Luca Gasperini

• Research Director
• CNR - Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche at Italian National Research Council

The submerged section of the North Anatolian fault within the Marmara Sea was investigated using acoustic techniques and submersible dives. Most gas emissions in the water column were found near the surface expression of known active faults. Gas emissions are unevenly distributed. The linear fault segment crossing the Central High and forming a sei...

A morphobathymetric survey has been carried out of a coastal lagoon south of the modern Po delta (Valle Fattibello, Comacchio). Acquisition of bathymetric data in such an extremely shallow water environment (more than 80% of the area lies between 0 and −1m) faces technical difficulties that led to the development of ‘ad hoc’ solutions. Methods to o...

An open problem concerning the Mw 7.4, 1999 İzmit earthquake along the North Anatolian Fault (NAF) system is the apparent conflict between estimates of strike-slip deformation based on field and remote sensing data. This is due to the fact that the main strand of the NAF west of the epicenter lies below the Sea of Marmara. Seismological evidence an...

The so-called Tunguska Event (TE), of June 30 1908, is one of those phenomena that have generated a great and durable interest into generations of earth and planetary scientists and a worldwide audience. This is due to several causes, including the remoteness of the site where it occurred and the global scale of its effects. Thousands of kilometers...

A detailed record of sea level changes and climate oscillations in the Gulf of Saros during the late Pleistocene to the Holocene is provided by high-resolution seismic reflection profiles and analysis of a sediment core. The seismic stratigraphy reveals the formation of four main depositional units bounded by prominent reflection surfaces, reflecti...

This edited book is based on the accepted papers for presentation at the 1st MedGU Annual Meeting, Istanbul, 2021. With five parts spanning a large spectrum of geological, geotechnical, and geophysical topics, this book presents a series of newest research studies that are nowadays relevant to Middle East, Mediterranean region, and Africa. The boo...

An Erratum to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1134/S1028334X23060119

In a recent paper, Rogozin and coauthors present a morphologic/seismostratigraphic study of two small lakes, Lake Zapovednoye (LZ) and Lake Peyungda (LP), located 50‒60 km east from the alleged epicenter of the 1908 Tunguska Event (TE), a large explosion believed to have been caused by an extraterrestrial impact. Data presented in that paper sugges...

Despite much progress over the past decade, reconstructing the details and timing of Antarctic Ice Sheet (AIS) retreat remains a matter of debate, even in well surveyed areas such as the northwestern sector of the Ross Sea (e.g., Halberstadt et al., 2016; Greenwood et al., 2018; Prothro et al., 2020). There, Grounding Zone Wedges (GZWs) show how th...

This is the new (3.2) release of SEISPRHO, an interactive computer program for processing and interpreting high-resolution seismic reflection profiles developed using the Delphi/Kylix multiplatform programming environment, available under Windows and Linux operating systems. The program allows to handle SEG-Y data files (and other non-standard fo...

Plain Language Summary The Dead Sea Fault (DSF) is a deep‐reaching fault separating the African and the Arabian plates. Geologically recent volcanic activity is well‐spread in Northern Israel but the origin of the magmas that fed the eruptions is yet to be found. We propose that protracted extensional motion along the DSF caused crustal thinning fa...

Marine geophysical data collected from the Ross Sea continental shelf during several oceanographic expeditions enabled evaluation of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) extent of the Antarctic Ice Sheet (AIS) through the presence of large Grounding Zone Wedges (GZWs), particularly evident in the outer reaches of the Drygalski and Joides basins to the no...

Article is free-access at : http://gfdq.glaciologia.it/045_1_01_2022/ Marine geophysical data collected from the Ross Sea continental shelf during several oceanographic expeditions enabled evaluation of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) extent of the Antarctic Ice Sheet (AIS) through the presence of large Grounding Zone Wedges (GZWs), particularly ev...

The Pacific, Antarctic, and Macquarie lithospheric plates diverge from the Macquarie Triple Junction (MTJ) in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, south of Macquarie Island. Morphobathymetric, magnetic, and gravity data have been used to understand the evolution of the three accretionary/transform boundaries that meet at the MTJ. Plate velocities, estim...

