Holocene Sedimentary and Gravitative Processes in Highstand Prodelta Deposits on the Cuma Outer Shelf (Easter Tyrrenian Sea): an Integrated Approach.

High resolution seismic profiles interpretation and sedimentological and petrophysical correlation of piston cores evidence a recent, complex submarine instability process offshore Cuma, Eastern Tyrrhenian Sea. In the investigated area a channel, showing asymmetrical sides, has been identified corresponding to a palaeo-channel, which alternated phases of erosion and deposition and probably formed during the last sea level oscillation as lateral contribution of the Cuma canyon. Seismic interpretation allowed establishing a stratigraphic marker, linked to the post-Glacial-Holocene transgressive surface, clearly individuated at the top of a Late Pleistocene prograding wedge. The HST Holocene unit crops out at the sea bottom and is in part characterized by downward displacement related to creep-type process. This latter, constituted in the upper part by mud deposits, is interpreted as controlled by high sediment supply, high water contents and shallow gas pockets.