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Ischia is a densely inhabited and touristic volcanic island located in the northern sector of the Gulf of Naples (Italy). In 2017, theMw3.9 Casamicciola earthquake occurred after more than one century of seismic quiescence characterized only by minor seismicity, which followed a century with three destructive earthquakes (in 1828, 1881, and 1883). These events, despite their moderate magnitude (Mw< 5.5), lead to dreadful effects on buildings and population. However, an integrated catalogue systematically covering historical and instrumental seismicity of Ischia has been still lacking since many years. Here, we review and systematically re-analyse all the available data on the historical and instrumental seismicity, to build an integrated earthquake catalogue for Ischia with a robust characterization of existing uncertainties. Supported by new or updated macroseismic datasets, we significantly enriched existing catalogues, as the Italian Parametric Earthquake Catalogue (CPTI15) that, with this analysis, passed from 12 to 57 earthquakes with macroseismic parametrization. We also extended back by 6 years the coverage of the instrumental catalogue, homogenizing the estimated seismic parameters. The obtained catalogue will not only represent a solid base for future local hazard quantifications, but also it provides the unique opportunity of characterizing the evolution of the Ischia seismicity over centuries. To this end, we analyse the spatial, temporal, and magnitude distributions of Ischia seismicity, revealing for example that, also in the present long-lasting period of volcanic quiescence, is significantly non-stationary and characterized by a b-value larger than 1.

This work aimed to study geochemical data, composed of major and trace elements describing volcanic rocks collected from the Campanian active volcanoes of Vesuvius, Campi Flegrei and Ischia Island. The data were analyzed through the Self-Organizing Map (SOM) unsupervised neural net. SOM is able to group the input data into clusters according to their intrinsic similarities without using any information derived from previous geochemical-petrological considerations. The net was trained on a dataset of 276 geochemical patterns of which 96 belonged to Ischia, 94 to Vesuvius and 86 to Campi Flegrei volcanoes. Two investigations were carried out. The first one aimed to cluster geochemical data mainly characterizing the type of volcanic rocks of the three volcanic areas. The SOM clustering well grouped the oldest volcanic products of Ischia, Vesuvius and Campi Flegrei identifying a similar behaviour for the rocks emplaced in the oldest activity periods (>19 ka), and showing their different evolution over time. In the second test, devoted to inferring information on the magmatic source, the ratios of significant trace elements and K2O/Na2O have been used as input data. The SOM results highlighted a high degree of affinity between the geochemical element ratios of Vesuvius and Campi Flegrei that were separated from the products of Ischia. This result was also evidenced through isotope ratios by using traditional two-dimensional diagrams.

A volcanological map of the active Ischia volcanic field that includes Vivara Island is presented. The volcanological map is at the 1:10,000 scale and is based on 1:5000 field mapping, geological CAR.G data, and new volcanological studies. Geological data are represented on the three-dimensional orographic background digital terrain model of the inland and offshore areas of the volcanic field. This allows a better visualization of the main morphological, volcanic, and geological structures. Six phases were identified on the basis of volcanotectonic events; the 110 volcanic units were arranged following these evolutive phases, and a volcanosedimentary apron unit was introduced. This volcanological map enables visualization of the volcanic evolution of the Ischia volcanic field and could be useful for the evaluation of volcano-related hazards in the area.

Ischia Island (Italy) is an impressive example of the rare phenomenon of caldera resurgence. The emplacement and replenishment of magmas at shallow depth resulted in a vertical uplift of about 900 m, concentrated in the western portion of Mt. Epomeo (789 m a.s.l.). As a consequence of this uplift, the island has experienced several slope instabilities at different scales since the Holocene, from shallow mass movements to large rock and debris avalanches. These mass wasting events, which mobilised large volumes of greenish alkali-trachytic tuff (the Mt. Epomeo Green Tuff, MEGT), were strictly related to volcano-tectonic activity and the interaction between the volcanic slopes and the hydrothermal system beneath the island. Deep-Seated Gravitational Slope Deformation (DSGSD) at Mt. Nuovo, located adjacent to densely populated coastal villages, is an ongoing process that covers an area of 1.6 km 2 . The Mt. Nuovo DSGSD involves a rock mass volume of 190 Mm 3 and is accommodated by a main shear zone and a series of sub-vertical fault zones associated with high-angle joint sets. To improve our understanding of this gravity-induced process, we performed a physical (porosity and permeability) and mechanical (uniaxial and triaxial deformation experiments) characterisation of two ignimbrite deposits - both from the MEGT - that form a significant component of the NW sector of Mt. Epomeo. The main conclusions drawn from our experiments are twofold. First, the presence of water dramatically reduces the strength of the tuffs, suggesting that the movement of fluids within the hydrothermal system could greatly impact slope stability. Second, the transition from brittle (dilatant) to ductile (compactant) behaviour in the tuffs of the MEGT occurs at a very low effective pressure, analogous to a depth of a couple of hundred metres, and that this transition is likely moved closer to the surface in the presence of water. We hypothesise that compactant (porosity decreasing) behaviour at the base of the layer could therefore facilitate slope instability. Although our results show that transient exposure to 300 °C does not influence the short-term strength of the tuff, we speculate that the high in-situ temperature could increase the efficiency of brittle and compactant creep and therefore increase the rate of slope deformation. Taken together, our experimental data highlight a potentially important role for the hydrothermal system (that reaches a minimum depth of ~ 1 km) in dictating the DSGSD at Mt. Nuovo. An understanding of this deformation process is not only important for the proximal coastal villages, at risk of engulfment by a large debris avalanche, but also for the towns and cities along the coast of the Gulf of Naples that are at risk to a secondary consequence of such an avalanche - a tsunami wave.

