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The Bulgheria canyon-fan: a small-scale proximal system in the eastern Tyrrhenian Sea (Italy)

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Abstract

The Bulgheria canyon-fan system in the eastern Tyrrhenian Sea displays well-developed, small-scale, fluvial-like features and has formed alongside the northern slope of the Sapri peri-Tyrrhenian basin. This study reveals, for the first time, the morphology and course of the present-day system as well as the buried elements based on a Digital Terrain Model and high-resolution seismic profiles interpretation. Two adjacent canyons (Infreschi and Luna) originate in the Cilento outer shelf at a short distance from each other and feed an intraslope basin fan through two main sub-parallel channels that run about 12 and 8 km, respectively. Channel and levee development seems to be controlled primarily by the local slope gradient and by Coriolis forces that induce a faster vertical growth of the right-side features, as is often observed in the Northern Hemisphere. Centrifugal forces, on the other hand, have induced episodic flow-stripping at the meander loops and bends, causing local destruction of the main channel levees rather than new levee growth at the outer bends. Overbank deposits are associated with overspill turbidite deposition in the mid fan where a topographic constraint occurs, whereas large-sediment, low-angle wave fields are mainly developed on the outer fan. Buried features and relict morphologies suggest that the Infreschi channel experienced at least two phases of re-incision since the final stages of the middle Pleistocene. Local re-adjustment of outer lobe growth due to channel avulsion and meander abandonment is possibly a consequence of relative base-level fluctuations. The sedimentary record of the mid and outer fan includes outrun mass wasting deposits from extensive failures of the Sapri slope. Indeed, a marked scar is present on the eastern side of the modern outer lobe that indicates the persistency of mass flow passages up to recent times. In addition to the environmental factors that are currently considered to cause canyon formation on the shelf margin, this study proposes the possibility that the head canyon branch close to the mainland was incised by massive and persistent underground freshwater flow from the adjacent aquifer when the sea-level was lower than at present.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge the CAR.G Project (Marine Geological mapping) carried out by IAMC CNR of Naples on behalf of the National Geological Survey Department and the Campania Region (Department for Soil Defense), which funded the acquisition of part of the bathymetric data used here. Marco Barra is kindly acknowledged for help during the processing of data. We are grateful to an anonymous reviewer and to Daniele Casalbore for their helpful comments to the manuscript. This study made use of software by Global Mapper v.11, copyright c 2002–2009.

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  1. Istituto per l’Ambiente Marino Costiero, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (National Research Council of Italy), Calata Porta di Massa, 80, 80133, Naples, Italy

    Francesca Budillon, Alessandro Conforti, Renato Tonielli, Giovanni De Falco, Gabriella Di Martino, Sara Innangi & Ennio Marsella

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  1. Francesca Budillon
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  2. Alessandro Conforti
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  3. Renato Tonielli
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  4. Giovanni De Falco
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  5. Gabriella Di Martino
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  6. Sara Innangi
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  7. Ennio Marsella
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Correspondence to Francesca Budillon.

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Budillon, F., Conforti, A., Tonielli, R. et al. The Bulgheria canyon-fan: a small-scale proximal system in the eastern Tyrrhenian Sea (Italy). Mar Geophys Res 32, 83–97 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11001-011-9138-9

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