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