The structural setting of the Ischia Island Caldera (Italy): first evidence from seismic and gravity data

Abstract

Ischia Island is one of the active volcanoes of the Neapolitan area (Italy). Hazard assessment of active, densely populated volcano is primarily based on knowledge of the volcano’s past behaviour and of its present state. As a contribution to the definition of the present structural setting of Ischia Island, we constructed a new model of the shallow crust using geophysical data: seismic wave travel times and Bouguer anomaly data. We analysed these data sets through seismic tomography and gravity data inversion. The main results inferable from the 3D seismic and gravity images are the definition of the caldera rim along the perimeter of the island, as hypothesized by many authors, and the presence of a high velocity and density area inside the caldera consistent with extension of the resurgent block that characterizes the recent deformation of the island.