We propose a procedure for the polarity assessment in reflection seismic data based on a Neural Network approach. The algorithm is based on a fully 1D approach, which does not require any input besides the seismic data since the necessary parameters are all automatically estimated. An added benefit is that the prediction has an associated probabili...

Sandy beaches and the nearshore environment are dynamic coastal systems characterized by sediment mobilization driven by alternating stormy and mild wave conditions. However, this natural behavior of beaches can be altered by coastal defense structures. Repeated surveys carried out with autonomous surface vehicles (ASVs) may represent an interestin...

The Calabrian Arc subduction complex, in the northern Ionian Sea, is facing directly the westward subducting Apulian Swell, a sliver of continental crust covered by about 8 km of Mesozoic and Tertiary carbonates. Deformation patterns of this southernmost foreland segment of the Adria plate, analized from marine geological/ geophysical data include:...

This data article presents the dataset collected for selected organic pollutants in the framework of a larger research project aimed at assessing the effects of different environmental stressors (natural and anthropogenic) in sediments of the Lake of Cavazzo, a basin of glacial origin located in a seismically active region of the Italian Eastern Al...

We performed a morpho-stratigraphic study of the Tirso River incised valley (Sardinia Island, western Mediterranean Sea), an erosional feature crossing the Sinis fault, a major normal fault bordering the Campidano basin between the Gulf of Oristano and the western Sardinia shelf. High-resolution seismic reflection profiles and multibeam echosounder...

The Calabrian Arc subduction complex, in the northern Ionian Sea, is facing directly the westward subducting Apulian Swell, a sliver of continental crust covered by about 8 km of Mesozoic and Tertiary carbonates. Deformation patterns of this southernmost foreland segment of the Adria plate, analized from marine geological/geophysical data include:...

Based on morphobathymetric and seismic reflection data, we studied a large landslide body from the eastern Sea of Marmara (NW Turkey), along the main strand of the North Anatolian Fault, one of the most seismically active geological structures on Earth. Due to its location and dimensions, the sliding body may cause tsunamis in case of failure possi...

The Southern Ocean surrounding Antarctica is a region that is key to a range of climatic and oceanographic processes with worldwide effects, and is characterised by high biological productivity and biodiversity. Since 2013, the International Bathymetric Chart of the Southern Ocean (IBCSO) has represented the most comprehensive compilation of bathym...

Under the present climatic emergency, the environmental quality of freshwater reservoirs is an urgent topic as its deterioration threatens humans and ecosystems. It is evident that pollution by natural and anthropogenic contaminants must be avoided or reduced. The Lake of Cavazzo (NE Italy) is a natural perialpine basin which, from the mid-20 th ce...

The westernmost segment of the North Anatolian fault in NW Turkey lies mostly offshore, in the Sea of Marmara and the Gulf of Saros (NE Aegean), respectively to the E and W of a 45 km inland central portion. The 9 August 1912 Mürefte-Şarköy (Ms 7.4) and 13 September 1912 (Ms 6.8) earthquakes occurred along this segment. To date, the segment was stu...

The Calabrian and Hellenic subduction systems accommodate the African Eurasian plate convergence in the Mediterranean Sea and are the site of large earthquakes in the forearc region facing the northern African coasts. Some of the historical earthquakes were associated with the generation of tsunami waves affecting the entire Mediterranean basin. We...

The Mediterranean Sea hosts two subduction systems along the convergent Africa-Eurasia plate boundary that have produced strong ground shaking and generated tsunamis. Based on historical descriptions and sedimentary records, one of these events, in 365 CE, impacted a broad geographical area, including tsunami evidence for distances of 700–800 km fr...

Newly collected morphobathymetric and seismic reflection data from the Valli di Comacchio coastal lagoons, south of the Po River delta (Northeast Italy), combined with historical, remote sensing, and geodetic data highlight a complex geological evolution during the Holocene, strongly affected by anthropic control. All data allowed us to define the...

The fast ongoing progress in the field of the “open content” technologies, i.e., those hardware and software resources designed and offered to a wide community by people belonging to the open-source culture movement, strengthened and fostered by the availability of low cost, highly performing electronic devices, is creating a “revolution” in the wo...

The Calabrian Arc subduction complex, in the northern Ionian Sea, is facing directly the westward subducting Apulian Swell, a sliver of continental crust covered by about 8 km of Mesozoic and Tertiary carbonates. Deformation patterns of this southernmost foreland segment of the Adria plate, analized from marine geological/ geophysical data include:...

