Casalbore, D.; Bosman, A.; Casas, D.; Chiocci, F.; Martorelli, E.; Ridente, D. Morphological Variability of Submarine Mass Movements in the Tectonically–Controlled Calabro–Tyrrhenian Continental Margin (Southern Italy). Geosciences2019, 9, 43.
Casalbore, D.; Bosman, A.; Casas, D.; Chiocci, F.; Martorelli, E.; Ridente, D. Morphological Variability of Submarine Mass Movements in the Tectonically–Controlled Calabro–Tyrrhenian Continental Margin (Southern Italy). Geosciences 2019, 9, 43.
Abstract
The acquisition of high resolution morpho-bathymetric data on the Calabro Tyrrhenian continental margin (Southern Italy) enabled us to identify several mass-wasting processes, including shallow gullies, shelf-indenting canyons and landslides. In particular, we focus our attention on submarine landslides occurring from the coast down to -1700 m, with mobilized volumes ranging from some hundreds up to tens of millions of cubic meters. These landslides also show a large variability of geomorphic features in the headwall, translational and toe domain. Based on their morphology and distribution, four main classes of coastal/submarine landslides have been recognized: a) rocky coastal/shallow-water failures characterized by large hummocky deposits offshore; b) large-size and isolated scars with associated landslide deposits, mostly occurring on open slope environment and lower part of tectonically-controlled escarpments; c) a linear array of coalescent and nested landslide scars occurring in the upper part of tectonically-controlled escarpments and canyon flanks; d) a cauliflower array of small and coalescent scars occurring in canyon headwall. The latter two classes of landslides are also characterized by a marked retrogressive evolution and their landslide deposits are generally not recognizable on the morpho-bathymetric data. By integrating the morpho-bathymetric dataset with the results of previous studies, we also discuss the main factors controlling the variability in size and morphology of these submarine landslides to provide insights on their failure and post-failure behavior.
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