The disastrous 1999 earthquakes in Turkey have spurred the international community to study the geometry and behavior of the North Anatolian Fault (NAF) beneath the Marmara Sea. While the area is considered mature for a large earthquake, the detailed fault geometry below the Marmara Sea is uncertain, and this prevents a realistic assessment of seismic hazards in the highly‐populated region close to Istanbul. Two geological/geophysical surveys were recently conducted in the Marmara Sea: the first in November 2000 with the R/V Odin Finder, and the second in June 2001 with the R/V CNR‐Urania. Both were sponsored and organized by the Institute of Marine Geology of the Italian National Research Council (CNR), in cooperation with the Turkish Council for Scientific and Technical Research (TUBITAK) and the Lamont‐Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University Multi‐beam bathymetry, multi‐channel seismic reflection profiling, magnetometry high‐resolution CHIRP sub‐bottom profiling, and bottom imaging were carried out with a remotely operated vehicle (ROV). Over 60 gravity and piston cores were collected.

On November 1, 1755, the city of Lisbon was completely devastated by the combined effect of a tremendous earthquake, tsunami waves, and fire. The 1755 Lisbon earthquake was the most destructive cataclysm recorded in western Europe since the Roman Republic, with an estimated earthquake magnitude Mw ∼8.5 [Martins and Mendes Victor, 1990] and estimated tsunami magnitude of Mt= Mw= 8.5. The earthquake was felt as far away as Great Britain and Finland. The tsunami hit many coastal cities along southwest Iberia and North Africa, causing heavy destruction in Tanger and Casablanca.

The VST02 cruise carried out in the summer of 2002 focused on sedimentologic and volcanologic research over selected areas of the deep portion of the Tyrrhenian Sea. Chirp lines and seafloor samples were collected from the Calabrian slope surrounding Stromboli Island, in the Marsili deep-sea fan, in the Vavilov Basin and in the Vavilov seamount. Submarine volcanic activity, both explosive and effusive, is occurring in the Stromboli edifice. Explosive submarine volcanism also affects the shallowest areas of the Vavilov seamount. Submarine carbonate lithification has been observed on the sediment-starved flanks of the Vavilov seamount. Acoustic transparent layers make up the recentmost infill of the Gortani Basin, the easternmost portion of the Vavilov Basin. Channels comprised of a variety of architectural elements and depositional lobes are the main elements of the Marsili deep-sea fan where, apparently, sedimentation occurs mainly through debris flow processes.

The paper examines the influence of the overvoltages due to fault initiation and clearing on the choice of the air clearances of UHV lines. The study is carried out with particular reference to a network structure representative of the first stage of development of a UHV grid-type system,