The dynamics of the Antarctic Ice Sheet retreat in the western Ross Sea is still debated compared to the central and eastern sectors, both due to the lack of geophysical data and the presence of data with poor resolution. To date, two evidences allowed to reconstruct the ice sheet dynamics: the grounding zone wedge (GZW) north of Coulman Island, te...

The increasing quality and resolution of marine seismic reflection data, as well as their availability in digital form within large data sets, require the development and testing of new techniques to improve their interpretation. In this work, we present a case study dealing with application of 3D techniques to a set of 2D shallow-water data, where...

Lago Trasimeno (central Italy), 10 km wide and < 6m deep, fills a basin of tectonic origin and one of Europe's few endorheic lakes. We report on a multidisciplinary stratigraphic study, based on seismic reflection profiles and two sediment cores, aimed at providing information on the vegetational, lithological, and climate history of this area base...

A multi-proxy analyses was applied on the sediment core from the Gulf of Saros (GoS) to identify and characterize climate and hydrological changes during the middle-to-late Holocene. The formation of two discrete Holocene sapropel layers in the GoS sediments was documented for the first time in the sediment core based on total organic carbon analys...

Seismological data recorded in the Ionian Sea by a network of seven Ocean Bottom Seismometers (OBSs) during the 2017–2018 SEISMOFAULTS experiment provides a close-up view of seismogenic structures that are potential sources of medium-high magnitude earthquakes. The high-quality signal-to-noise ratio waveforms are observed for earthquakes at differe...

Identification of catastrophic events recorded as resedimented deep marine deposits can be challenging because of multiple possible triggering mechanisms. This study investigates seismoturbidites (STs) deposited in the Ionian Sea as a consequence of major historical earthquakes related to the Calabrian Arc subduction system. Taking advantage of the...

The present dataset was collected to evaluate the environmental stressors on a lacustrine basin in the Eastern Alps of glacial origin that has been affected in recent years by natural and anthropogenic events such as the construction of a hydroelectric power plant and a series of strong earthquakes during 1976-1977. We collected sediment cores in d...

The Lake of Cavazzo is a natural, lacustrine basin in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region (NE Italy), which occupies a fluvio-glacial suspended valley of the Tagliamento river, at the southern front of the Alpine chain. The lake formed after the melting of major glacial tongues at the end of the Last Glacial Maximum, and has been affected in recent ye...

The Bradano Basin is a foreland basin along the Africa/Eurasia plate boundary. Due to its location and physiography, between Southern Apennines (SA) and Calabrian Arc (CA), it represents a natural recorder of Plio- Pleistocene tectonic processes. Integrated analysis of seismic reflection data, exploration well logs and seafloor bathymetry allowed u...

A new analysis of high-resolution multibeam and seismic reflection data, collected during several oceanographic expeditions starting from 1999, allowed us to compile an updated morphotectonic map of the North Anatolian Fault below the Sea of Marmara. We reconstructed kinematics and geometries of individual fault segments, active at the time scale o...

The Bradano Basin is a foreland basin along the Africa/Eurasia plate boundary. Due to its location and physiography, between Southern Apennines (SA) and Calabrian Arc (CA), it represents a natural recorder of Plio-Pleistocene tectonic processes. Integrated analysis of seismic reflection data, exploration well logs and seafloor bathymetry allowed us...

The Calabrian Arc subduction-rollback system along the convergent Africa/Eurasia plate boundary is among the most active geological structures in the Mediterranean Sea. However, its seismogenic behaviour is largely unknown, mostly due to the lack of seismological observations. We studied low-to-moderate magnitude earthquakes recorded by the seismic...

Based on multidisciplinary data, including seismological and geodetic observations, as well as seismic reflection profiles and gravity maps, we analysed the pattern of crustal deformation and active tectonics in the Sicily Channel, a key observation point to unravel the complex interaction between two major plates, Nubia and Eurasia, in the Mediter...

Northern Israel was struck during July 2018 by a ML4.4 earthquake followed by a seismic sequence that lasted about 30 days. This seismic sequence occurred in the center of a temporary seismic network deployed around the Sea of Galilee (Lake Kinneret). The network was installed to investigate the regional kinematics of the Dead Sea Fault, which is a...

