Etna\'s submarine flank morphology: new insight from autonomous underwater vehicle microbathymetry
Sylvain Mayolle1 , Morelia Urlaub1, Thor H. Hansteen1, Felix Gross2, Alessandro Bonforte3
Affiliations: 1GEOMAR Helmholtz-Centre for Ocean Research, Kiel, Germany; 2Institute of Geosciences, Kiel University, Kiel, Germany; 3Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Sezione di Catania-Osservatorio Eteno, Catania, Italy
Presentation type: Poster
Presentation time: Thursday 16:30 - 18:30, Room Poster Hall
Poster Board Number: 163
Programme No: 2.2.27
Abstract
Mount Etna, one of Earth's most active volcanoes, reaches an elevation of 3 400 meters, with its eastern flank extending seaward and descending to approximately -1 500 meters below sea level, creating a total vertical relief of nearly 5 000 meters. While it is now well established that Etna's offshore flank is highly mobile, the seafloor morphology and its associated structures remain poorly understood. For example, the northern bounds of the mobile sector remain unknown. In this study, we present new high-resolution multibeam echo sounder (MBES) data collected by the AUV ABYSS during the M198 research cruise aboard RV METEOR in February 2024. The data reveals previously unidentified structures and lineaments across 27 km² in the central part of the submarine flank. Our analysis highlights various features including erosional surfaces, steep slopes, cliffs, canyons and landslide scars. We document extremely rough morphology in and near a canyon draining Valle di Archirafi east of the Timpe plateau, also exhibiting several potential fault structures that may represent bounding faults to the mobile sector. The data shows positive relief along the steep walls of the so-called amphitheatre structure, which may indicate the presence of lava flows, suggesting parts of the structure to be of volcanic origin. This provides new aspects on the extent and evolution of Mt. Etna activity.