The geological evolution of the Ischia volcanic complex has been reconstructed based on recently acquired submarine seismic reflection data. Implications on submarine slope stability both in northern and western submerged flanks of the island, characterized by thick submarine slide deposits and in southern flank of the island, characterized by active erosion of the coastal systems due to submarine canyons, will be discussed. The classification of volcanic landforms has been recently improved taking into account the complexity in the generation of volcanic structures and their control factors, such as the magmatic systems, the styles of eruption and erupted materials. The Ischia offshore is characterized by alkali-potassic volcanic rocks (trachytes, latites, alkali-basalts) and pertains to a volcanic complex emplaced during the last 55 ky. Four main phases have been distinguished in the eruptive activity of the Ischia volcanic complex from 150 ky B.P. and 1302 A.D. The geologic interpretation of marine DEM and Sparker data has allowed the identification of important submarine instability processes, both catastrophic (debris avalanches) and continuous (creep and accelerated erosion along canyons).

Ischia is an active volcanic island in the Gulf of Naples whose history has been dominated by a caldera-forming eruption (ca. 55 ka) and resurgence phenomena that have affected the caldera floor and generated a net uplift of about 900 m since 33 ka. The results of new geomorphological, stratigraphical and textural investigations of the products of gravitational movements triggered by volcano-tectonic events have been combined with the information arising from a reinterpretation of historical chronicles on natural phenomena such as earthquakes, ground deformation, gravitational movements and volcanic eruptions. The combined interpretation of all these data shows that gravitational movements, coeval to volcanic activity and uplift events related to the long-lasting resurgence, have affected the highly fractured marginal portions of the most uplifted Mt. Epomeo blocks. Such movements, mostly occurring since 3 ka, include debris avalanches; large debris flows (lahars); smaller mass movements (rock falls, slumps, debris and rock slides, and small debris flows); and deep-seated gravitational slope deformation. The occurrence of submarine deposits linked with subaerial deposits of the most voluminous mass movements clearly shows that the debris avalanches impacted on the sea. The obtained results corroborate the hypothesis that the behaviour of the Ischia volcano is based on an intimate interplay among magmatism, resurgence dynamics, fault generation, seismicity, slope oversteepening and instability, and eruptions. They also highlight that volcano-tectonically triggered mass movements are a potentially hazardous phenomena that have to be taken into account in any attempt to assess volcanic and related hazards at Ischia. Furthermore, the largest mass movements could also flow into the sea, generating tsunami waves that could impact on the island’s coast as well as on the neighbouring and densely inhabited coast of the Neapolitan area.

Here, we show the bathymetric map of Ischia Island and its offshore area (Naples Bay, Italy), an active volcanic complex in the NW sector of Naples Bay. The map presented here is based on full seafloor coverage, carried out by merging multibeam swath bathymetric data acquired from several projects using different equipment, single beam echo-sounder data and topographic data, with a final grid cell size of 20 × 20 metres. The obtained Digital Terrain Model allows a full view of the main morphological units, and may help future geomorphologic and geologic interpretations of the study area. Several previously unknown morphologic highs of the seafloor are mapped and named, in honour of the main researchers and/or events which characterized the recent history of Ischia Island.