Lake Garda, the largest lake in Italy at the southern front of the central Alps, provides a unique opportunity to reconstruct Quaternary geological processes related to the interplay between deglaciation driven sedimentation and tectonic activity. In fact, the topographic depression presently occupied by the lake was site of a major glacial tongue...

Using analogue techniques, we attempted to model the complex tectonic deformation pattern observed along the North-Anatolian Fault in the Sea of Marmara from morpho-bathymetry and seismic reflection images. In particular this paper focuses on the so-called Cinarcik segment of the fault connecting the eastern Izmit segment, which entirely ruptured d...

OpenSWAP is a class of innovative open architecture, low cost autonomous vehicles for geological/geophysical studies of shallow water environments. Although they can host different types of sensors, these vehicles were specifically designed for geophysical surveys, i.e., for the acquisition of bathymetric and stratigraphic data through single- and...

Suzdalevo is a thermokarst pond situated in a region affected by the Tunguska Event (TE) in 1908 AD. Evenki people inhabited this region prior to the Tunguska impact/airburst and reported no lake present. On the other hand, they claim that Suzdalevo Lake was created at the time of the TE. This small lake (150 m in diameter) of rounded shape is loca...

The Sea of Galilee in northeast Israel is a freshwater lake filling a morphological depression along the Dead Sea Fault. It is located in a tectonically complex area, where a N-S main fault system intersects secondary fault patterns non-univocally interpreted by previous reconstructions. A set of multiscale geophysical, geochemical and seismologica...

The Çınarcık Basin is the easternmost deep depression of the Sea of Marmara and its formed at a major overstep of the NAF. The transtensive fault segment representing the northern boundary is the Çınarcık basin which is marked by a steep slope scarp. It connects to the Istanbul NAF segment to west; with the Izmit segment to the east, which ruptured...

The presence of methane gas in the shallow sub-surface sediments of the Sea of Galilee, northern Israel, has been well documented over the years. Numerous theories for the mechanism responsible for the release of this gas into the water column have been put forth. These include changes in lake levels, seasonality, and seismic activity. The presence...

The Ionian Sea in southern Italy is at the center of active interaction and convergence between the Eurasian and African–Adriatic plates in the Mediterranean. This area is seismically active with instrumentally and/or historically recorded Mw>7.0 earthquakes, and it is affected by recently discovered long strike-slip faults across the active Calabr...

The late Pleistocene climate-induced water level fluctuations in the Gulf of Gemlik have been first documented in detail by analyses of high-resolution seismic reflection profiles that are tied to radiocarbon-dated sediment cores. In this study, synthetic seismogram for seismic-to-core comparison has enabled a precise correlation between seismic un...

Marine transform faults and associated fracture zones (MTFFZs) cover vast stretches of the ocean floor, where they play a key role in plate tectonics, accommodating the lateral movement of tectonic plates and allowing connections between ridges and trenches. Together with the continental counterparts of MTFFZs, these structures also pose a risk to...

The 1908 June 30 Tunguska Event (TE) is one of the best studied cases of cosmic body impacting the Earth with global effects. However, still today, significant doubts are casted on the different proposed event reconstructions, because of shortage of reliable information and uncertainties of available data. In the present work, we would like to revi...

The Ionian Sea in southern Italy is at the center of active interaction and convergence between the Eurasian and African-Adriatic plates in the Mediterranean. This area is seismically active with instrumentally/historically-recorded Mw > 7.0 earthquakes and it is affected by recently-discovered long strike-slip faults across the active Calabrian ac...

Seafloor bathymetry, combined with multi-scale seismic reflection profiles, were used to describe the morphostructural setting of the Bradano Foredeep (Gulf of Taranto, northern Ionian Sea), where a submerged portion of the Southern Apennines is facing the Apulia Platform in the Calabrian Arc convergent margin. In this complex area, marine geophysi...

A detailed study, based on ocean-bottom seismometers (OBSs) recordings from two recording periods (3.5 months in 2011 and 2 months in 2014) and on a high-resolution, 3D velocity model, is presented here, which provides an alternative view of the microseismicity along the submerged section of the North Anatolian fault (NAF) within the western Sea of...

