Deep-seated gravity instability of the southern apron of the Ischia volcanic island (Tyrrhenian Sea, Italy)

Abstract

Ischia Island is an active volcano representing the emerged sector of an E-W trending volcanic ridge largely extending undersea. Its collapsing behaviour, mainly in the form of fast-moving, terrestrial and submarine debris avalanches, has been recognized during the Holocene, but much less is known about previous gravity-driven processes. Using high-resolution multibeam bathymetric data and seismic reflection profiles, we provide evidence that the Island's southwestern flank has been involved in a slow-moving, deep-seated slope deformation that has displaced large volumes of its apron since the Late Pleistocene and until very recent or contemporary times. A long tongue of deformed seafloor, spreading up to 45 km from the Island over an area of 330 km², between 500 and 1300 m water depths, has been detected along its southwestern slope. Different types of mass movements, genetically associated with each other, characterize this landslide: 1) a basal slump anticline, corresponding to a bulge on the bathymetry detaching at about 400 m sub-bottom depth; 2) an intermediate-mass movement chiefly consisting of debris avalanches and debris/turbiditic flows; 3) an upper mass movement consisting of hundred-metre size slumps detaching at relatively shallow depths. Conservative estimates indicate that at least 50 km³ of volcano-clastic and hemipelagic deposits have been mobilized, most of which comprise the basal slump anticline. This submarine landslide can be explained as a gravity failure of the continental slope unrelated to volcanism or rather as a process related to the dynamics of the volcanic edifice, which would imply volcano-spreading.