Highlights

Reply to comment by A. Rapolla on "The Bay of Naples (southern Italy): Constraints on the volcanic structures inferred from a dense seismic survey"

Journal of Geophysical Research, 110, B06308, 2005
Aldo Zollo and Sebastien Judenherc

Abstract

Judenherc and Zollo [2004] (hereinafter referred to as JZ2004) describe the analysis and three-dimensional (3-D) tomographic inversion of first P arrival times from data sets obtained during the controlled-source seismic experiments carried out in 1997 (MAREVES) and 2001 (SERAPIS) in the Neapolitan volcanic bay area. Thirty years after the 2-D, near-vertical seismic reflection survey of the Neapolitan bay area, made by Osservatorio Geofisico Sperimentale di Trieste (OGS) and whose results are described in the pioneering work of Finetti and Morelli [1974], the SERAPIS exploration project provides an unique 3-D, global offset (simultaneous near-vertical and wide-angle data acquisition) data set allowing the investigation of crustal structure in the area with a detail not achievable using previous available data. As detailed in JZ2004, the dense spatial coverage provided by more then 6000 air gun sources and 150 threecomponent seismic stations (deployed both on land and at the sea bottom) allowed reconstruction of the highresolution, three-dimensional image of the shallow crustal structure beneath Campi Flegrei caldera and Bay of Naples down to 6-7 km depth. The comment by Rapolla [2005] (hereinafter referred to as RAP2005) does not bring the results of JZ2004 into question but mainly focuses on the claim that some of the 3-D seismic tomography results could be already known from the existent literature and not referred in JZ2004. In particular, RAP2005 debates two major points: 1. JZ2004 shows the existence of the Pozzuoli-Banco di Fuori fault (PBF) fault (a 30 km long, SE-NW normal fault cutting the limestone top at 4-5 km depth), which RAP2005 associates with a NE-SW trending, shallow fault/ fracture system previously reported by Bruno et al. [2003] and Bruno [2004], called the Magnaghi-Sebeto (MS) line. 2. JZ2004 does not give proper credit to a number of papers (cited in RAP2004) dealing with the geochemical/ geological/geophysical investigation of the Campi Flegrei caldera.

Full Article 

{mosimage}

pdf download