The eastern border of the Adriatic Sea shows several examples of transitional areas marked by fragmented coastlines, islands and coastal bays. Bays and estuaries interact with the main basin influencing it and being influenced by it in terms of circulation patterns and freshwater supply. Coastal and transitional areas represent highly dynamic, rapidl...

Understanding micro-seismicity is a critical question for earthquake hazard assessment. Since the devastating earthquakes of Izmit and Duzce in 1999, the seismicity along the submerged section of North Anatolian Fault within the Sea of Marmara (comprising the "Istanbul seismic gap") has been extensively studied in order to infer its mechanical beha...

This Page contains the Handbook of SEISPRHO : An interactive computer program for processing and interpretation of high-resolution seismic reflection profiles The 2.4 distribution for Windows 64 bits is also included To install just unzip the SeisPrho_LCL folder in C:\

The submerged portions of the North-Anatolian Fault (NAF) in the Sea of Marmara and the NE-Aegean Sea are sites of large magnitude earthquakes, that leave diagnostic geological “signatures” in the sedimentary record in the form of mass-wasting deposits, turbidites, and fluid and gas escape features. This is due to the interplay of seismic-shaking,...

MarsiteCruise was undertaken in October/November 2014 in the Sea of Marmara to gain detailed insight into the fate of fluids migrating within the sedimentary column and partially released into the water column. The overall objective of the project was to achieve a more global understanding of cold-seep dynamics in the context of a major active stri...

I temi dell’ambiente, dello sviluppo sostenibile e delle nuove tecnologie sono prioritari per la Regione Emilia-Romagna; per dare concretezza a questo approccio, la Regione ha stanziato risorse provenienti dal Programma operativo del Fondo europeo di sviluppo regionale 2014-2020 (Por-Fesr) per finanziare progetti che prevedono la cooperazione tra l...

Waterborne geophysical surveys (CVES, Magnetic Subbottom) on the Trasimeno lake near the Malpasso site

Mantle-derived serpentinites have been detected at magma-poor rifted margins and above subduction zones, where they are usually produced by fluids released from the slab to the mantle wedge. Here we show evidence of a new class of serpentinite diapirs within the external subduction system of the Calabrian Arc, derived directly from the lower plate....

A seismological and geochemical experiment, also accompanied by a detailed bathymetric survey, is now ongoing in the Ionian Sea from May 2017. Eight Ocean Bottom Seismometers and Hydrophones (OBS/H) and two modules for geochemical monitoring (CH4, CO2 and O) were deployed on the sea bottom (www.seismofaults.it).

One of the most intriguing feature along the entire Adriatic coast is the bay of Boka Kotorska, where the sea enters inland for over 20 km. The Bay is located along the Montenegro margin and is part of a ria coastal system surrounded by high mountains that are part of the Dinaric range. The Bay is composed by three major basins, connected by two na...

The Calabrian Arc is a narrow subduction-rollback system resulting from Africa/Eurasia plate convergence. We analysed the structural style of the frontal accretionary wedge through a multi-scale geophysical approach. Pre-stack depth-migrated crustal-scale seismic profiles unravelled the overall geometry of the subduction complex; high-resolution mu...

Interactive Map – only viewable on ScienceDirect (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405-8440(16)32075-8).

The boundary between the African and Arabian plates in the Southern Red Sea region is displaced inland in the northern Afar rift, where it is marked by the Red Sea-parallel Erta Ale, Alaita, and Tat Ali volcanic ridges. The Erta Ale is offset by about 20 and 40 km from the two en echelon ridges to the south. The offset area is highly seismic and ma...

The 1999 Mw 7.4 earthquake triggered a tremendous human tragedy and had a great social impact over the population of the İzmit Bay, one of the most industrialized area of Turkey. Although the successive environmental disasters were well documented, information on its sedimentary record is lacking. The present research aims at filling this gap, thro...

Boka Kotorska Bay is an enclosed water body with a narrow and shallow connection to the Adriatic Sea; the shallowest point is only 37.6 m deep at present, limiting exchange of water with the Adriatic. The Bay is one of the most important transitional areas of the Adriatic from both an environmental and a socio-economic viewpoint. High resolution ge...