Unraveling the eruptive history of the Island of Ischia (southern Italy) is problematic due to its burial, caldera collapse, resurgent uplift and erosion. Here, we present new major and trace element glass data for 39–75 ka proximal tephra deposits, including those of the caldera-forming Monte Epomeo Green Tuff (MEGT) eruption. Correlations with the distal tephra archive preserved at Lago Grande di Monticchio (LGdM) are used to constrain the timing of as yet undated eruptive events. Out of 13 LGdM tephras analysed from the 39–104 ka time window, glass geochemical data show that all are compositionally consistent with the explosive volcanic eruptions of Ischia, whilst 5 of them can be correlated with specific proximal deposits. Pre-MEGT pyroclastic sequences comprise three compositional groups, these groups occur repeatedly in sucessive eruptions. Proximal-distal correlations indicate that the Porticello eruption occurred at 59 ± 2 ka and the Tisichiello eruption probably occurred at 76 ± 3 ka. The MEGT eruption is correlated with LGdM TM-19, which has been directly dated at 55 ± 2 ka. Post-MEGT tephras form compositional groups that overlap with the pre-MEGT but are displaced to lower FeO and TiO2 and lower incompatible element contents. Proximal-distal correlations indicate that the Schiappone and Pietre Rosse eruptions occurred at 50.6 ± 2.0 ka and 45 ± 6 ka, respectively. Tephra from the MEGT eruption span a wide compositional range, broadly overlapping the three pre-MEGT compositional groups but are displaced to higher Nd and Y and contain an additional less evolved glass population. Glass geochemistry is used to recognise and confirm distal equivalents of the MEGT at LGdM (TM-19) and in the Ionian (Y-7), Adriatic (PRAD 1870) and Tyrrhenian (C-18, MD 28) seas. Distal occurences of MEGT tephra define a dispersal axis to the south-southeast and are found as far as 540 km from Ischia, making the MEGT one of the most widely dispersed late Quaternary pyroclastic deposit erupted in the Campanian region. We estimate a volume of approximately 40 km3 for the fallout portion of the MEGT pyroclastic sequence on the basis of proximal and distal deposit thicknesses.

High resolution seismic reflection profiles (Sparker Multitip) offshore southern Ischia island (Naples Bay) are here presented, together with a geological interpretation of their volcanic, structural and sedimentary features. In this frame, new seismo-stratigraphic evidences on buried volcanic structures and overlying Quaternary deposits of the south-eastern offshore of Ischia island are discussed to highlight their implications on the marine geophysics and volcanology. The Ischia Bank is a large and flat relic volcanic edifice with steep slopes, merging on the continental shelf. The age of this monogenic volcano is unknown, lacking a direct datation of its basement. It represents the eruptive centre of the pyroclastic fall cropping out onshore in the eastern sector of the island, ranging in age from 8 to 6 ky B.P.. In the eastern Ischia offshore relic volcanic edifices, mostly formed by hialoclastites, have been investigated through high resolution seismics. They represent remnants of hydro-magmatic volcanic vents and suggest a subaqueous emplacement. Regional seismic sections running in the south-eastern Ischia offshore, across buried volcanic structures, are finally presented and discussed.

Ischia, a volcanic island located 18 miles SW of Naples (Southern Italy), is a densely populated active caldera that last erupted in AD 1302. Melt inclusions in phenocrysts of the Vateliero and Cava Nocelle shoshonite-latite eruptive products (6th to 4th centuries BC) constrain the structure and nature of the Ischia deep magmatic feeding system. Their geochemical characteristics make Ischia a natural borehole for probing the physico-chemical conditions of magma generation in mantle contaminated by slab-derived fluids or melts, largely dominated by CO2. Volatile concentrations in olivine-hosted melt inclusions require gas-melt equilibria at between 3 and 18 km depth. In agreement with what has already been demonstrated at the other neighboring Neapolitan volcanoes (Procida, Campi Flegrei caldera and Somma-Vesuvius volcanic complex), a major crystallization depth at 8-10 km has been identified.The analyzed melt inclusions provide clear evidence for CO2-dominated gas fluxing and consequent dehydration of magma batches stagnating at crustal discontinuities. Gas fluxing is further supported by selective enrichment in K owing to fluid-transfer during magma differentiation.This takes place under oxidized conditions (Fe3+/EFe>=0·3) that can be fixed by an equimolar proportion of divalent and trivalent iron in the melt if post-entrapment crystallization of the host olivine is discarded. The melt inclusion data, together with data from the literature for other Neapolitan volcanoes, show that magmatism and volcanism in the Neapolitan area, despite differences in composition and eruption dynamics, are closely linked to supercritical CO2-rich fluids.These fluids are produced by devolatilization of subducting terrigenous-pelagic metasediments and infiltrate the overlying mantle wedge, generate magmas and control their ascent up to eruption. Geochemical characteristics of Ischia and the other Neapolitan volcanoes reveal that the extent of fluid or melt contamination of the pre-subduction asthenospheric mantle wedge was similar among these volcanoes. However, differences in the isotopic compositions of the erupted magmas (more enriched in radiogenic Sr at Ischia, Campi Flegrei and Somma-Vesuvius with respect to Procida) and the amount of H2O in the plumbing system of these volcanoes (almost double at Ischia, Campi Flegrei and Somma-Vesuvius than at Procida) reflect the different flow-rates of deep slab-derived fluids or melts through the mantle wedge, which, in turn, control the amount of generated magma.The high bulk permeability of the lithosphere below Ischia, Campi Flegrei and Somma-Vesuvius, determined by the occurrence of intersecting NW-SE and NE-SW regional fault systems, favours fluid ascent and accumulation at crustal levels, with consequent larger magma production and storage than at Procida, located along the NE-SW system.

