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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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Long-term change of Earth's magnetic field (palaeomagnetic secular variation, PSV) during much of the last approximately 120ka was recorded in cored sediment from the slope margin of the eastern Tyrrhenian Sea. The PSV record has been correlated to master curves of global palaeomagnetic field intensity and PSV records for western Europe. Tephrochronology and radiometric dating (14C and 40Ar/39Ar) have also been used to constrain the age of the PSV record. The combination of the new data with prior PSV and petrophysical data from the area provides a chronological framework for geological events such as large-scale submarine slumps, stratigraphic gaps and short-term changes in deposition rate on the continental margin. These latter changes are linked to the combined action of relative sea-level oscillations, climate events, and consequent variations in land exposure through time. Moreover, new data concerning the thickness and dispersal of Campanian Plain pyroclastic deposits in the marine setting enable volcanic-hazard evaluation. Finally, a pyroclastic deposit (tephra X-6) found offshore in the Southern Campanian marine environment was 40Ar/39Ar dated for the first time at 108.9±1.8kaBP. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]