Transverse ridges are large topographic anomalies running adjacent to slow-slip oceanic transforms. They form due to different processes, including thermal stresses, hydration-dehydration of peridotites, non-linear viscoelastic rheology of the oceanic crust and vertical tectonic motions of lithospheric slivers induced by changes in ridge/transform...

L' Emilia-Romagna è caratterizzata da un complesso e articolato sistema di approvvigionamento idrico a scopo irriguo, il Sistema della bonifica emiliano-romagnola. Questo esteso reticolo di canali, di lunghezza complessiva di circa 20.000 km, è gestito e mantenuto in efficienza dalla Regione attraverso i suoi Consorzi di bonifica. L'attività di man...

This study investigates Ionian Sea seismo-turbidite (ST) deposits that we interpret to be triggered by major historic earthquakes and tsunamis in the Calabrian Arc. ST beds can be correlated with the 1908 CE Mw 7.24 Messina, 1693 CE Mw 7.41 Catania, and 1169 CE Mw 6.6 Eastern Sicily earthquakes while two previously unknown turbidites might have bee...

The Gulf of Gemlik is an E-W elongated trans-tensional basin with a maximum depth of 113 m, located on the middle strand of the North Anatolian Fault (NAF) in the south eastern part of the Sea of Marmara (SoM). While during the Holocene the sea level in the Gulf of Gemlik changed in tandem with the water level changes in the SoM, it may have been d...

The Gulf of Gemlik is an E-W elongated trans-tensional basin with a maximum depth of 113 m, located on the middle strand of the North Anatolian Fault (NAF) in the south eastern part of the Sea of Marmara (SoM). While during the Holocene the sea level in the Gulf of Gemlik changed in tandem with the water level changes in the SoM, it may have been d...

The Calabrian Arc is a narrow subduction–rollback system resulting from Africa/Eurasia plate convergence. While crustal shortening is taken up in the accretionary wedge, transtensive deformation accounts for margin segmentation along transverse lithospheric faults. One of these structures is the NNW–SSE transtensive fault system connecting the Alfe...

Analyses of trace metals and organic contaminants (PCBs, PAHs, and PBDEs) were carried out in soils and sediments collected in different areas from the North of Morocco, in the framework of several bilateral projects between the Moroccan CNRST and the Italian CNR. Results indicated a situation of absent or low contamination in lagoons and salt mar...

An exotic meter-size quartzitic boulder known as John's Stone was found by John Anfinogenov in 1972 buried in permafrost close to the epicenter of the 1908 Tunguska blast in a region of Siberia dominated by Permian-Triassic Siberian Trap basalts. The boulder is made almost entirely of well-cemented quartz grains, mostly around 100 μm in size; it co...

The bathymetry of Lake Trasimeno was conducted in several stages from 2004 to 2012 survey by digital multibeam echo sounder in actual geophysical surveys carried out in Lake Trasimeno for the realization of the Geological Sheet n. 310 "Passignano". The depths are displayed isobaths every 25cm in absolute dimensions in meters above sea level or dept...

The bathymetry of Lake Trasimeno was conducted in several stages from 2004 to 2012 survey by digital multibeam echo sounder in actual geophysical surveys carried out in Lake Trasimeno for the realization of the Geological Sheet n. 310 "Passignano". The depths are displayed isobaths every 25cm in absolute dimensions in meters above sea level or dept...

The bathymetry of Lake Trasimeno was conducted in several stages from 2004 to 2012 survey by digital multibeam echo sounder in actual geophysical surveys carried out in Lake Trasimeno for the realization of the Geological Sheet n. 310 "Passignano". The depths are displayed isobaths every 25cm in absolute dimensions in meters above sea level or dept...

Within the Sea of Marmara, the highly active North Anatolian Fault (NAF) is responsible for major earthquakes (Mw≥7), and acts as a pathway for fluid migration from deep sources to the seafloor. This work reports on pore water geochemistry from three sediment cores collected in the Gulfs of Izmit and Gemlik, along the Northern and the Middle strand...

The Sea of Marmara canyons occur on the steep (10°-29") slopes forming the boundaries of the -1250 m-deep transtensional basins along the North Anatolian Fault zone. Most of the canyons were initiated by tectonic and erosional processes mainly during the Plio-Quaternary, when the basin margins were uplifted and deep basins subsided. Some, such as t...