High-resolution geophysical study of Somma-Vesuvius offshore (Southern Italy) - 26715

Modern technologies in the field of marine geophysical surveys allow us to obtain accurate and detailed information on the characteristics of the seabed and the marine substrate. In this paper we present a new magnetic high-resolution map of the Somma-Vesuvius offshore (Gulf of Naples, Southern Italy) depicting some main volcanological and tectonic structures of the area. The analysis of a new marine magnetic dataset, acquired during the oceanographic survey “SAFE_2014”, highlighted the presence of a group of NNW-SSE trending anomalies. This magnetic alignment suggests a volcano-structural correlation with the major faults in the area. We was also identified a NE-SW trend of magnetic anomalies, which may be associated with a tectonic structures interpreted as a magma preferential path of Somma-Vesuvius. Furthermore morphological irregularities of the seabed, shown by new morpho-bathymetric data, were found in correspondence with some of the main magnetic anomalies of Vesuvius offshore. This confirms the hypothesis of a possible connection between the Vesuvian volcanic structures and the tectonic regime of the Gulf of Naples, which controls this region since the Neogene-Quaternary.