggest that they likely formed under the action of downslope, continous, bottom current, since the early Pliocene (Escutia et al., 2010). Caburlotto A., Lucchi R.G., De Santis L., Macrì P., Tolotti R. 2010. Sedimentary processes on the Wilkes Land continental rise reflect changes in glacial dynamic and bottom water flow. International Journal of Earth Sciences, 99(4), 909-926. Damiani D., Giorgetti G., Memmi Turbanti I. 2006. Clay mineral fluctuations and surface textural analysis of quartz grains in Pliocene–Quaternary marine sediments from Wilkes Land continental rise (East-Antarctica): Paleoenvironmental significance. Marine Geology, 226,81-295. Escutia C., Brinkhuis H., Klaus A. & Expedition 318 Scientists 2011. Proc. Intergrated Ocean Drilling Program, 318. Macrì P., Sagnotti L., Dinares-Turrel J., Caburlotto A. 2005. A composite record of Late Pleistocene relative geomagnetic paleointensity from the Wilkes Land Basin (Antarctica). Physics of the Earth and Planetary interiors, 151, 223-242. Post A.L., O’Brien P.E., Beaman R.J., Riddle M.J., De Santis L. 2010. Physical controls on deep water coral communities on the George v Land slope, East Antarctica 2010. Antarctic Science, 22 (4), 371-378. Rintoul S.R. 1998. On the origin and influence of Adelie Land bottom water. In: Ocean, Ice and Atmosphere: Interactions at the Antarctic Continental Margin. American Geophysical Union, Washington DC, 151-171.

Il contesto geodinamico che caratterizza lo Ionio settentrionale è estremamente complesso caratterizzato dall'interazione di diversi elementi tettonici che da NO- a SE sono: il Prisma di accrezione dell'Arco Calabro s.s. e l'avampaese costituito dalla piattaforma Apula. L'analisi integrata di dati morfobatimetrici e profili sismici multicanale recentemente acquisiti dalla N/R OGS Explora in varie campagne condotte tra il 2003 e il 2010, ha fornito nuove informazioni riguardo i processi strutturali che hanno coinvolto il margine dal Mesozoico al Presente

This document is deliverable D16 WP2 Report Storage Capacity and provides a description of the work carried out in WP2. It also provides a summary of capacity estimates for deep saline aquifers, hydrocarbon field and coal beds for each country and brief descriptions of the methodology used and assumptions made. Geological descriptions and further details and background information for the storage capacity estimates in the GeoCapacity GIS database appear from the technical reports of WP2 and WP3

The Project "Application of innovative of very high resolution seismic methodologies in shallow waters aimed at the study of the subsoil of the Venice Lagoon" allowed the characterization of the Late Pleistocene and Holocene depositional sequences with a detail, that has never been reached in the past. A boat, particularly suitable for very high resolution seismic survey in shallow water (less than 1 m deep) has been fully equipped and tested. It allowed to carried out surveys of specific areas of the Lagoon that have never been investigated in the past. Moreover a seismo-stratigraphic model of the lagoon and gulf of Venice subsoil has been performed. The seismic acquisition system allowed to investigate the subsoil down to 30-40 m deep. The new data provided significant geological features related to the Late Pleistocene and Holocene evolution of the investigated areas: the southern lagoon, the Lido and Chioggia inlets and part of the shelf of the Gulf of Venice.