We present an "event stratigraphy" framework built for the last 23 cal ka marine record in the southern offshore of Ischia Island based on AMS (14)C dating and tephrostratigraphic analysis of 11 gravity cores. Two collapse events have been recovered in the record: a) the Ischia submarine debris avalanche/debris flow (DA/DF), dated between similar to 3 ka B.P. and 2.4 ka B.P. and possibly between 2.7 ka B.P. and 2.4 ka B.P. (event DF1); b) a former, pre-Holocene, DA/DF older than 23 cal ka B.P. (event DF2). The Ischia DA, with an estimated volume of 1.5 km(3), incorporates thousands of blocks that are still detectable on the sea-floor until 45-50 km far from the island. Our results indicate an age of emplacement younger than previously thought and support the hypothesis that a major catastrophic event occurred when the island was already inhabited by Greek settlers (i.e. after the 7th century BC). Three ash layers have been recognised in the post-DF1 avalanche sequence and correlated with Ischian eruptions occurred between Middle Ages and Roman times. Two tephras recovered in the pre-DF1 succession have been correlated with explosive activity occurred on Ischia and Procida islands from similar to 23 ka to similar to 17.5 ka B.P. The results presented here improve the chronostratigraphic reconstruction of the main eruptive and collapse events that affected Ischia volcano during Late Pleistocene-Holocene and their dispersal at sea The occurrence of at least two major collapsing events in the past 23 kyr confirms the close genetic relationship between gravity failures and Mt. Epomeo uplift.

Ischia is a well exposed and densely populated late Quaternary caldera in the Campanian magmatic province of Italy. Ischia Caldera experienced an average uplift rate of 3.3 cm/year in the last ca. 30 ka and is still actively resurging. During the last 10 ka, coeval with the resurgence, a volcanic field of alkali-trachytic to trachyandesitic lava domes, lava flows, tuff and scoria rings, and pumice cones developed, mainly on the eastern sector of the caldera, along both resurgence-related faults and regional NNW- and NE-striking faults. In order to improve both our understanding of the recent volcanic history and the evaluation of future risks on Ischia Island, a high-precision archaeomagnetic dating method was applied to the products of 12 volcanic centres with probable age 14 C) ages. Archaeomagnetic and other geochronological data, as well as stratigraphic constraints, show that, during the studied time interval, Ischia volcanism occurred in five periods separated by phases of quiescence and coeval with earthquake and landslide events. This fact suggests a pulsating mode of uplifting and deformations of the Ischia resurgence. During the two oldest periods of activity (7200–6800 BC and 4100–2300 BC), resurgence probably produced a dome-shaped structure. Location and geometry of vents suggest the occurrence of magma uprise along the fractures produced by bending of the overburden crustal block. Most of magma was emplaced as intrusions at the interior of the resurgent block, whereas volcanism was represented by very viscous, differentiated, and crystallized lavas that emplaced as domes and high aspect-ratio flows. The resurgent dome caused recurrent lateral collapses that removed about 2.5 km 3 of rocks. During the three youngest periods of activity (1800–1000 BC; 650 BC –355 AD; and 1302 AD), resurgence affected a fault-bounded, asymmetric block. This resulted from both (a) hydrostatic rebound of the crustal block after removal of material involved into huge slope instability triggering an increase in uplift rate, and (b) new influxes of less evolved magma batches into the shallow reservoir that, in turn, favoured the intense volcanism of the last 4000 years.