The regional geological structure of the Campania continental margin inferred by deep multichannel seismic profiles

New seismostratigraphic data on the regional geological structure of the Campania continental margin based on deep multichannel seismic profiles are here presented. Regional geological sections have been constructed along the Ischia-Capri-Volturno structural elongment of the Campania continental margin (Aiello et al., 2011). While a large amount of densely spaced seismic surveys of the Naples Bay continental shelf have been previously performed, these sections have furnished a geologic framework of main sedimentary basins and interposed structural highs of the whole continental margin at a regional scale. A new seismostratigraphic setting is furnished for some lineaments, previously not described in detail, as the Capri and Volturno basins, the Capri structural high and the Ischia volcanic structural high. A correlation with the land geology has been attempted to obtain a better geological comprehension of the interpreted structures. Quaternary volcanism of the Campania margin has been discussed, since a large volcanic edifice buried below Quaternary volcanites, previously known only for its magnetic signature. The Naples Bay lies in the Campania Plain, located between the eastern side of the Tyrrhenian sea and the southern Apenninic chain and produced from the back-arc extension that accompanied the NE-verging accretion of the Apenninic thrust belt during the roll-back of the subducting foreland plate (Malinverno and Ryan, 1986; Faccenna et al., 1996). The western sector of the Naples Bay is surrounded by the Phlegrean Fields volcanic district, where volcanism has been active for at least 50 ky. The present-day physiography of the volcanic district has been mainly controlled by volcano-tectonic events occurred after the emplacement of the Campanian Ignimbrite (CI), a huge pyroclastic flow erupted 35 ky B.P., when the area experienced a first phase of calderization (Barberi et al., 1978). In the eastern sector, the sedimentary processes related to the Sarno-Sebeto coastal plain controlled the deposition of marine and coastal seismic units during Late Pleistocene and Holocene, often interlayered with volcanic deposits related to Somma-Vesuvius (Milia et al., 1998; Aiello et al., 2001). The Capri island represents a key sector for the comprehension of the paleogeographic setting of the southern Apennines during the Mesozoic and the Cenozoic (Barattolo and Pugliese, 1987). In fact, it represents one of the few areas where the inner margin of the Apenninic platform is preserved (Mostardini and Merlini, 1986). The recognized and distinguished units are numerous and include a wide stratigraphic interval ranging between the Early Jurassic and the Miocene. Due to the complex tectonic setting of the island, determined from the Oligo-Miocene Apenninic deformation e then from the Plio-Quaternary neotectonics, the vertical and horizontal relationships among the different units are often very complex, not preserved or unaltered. In particular, this happens in the eastern sector of the island, where the geologic situation is complicated by an intense urbanization and by the wide occurrence of Quaternary deposits. The main formations are represented by the Cala Ventroso dolomites (Lias), the Grotta Delle Felci bioclastic limestones (Middle-Upper Lias),the Torina oolitic limestones (Aalenian-Bathonian), the Migliara cherty limestones (Middle Lias-Kimmeridgian), the Ellipsactinia limestones (Callovian-Valanginian), the Limmo white limestones (Aptian), the Tiberio rudites (Aptian-Turonian p.p.), the Scaglia di Punta Carena (Upper Turonian-Coniacian), the Faro conglomerates (Maastrichtian). Deep seismic sections on the Southern Tyrrhenian continental margin and in the Tyrrhenian bathyal plain have been collected. Three regional seismic profiles ha