Introduction to marine geophysics applied to the study of marine and coastal environments for the following purposes:
- geological map
- marine geohazard (landslides, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis)
- changes in sea level, evolution of continental margins and effects on coastal environments
- georesources (hydrocarbons, mining, geothermal sources, hydrated gases)- protection and monitoring of the marine environment (oceanic posidonia meadows, protected marine areas)
- underwater geoarchaeological heritage- military applications
- planning and monitoring of antropic structures (ports, canals, cliffs, pipeline laying, wind turbines).
The main topics will be:
- The continental shelf and coastal areas: morphobatimetry and sedimentation. Erosive and depositional processes. Main sedimentological and morphological characteristics of the seabed visible through geophysical investigation methods.
-The continental slope and the ocean basin: morphobatimetry and sedimentation. Depositional erosive processes. Main sedimentological and morphological characteristics of the seabed visible through geophysical investigation methods.
Sediment sampling methods. Core drilling, dredging and hitting. Criteria for the their choice. Physical analysis methods of sediments and their usefulness. Stratigraphy and sedimentological analysis. Summary on the non-invasive coring investigation methods.
Eustatism and seismic stratigraphy. Eustatic curve and sea-level oscillations. Eustatic cycles. Transgressive and regressive sequences. Discontinuity surfaces and gaps. Sequence stratigraphy and chronostratigraphy. Depositional sequences and their units. Sequence-stratigraphy analysis of sismic profiles.
Marine cartography. Examples of bathymetric maps, geological, geomorphological maps. Geology of the Italian seas, the central Mediterranean: Adriatic Sea and Tyrrhenian Sea.
Underwater geoarchaeology. Examples of mapping and characterization of archaeological and geo-environmental targets individuated by marine geophysical surveys integrated using robotic instrumentation.
ITALIAN VERSION
