Vittorio Maselli

Vittorio Maselli
University of Modena and Reggio Emilia | UNIMO · Dipartimento di Scienze Chimiche e Geologiche

Phd

About

104
Publications
45,432
Reads
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1,694
Citations
Additional affiliations
January 2019 - May 2020
Dalhousie University
Position
  • Professor (Assistant)
May 2016 - December 2018
University of Aberdeen
Position
  • Lecturer
May 2014 - May 2016
Italian National Research Council
Position
  • Researcher

Publications

Publications (104)
Article
Full-text available
The December 2004 Sumatra-Andaman tsunami prompted an unprecedented research effort to find ancient precursors and quantify the recurrence time of such a deadly natural disaster. This effort, however, has focused primarily along the northern and eastern Indian Ocean coastlines, in proximal areas hardest hit by the tsunami. No studies have been made...
Article
Full-text available
Continental shelf sediments contain some of the largest stocks of organic carbon (OC) on Earth and play a vital role in influencing the global carbon cycle. Quantifying how much OC is stored in shelf sediments and determining its residence time is key to assessing how the ocean carbon cycle will be altered by climate change and possibly human activ...
Article
River deltas ofer numerous ecosystem services and host an estimated global population of 350 million to more than 500 million inhabitants in over 100 countries. To maintain their sustainability into the future, deltas need to withstand sea-level rise from global warming, but human pressures and diminishing sediment supplies are exacerbating their v...
Article
Predicting the distribution of sedimentary facies during the early stages of deformation of salt-detached continental margins is key to constraining the location and stratigraphic architecture of hydrocarbon and CO2 reservoirs, as well as to understanding the oceanic carbon cycle. Despite its importance, we still have a relatively poor understandin...
Article
The distribution and timing of Neogene extensional structures along the offshore Tanzania margin and their influence on submarine sediment dispersal pathways remain poorly constrained. This knowledge gap limits understanding of the propagation of the East African Rift System (EARS) in the western Indian Ocean. In this study, we use 2D and 3D seismi...
Article
Full-text available
Anthropogenic climate warming is predicted to increase the intensity of global tropical cyclones (TCs) on decadal timescales, known as the 'temperature-TC intensity' paradigm. However, no proxy is currently available to directly quantify TC intensity in the northwestern Pacific region over centennial to millennial timescales. Here, we reconstruct t...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
This study uses 3D seismic reflection data to conduct a detailed seismic geomorphology analysis of a portion of a glacigenic basin fan system located offshore West of Shetland in water depths greater than 1000 m. These deposits lie downslope from a gully system linked to the Foula wedge trough mouth fan, with both systems remarkably preserved at t...
Article
High-latitude fjords are susceptible to hazardous subaerial and submarine mass movements such as rock avalanches and landslides. Geophysical surveys in the fjords of Baffin Island (Nunavut) have shown widespread evidence of submarine landslides, but their timing and triggers remain relatively unconstrained, limiting our ability to understand the en...
Preprint
Full-text available
The impact of seafloor deformation on sediment routing during the initial phases of extensional salt tectonics is largely unresolved despite influencing the volume of coarse-grained clastic material delivered to the deep sea. Using 3D seismic reflection data from the northern Levant Basin offshore Lebanon, we investigate the interplay between early...
Preprint
Full-text available
Continental shelf sediments contain some of the largest stocks of organic carbon (OC) on Earth and play a vital role in influencing the global carbon cycle. Quantifying how much OC is stored in shelf sediments and determining its residence time is key to assessing how human activities can accelerate the process of OC remineralization into carbon di...
Article
Full-text available
The atmosphere can transport large quantities of microplastics and disperse them throughout the globe to locations inaccessible by many other transport mechanisms. Meteorological events have been proven to pick up and transport particulate matter, however, how they influence the transport and deposition of atmospheric microplastics is still poorly...
Article
Evaluating reservoir properties at the pore scale is vital to better estimate hydrocarbon reserves and plan field development. The lacustrine mixed siliciclastic-carbonate deposits of the Upper Paleogene Xiaganchaigou Formation in the west Yingxiongling area form one of the most important hydrocarbon reservoirs in the southwestern Qaidam Basin (Chi...
