Study of recent small-scale landslides in geologically active marine areas through repeated multibeam surveys: Examples from the southern Italy

Abstract

Repeat multibeam surveys are used to investigate recent submarine landslides in three different areas on southern Italy, i.e. Stromboli, Southern Messina Strait and Punta Alice. High-resolution Digital Terrain Models (DTMs) depict the morphology of mass-wasting events, while residual maps of the difference between successive bathymetric surveys indicate failure volumes ranging from tens of thousands to millions of cubic meters. A tentative estimate of recurrence time for the slope failures was based on chronological constraints and historical reports, and gave values ranging from tens to hundreds of years. Characterizing mass-wasting events and their recurrence time is a necessary step for geo-hazard assessment of densely populated coastal areas. © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2012.