ROMA (ITALPRESS) – A study coordinated by a team of researchers from the National Institute of Geophysics and Vulcanology (INGV) and the University of Palermo (Department of Earth and Sea Sciences), published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment (Nature Portfolio), shows the processes that control the evolution of submarine canyons along the Italian coasts. These deep incisions of the seabed, similar to canyons that are observed on the mainland but much larger, can affect the stability of continental margins and represent a potential risk factor for coastal areas.
The research has analyzed more than 2,700 underwater canyons (i.e. the most superficial and close to the coast) through an automatic learning model that integrates data batimetrices, instrumental earthquakes, crustal deformations and deformation rates measured by satellite geodesia. The results show how tectonic activity and proximity to river mouths are the main factors that guide the backwardness and evolution of these forms of the underwater landscape.
The study highlights how canyons are sensitive dynamic systems both to the activity of deep geological processes and to coastal sedimentary dynamics, with relevant implications for understanding the natural risks along the Italian and Mediterranean coasts.
“This work has been realized thanks to the availability of multiple public datasets both European and National, many of which produced by the ING, ranging from the satellite data to the batimetric data – explains Salvatore Stramondo, Director of the ING Earth Department -. Italy is one of the few nations in the world to freely provide such a quantity of geophysical and geomorphological data whose integration allows to improve the evaluation of phenomena that shape coastal margins and to strengthen the instruments of analysis of natural risk”.
According to the authors, the combination of regional seismicity and sedimentary intake of the rivers favours conditions of gravitative instability of the submarine slopes, controlling over time the migration of the head of the canyons to the coast.
“The submarine canyons are true preferential routes of transport of sediments to the deep sea,” says Nicolò Parrino, Researcher of the INGV. “In this work we have used modern analysis techniques that use artificial intelligence to understand the factors that guide its evolution and this helps to reconstruct the interaction between tectonic processes, coastal dynamics and changes in the marine landscape.”.
“The Italian peninsula is surrounded by sismicly active continental margins and its more than 8000 km of coast largely exposed to multiple processes of seismoinduced origin that can affect the seabeds and coasts” concludes Pierfrancesco Burrato, First Researcher INGV. “These knowledge is key to protecting infrastructure and planning coastal land management in high-risk areas.”.
The new data opens the way to more detailed studies on the evolution of the seabeds and the safety of coastal margins, strengthening monitoring and prevention strategies.
– photo IPA Agency –
(ITALPRESS).