Preprint
Full-text available
The atmosphere can transport large quantities of microplastics (MPs) and disperse them throughout the globe to locations inaccessible by many other transport mechanisms. Meteorological events, such as tropical cyclones, have been proven to pick up and transport particulate matter, however, how hurricanes influence the transport and deposition of at...
Article
Full-text available
The geological processes that occurred during the deposition of the Mediterranean salt giant are poorly constrained, limiting our understanding of the earliest phase of the Messinian Salinity Crisis (MSC). Using three-dimensional seismic reflection data from the northern Levant Basin in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, we investigated a previously un...
Article
Full-text available
The Okavango Panhandle is the main influent watercourse of the Okavango Delta, an inland sink of the entire sediment load of the Cubango-Okavango River Basin (CORB). The sources of pollution in the CORB, and other endorheic basins, are largely understudied when compared to exorheic systems and the world's oceans. We present the first study of the d...
Article
Full-text available
Submarine landslides and associated mass-transport deposits (MTDs) modify the physiography of continental margins and influence the evolution of submarine sediment routing systems. Previous studies highlighted the control of landslides and MTDs on subsequent sedimentary processes and deposits at spatial scales ranging from tens of centimeters to fe...
Article
Full-text available
The Southeastern portion of the East African rift system reactivates Mesozoic transform faults marking the separation of Madagascar from Africa in the Western Indian Ocean. Earlier studies noted the reactivation of the Davie Fracture zone in oceanic lithosphere as a seismically active extensional fault, and new 3D seismic reflection data and explor...
Article
Full-text available
Over the last decade, there has been a resurgence of interest in the climatic and tectonic mechanisms that drove the Messinian salinity crisis (MSC) and the associated deposition of thick evaporites. The MSC represents an unprecedented palaeoceanographic change that led to a very short (c. 640 kyr) ecological and environmental crisis. However, acro...
Article
Trough Mouth Fans (TMF) are sedimentary depocenters located at glaciated continental margins and consist predominantly of glacigenic debris flow deposits. The Foula wedge is a Pleistocene TMF accumulated offshore West of Shetland over the Northeast Atlantic margin. This study presents an analysis of a 3D seismic reflection dataset imaging the dista...
Article
Full-text available
The last decade has been transformative for micro(nano)plastic (MnP) research with recent discoveries revealing the extent and magnitude of MnP pollution, even in the world’s most remote places. Historically, while researchers recognized that most plastic pollution was derived from land-based sources, it was generally believed that microplastic par...
Chapter
This article presents the first evidence of bottom simulating reflectors (BSRs) on the continental margin of the western Indian Ocean, offshore Tanzania. The analysis of 2D and 3D seismic reflection data revealed two different types of BSRs. The Type 1 BSR, identified in water depths of 2250–2370 m west of the Seagap fault, shows a continuous refle...
Article
In this study, we investigate the tectonic and stratigraphic evolution of the northern Tanzania margin (western Indian Ocean) to provide new insights on the structural drivers governing the formation of Zanzibar and Pemba islands. Using 2D seismic reflection profiles and exploration wells, we have reconstructed the evolution of the submarine draina...
Conference Paper
Over the last decade, there has been a resurgence of interest in the climatic and tectonic mechanisms that drove the Messinian salinity crisis (MSC) and the associated deposition of thick evaporites. The MSC represents an unprecedented palaeoceanographic change that led to a very short (c. 640 kyr) ecological and environmental crisis. However, acro...
Article
Full-text available
Tectonically controlled topography influences deep-water sedimentary systems. Using 3-D seismic reflection data from the Levant Basin, eastern Mediterranean Sea, we investigate the spatial and temporal evolution of bedforms on a deep-water fan cut by an active normal fault. In the footwall, the fan comprises cyclic steps and antidunes along its axi...
Article
Full-text available
Seismic and sequence stratigraphic analyses are important methodologies for interpreting coastal and shallow-marine deposits. Though both methods are based on objective criteria, terminology for reflection/stratal stacking is widely linked to eustatic cycles, which does not adequately incorporate factors such as differential subsidence, sediment su...
