Digital elevation model of the Naples Bay and adjacent areas (Eastern Tyrrhenian sea)

An extensive, high-resolution bathymetric survey has recently been carried out, portraying the continental shelf-slope system of the Campania Region, in southern Italy (Eastern Tyrrhenian Sea). The relative bathymetric data were acquired between 1997 and 2002, using multibeam systems with an average vertical resolution of < 0.25 % water depth and a position accuracy of < 10 m. The survey data were successively merged with a Digital Terrain Model (DTM) created from topographic maps of the onshore coastal area and islands of theNaples Bay, to produce a Digital Elevation Model (DEM) based on a homogeneous grid with cell-spacing of 20 m. The shaded-relief, colour scale map of the Naples Bay presented in this study provides new, detailed information on the morphology of the coastal Campania Region. This continental margin displays evidence of the interplay between tectonics and volcanism and their interference with sedimentary processes during the latest Neogene and Quaternary. The major morphological features revealed by the 3D digital maps are: 1) the system of marine canyons (Dohrn and Magnaghi) that cut the continental slope at a depth between 250 m and 1100 m; 2) the funnelshaped marine slope system of the Ischia volcanic structure; 3) the onshore-offshore volcanic field of the Campi Flegrei; 4) the rugged seafloor area (of a diameter of ca 2 km) off the town of Naples (Banco della Montagna), caused by active uplift of small-scale volcaniclastic diapirs (pyroclastic lumps); and 5) the debris-flow/avalanche deposits on the inner continental shelf of the Eastern Bay of Naples, that evolved from the pyroclastic products of the Vesuvius