The Regional Geological Structure of the Naples Bay Inferred by New Multichannel Seismic Reflection Profiles

The deep regional geological structure of the Naples Bay is controlled by two NE-SW and NNE-SSW (Anti-Apenninic) normal faults, the Dohrn canyon fault and the Capri-Sorrento fault. Strong downthrows of Meso-Cenozoic sedimentary sequences, representing the acoustic basement, have been observed in correspondence to both the faults. Main regional morpho-structures are: the Banco di Fuori, a morpho-structural high of the Meso-Cenozoic carbonatic acoustic basement, bounding southwards the Naples Bay, whose flanks and top are draped by the Pleistocene deposits of the Late Quaternary sequence; the Dohrn canyon, separating the eastern side of the Bay, where sedimentary seismic sequences crop out, from the western one, where volcanic seismic units prevail; the Magnaghi canyon, draining the volcanic and volcano-clastic input of the Ischia and Procida islands during the Late Quaternary and eroding the sediments of the Mg volcanic unit, characterized by chaotic reflectors; the Capri Basin, a deep basin localised in the Tyrrhenian bathyal plain south of the Naples Bay in the southern sector of the Dohrn Canyon, infilled by Pleistocenic-Holocenic sediments overlying the carbonatic basement; the Salerno Valley, a half-graben filled by three seismic units corresponding to Quaternary marine and continental deposits, laterally grading to chaotic sequences related to the "Flysch del Cilento" Auct.; the Volturno Basin, infilled by four marine to deltaic seismic sequences, frequently alternating with volcanoclastic levels, overlying deep seismic units, correlated with Miocene flysch deposits (sands and shales) and Meso-Cenozoic carbonates.