Article
Full-text available
Iceberg discharge influences ocean circulation, affects climate and increases global sea level. Icebergs are also known to gouge the seafloor in water depths limited by their keel depth, thus representing a hazard to subsea infrastructure. Here, we provide evidence that icebergs can affect the seafloor at depths greater than their keel depth by tri...
Article
This study uses 3D reflection seismic data to investigate how sediment gravity flows contribute to the evolution of the lower continental slope of the Myanmar margin that is part of the Bengal Fan, the largest deep-water fan system in the world. Seafloor and subseafloor data show large sediment wave fields that developed on both flanks of an extens...
Article
Full-text available
Quantifying the local marine reservoir age (ΔR) and its change over time is critical for precise radiocarbon calibration of marine samples and for the study of the ocean carbon cycle. ΔR values are scarce for the African coast facing the Indian Ocean, and the few values available were obtained from pre-bomb shells collected during the 19th century....
Conference Paper
Full-text available
The role of the Nahr Menashe in the Messinian Salinity Crisis: formation, dissolution and fluvial incision of the top evaporite unit in the NE Levant Basin, Eastern Mediterranean The Nahr Menashe Unit (NMU), which forms the uppermost part of the Messinian succession, is one of the most cryptic and elusive sedimentary units present in the Levant ba...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
The hydrodynamics of distributary channels could have a significant impact on the transport of sediments, nutrients and suspended matter, contributing to shaping river deltas and tidal environments. Using the Italian Po River as a case study, this paper investigates the combined effect of a flood event and the micro-tide on the hydrodynamics of a d...
Article
Full-text available
Despite salt being regarded as an extremely efficient, low‐permeability hydraulic seal, an increasing number of cross‐evaporite fluid escape features have been documented in salt‐bearing sedimentary basins. Because of this, it is clear that our understanding of how thick salt deposits impact fluid flow in sedimentary basins is incomplete. We here e...
Preprint
Full-text available
Despite salt being regarded as an extremely efficient, low-permeability hydraulic seal, an increasing number of cross-evaporite fluid escape features have been documented in salt-bearing sedimentary basins. Because of this, it is clear that our understanding of how thick salt deposits impact fluid flow in sedimentary basins is incomplete. We here e...
Poster
Full-text available
In offshore settings, the vertical migration of fluids may generate different structures on the seafloor and in the subsurface that can be readily imaged by multibeam and seismic data, respectively. On the floor, circular to elliptical depressions up to kilometers wide and hundreds of meters deep have been described as pockmarks. They are commonly...
Article
Full-text available
A new 6500-year construction of storms combined with other paleo-storm records finds abrupt changes in the Atlantic Ocean circulation impact the records finds abrupt changes in the Atlantic Ocean circulation impact the latitudinal preference of storm activity. latitudinal preference of storm activity.
Article
Full-text available
This study examines the influence of the strength of Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) on storminess at different latitudes in the North Atlantic, based on a new 6.5 kyr record of large storms from the Scotian Shelf (Eastern Canada) that provides the first >3.5 ka record from mid-latitudes. Comparison with a compilation of other pa...
Article
Full-text available
Faulting and earthquakes occur extensively along the flanks of the East African Rift System, including an offshore branch in the western Indian Ocean, resulting in remobilization of sediment in the form of landslides. To date, constraints on the occurrence of submarine landslides at margin scale are lacking, leaving unanswered a link between riftin...
Article
Full-text available
An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.
Article
Full-text available
Faulting and earthquakes occur extensively along the flanks of the East African Rift System, including an offshore branch in the western Indian Ocean, resulting in remobilization of sediment in the form of landslides. To date, constraints on the occurrence of submarine landslides at margin scale are lacking, leaving unanswered a link between riftin...
Data
supplementary data in support of the publications: seismic lines, seismic facies, Stratigraphy of the Tanzania margin imaged by a downslope-oriented seismic line crossing Well-2, Micropaleontology of exploration Well-1, Nannopaleontology of exploration Well-1, Micropaleontology of exploration Well-2, Nannopaleontology of exploration Well-2.
