Marine geological studies of the Bay of Naples (Southern Tyrrhenian Sea, Italy): revised applications of the seismo-stratigraphic concepts and evolving technologies to a Late Quaternary volcanic area

Marine geological studies of Naples Bay are discussed and reviewed, focusing on the application of the seismo-stratigraphic concepts to a Late Quaternary volcanic area. The Bay of Naples rep-resents an active volcanic area where the interactions between volcanic and sedimentary pro-cesses controlled a complex stratigraphic architecture during the Late Quaternary. While the volcanic processes took place in correspondence with the Somma-Vesuvius, Campi Flegrei Is-chia, and Procida volcanic complexes, the sedimentary processes were controlled by the fluvial processes in the Sarno-Sebeto coastal plain and by the tectonic uplift in correspondence of the Sorrento Peninsula structural high. Key geophysical and stratigraphic studies of the three active volcanic complexes are revised and discussed. The seismo-stratigraphic concepts applied in the geological interpretation of seismic profiles of Naples Bay are reviewed and discussed: here the classical concepts of seismic and sequence stratigraphy have been successfully applied, but only partly, due to the occurrence of several buried volcanoes and volcanic seismic units and tephra layers, calibrated by gravity cores.