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The paper by De Natale et al. (2016, https://doi.org/10.1002/2015GC006183) reported new stratigraphic and geochronological data for a borehole located at Campi Flegrei volcanic area. The authors failed to mention several significant articles on the geological evolution of the region and proposed an interpretation of their data according to the caldera model. Herein, we provide tectonic and stratigraphic data to support a fault model of ignimbrite emission. This comment will also show the inconsistency of the proposed Campi Flegrei caldera.

In the Central Mediterranean the Africa-Eurasia convergence led to the development of complex orogenic systems and backarc basins. Throughout Pliocene-Quaternary times the Southern Apennines accretionary prism migrated towards the Apulia foreland and, contemporaneously, the Tyrrhenian Sea backarc basin opened. In this study, we investigated the offshore of the southern Apulia foreland and the Southern Apennines. Using seismic reflection profiles and well data in a dedicated GIS software, we made a detailed stratigraphic analysis, reconstructed the structural pattern and built 2D geological models of the main geological surfaces. The structure of the Apulia region formed during two main tectonic stages: lower Pleistocene complex extensional faulting developed in a transtensional regime and middle-upper Pleistocene transpression/shortening. The Southern Apennines accretionary prism developed through the Pliocene-early lower Pleistocene and was overprinted by late lower Pleistocene-middle Pleistocene NW-SE sinistral faults. Through linking new data from the accretionary prism and the foreland with previous information from the Tyrrhenian Sea back-arc, we provide an original interpretation for the relationships between the various provinces that make the Central Mediterranean crustal puzzle and reconstruct the main phases of the evolution of its Pliocene-Quaternary orogenic cycle. We recognized collisional stages of uncoupled plates, followed by late lower-middle Pleistocene post-collisional stages of coupled continental plates. This Pleistocene plates re-organization of Central Mediterranean was probably due to the rupture of the Apulia/Ionian slab or to NNW intraplate shortening transmitted from Africa.