Article
Full-text available
One-dimensional (1D) numerical models generally provide reliable results when applied to simulate river hydraulics and morphodynamics upstream of the tidal influence, given the predominantly unidirectional flow conditions. Such models, however, can also be used to reproduce river hydraulics across the fluvial to marine transition zone when specific...
Article
Full-text available
The December 2004 Sumatra-Andaman tsunami prompted an unprecedented research effort to find ancient precursors and quantify the recurrence time of such a deadly natural disaster. This effort, however, has focused primarily along the northern and eastern Indian Ocean coastlines, in proximal areas hardest hit by the tsunami. No studies have been made...
Article
Full-text available
Quantification of the interaction between river discharge and tides is vital to characterize fluvio-deltaic systems, to identify diagnostic elements of tidal signatures in the rock record, and to reconstruct paleogeographies. In modern systems, even microtides can significantly influence delta morphodynamics; yet, many fundamental processes, partic...
Article
Circular to elliptical topographic depressions, isolated or organized in trails, have been observed on the modern seabed in different contexts and water depths. Such features have been alternatively interpreted as pockmarks generated by fluid flow, as sediment waves generated by turbidity currents, or as a combination of both processes. In the latt...
Article
The sheared-passive margin offshore Durban (South Africa) is characterized by a narrow continental shelf and steep slope hosting numerous submarine canyons. Supply of sediment to the margin is predominantly terrigenous, dominated by discharge from several short but fast-flowing rivers. International Ocean Discovery Program Expedition 361 provides a...
Poster
The categorized seismic facies indicate a strong lateral variation in the internal character of Unit 7. We interpret this to represent layered units of anhydrite and pelitic sediments (Mud), brecciated karst surfaces of salt or limestone. These observations supports the hypothesis of a complex erosive and depositional environment. Overlying sedimen...
Article
Full-text available
The East African Rift Systems (EARS) exerted a major influence on river drainage basins and regional climate of east Africa during the Cenozoic. Recent studies have highlighted an offshore branch of the EARS in the western Indian Ocean, where the Kerimbas Graben and the Davie Ridge represent its sea floor expression. To date, a clear picture of the...
Article
In deep-water settings, the accommodation for sediment transported by turbidity flows relates to the difference between the elevation of the depositional surface and its equilibrium profile. As a consequence, accommodation creation, or disruption, may depend from changes in the physiography of the receiving basin, or changes in the flow properties....
Preprint
Full-text available
In deep-water settings, the accommodation space for sediment transported by turbidity flows relates to the difference between the elevation of the depositional surface and its equilibrium profile. As a consequence, accommodation space creation, or disruption, may depend from changes in the physiography of the receiving basin, or changes in the flow...
Article
Full-text available
River systems evolve in response to the construction of dams and artificial reservoirs, offering the possibility to investigate the short-term effects of base level oscillations on fluvial architecture. A major effort has been dedicated to the understanding of river response downstream of large dams, where deep channel incisions occur in response t...
Preprint
Full-text available
In this study, we propose a new depositional mechanism for the formation of sea floor depression features similar to pockmark trails, but generated by the interplay between turbidity currents and fluid migration. By using high-resolution 3D seismic data from offshore Ceará State (Brazil), we show how vertically stacked and upslope migrating sedimen...
Article
In this study we explore the role of sediment supply, halokinesis and deep ocean circulation in promoting margin instability. The analysis was carried out on multibeam and high-resolution seismic data that allowed the imaging of mass failure deposits and current-driven depositional features along a portion of the lower continental slope and upper c...
Article
Full-text available
Deltaic and shallow marine sediments represent unique natural archives to study the evolution of surface coastal ocean water properties as compared to environmental changes in adjacent continents. Sea surface temperatures (SSTs) and higher plant biomarker records were generated from the Rhone and Var River deltaic sediments (NW Mediterranean Sea),...
Article
Full-text available
Al­though fa­cies and stratal geome­tries of con­ti­nen­tal mar­gin suc­ces­sions can be de­fined in de­tail based on sub­sur­face and out­crop stud­ies, most stud­ies lack the high-res­o­lu­tion age con­trol needed to con­strain the time scale of for­ma­tion of such suc­ces­sions and in­fer their ex­ter­nal forc­ing mech­a­nisms. Our work on the P...