High-resolution seismic stratigraphy in a shore zone: the case of Bagnara Calabra (Tyrrhenian Sea, Italy)

Beach environments have a relevant value related to their ecological and economic (e.g. touristic) features. Many of the world's major cities are located in coastal areas; therefore, the increasing of the erosional phenomena due to anthropogenic impact makes necessary to track shallow geology and to collect data on land-marine transition zone. During the coastal management planning, one of the main problem is represented by the lack of information about backshore and foreshore zones. Obtaining a continuous profile of the subsurface in the land-sea transition zone is a challenging task: the low depth prevents the investigation by conventional research vessels and the presence of unconsolidated sediments can cause attenuation of the seismic signal. Moreover, in transition areas low signal-to-noise ratio due to poor coupling of the receivers with the sea bottom and strong ambient noise due to wind, surf and currents can affect the data quality. During "SIGIEC" PON Project (http://www.sigiec.sister.it), we adopted a Land-Sea (LS) seismic configuration. The method was tested in the Bagnara Calabra site (Calabria, southern Italy), where 10 LS high-resolution seismic refraction profiles were acquired. The site represent an example of pocket beach, with high and rocky coasts and where long shore currents are very weak.