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[1] Teleseismic traveltime data, recorded by temporary ocean bottom seismographs deployed in Tyrrhenian Sea around the Aeolian Islands (Tyrrhenian Deep-sea Experiment (TYDE)), have been used for the first time in Italy to refine the 3-D model for the deep P wave velocity structure of the southern Tyrrhenian subduction zone. The arrival times of 35 teleseisms have been combined with those recorded by the Italian National Network. In order to obtain a more complete azimuthal coverage of teleseismic rays, 80 events recorded by land stations from 1990 to 2002 have been included in the data set. In total, 2904 P and 314 PKPdf phases, 1300 recorded by ocean bottom instruments, have been collected. The upper mantle structure is reconstructed down to 500 km by a nonlinear inversion of the relative residuals computed with respect to the reference 1-D velocity model ak135. The obtained tomographic model has a higher resolution than those previously published thanks to the recordings of TYDE seafloor stations. Tomographic results confirm the presence of the Tyrrhenian slab imaged as a high-velocity body extending from the uppermost mantle down to the bottom velocity model with dip 70-75°NW. The model better defines the geometry of the seismogenic part of the slab. Its lateral extension is about 200 km in the depth interval 150-300 km, where most of the deep seismicity is concentrated. At uppermost mantle depths the fast structure has smaller lateral dimensions (about 100 km). The inversion also points out a wide well-resolved low-velocity zone completely surrounding the steeply dipping fast structure from the lower crust down to about 300 km. This feature suggests the presence of a threedimensional circulation of asthenospheric flow around the Ionian slab caused by retreat and roll-back of the slab. Our results are in agreement with recent laboratory experiments, mantle anisotropy studies, geochemical and isotopic analyses, and modeling based on residual topography.Citation: Montuori, C., G. B. Cimini, and P. Favali (2007), Teleseismic tomography of the southern Tyrrhenian subduction zone: New results from seafloor and land recordings,

In this study, we present a three‐dimensional P wave upper‐mantle tomography model of the southwest Iberian margin and Alboran Sea based on teleseismic arrival times recorded by Iberian and Moroccan land stations and by a seafloor network deployed for 1 year in the Gulf of Cadiz area during the European Commission Integrated observations from NEAR shore sourcES of Tsunamis: towards an early warning system (EC NEAREST) project. The three‐dimensional model was computed down to 600 km depth. The tomographic images exhibit significant velocity contrasts, as large as 3%, confirming the complex evolution of this plate boundary region. Prominent high‐velocity anomalies are found beneath Betics‐Alboran Sea, off‐shore southwest Portugal, and north Portugal, at sublithospheric depths. The transition zones between high‐ and low‐velocity anomalies in southwest and south Iberia are associated to the contact of oceanic and continental lithosphere. The fast structure below the Alboran Sea‐Granada area depicts an L‐shaped body steeply dipping from the uppermost mantle to the transition zone where it becomes less curved. This anomaly is consistent with the results of previous tomographic investigations and recent geophysical data such as stress distribution, GPS measurements of plate motion, and anisotropy patterns. In the Atlantic domain, under the Horseshoe Abyssal Plain, the main feature is a high‐velocity zone found at uppermost mantle depths. This feature appears laterally separated from the positive anomaly recovered in the Alboran domain by the interposition of low‐velocity zones which characterize the lithosphere beneath the southwest Iberian peninsula margin, suggesting that there is no continuity between the high‐velocity anomalies of the two domains west and east of the Gibraltar Strait.

The spatial pattern of the b value of the frequency‐magnitude relation has been analyzed using gridding techniques beneath Mount Etna, Italy. A regional data set of 2900 events with Md (duration magnitude) ≥1.5 up to 15 km depth occurring between August 1999 and December 2005 has been used. Two regions with an abnormally high b value have been found, one centered beneath the southern part of the Valle del Bove, above the 6 km below sea level (bsl) deep basement, and the other beneath the summit region 2 km bsl east of the Central Craters. We can infer that these high b value anomalies are regions of increased crack density, and/or high pore pressure, related to the presence of nearby magma storage. This interpretation is supported by all the available geophysical evidence, such as tomographic studies and geodetic deformation measurements. The data set has also been subdivided into five periods, corresponding to different phases of volcanic activity: 2001 preeruption, 2001 eruptive, 2002–2003 preeruption, 2002–2003 eruptive, and 2002–2003 posteruption. The minimum magnitude of completeness, Mc, and the b value were computed for each period. A volume of anomalously high b values can be observed in each of these periods (except for the 2002–2003 preeruption interval). This approach has allowed the detection of the transient presence of magmatic intrusions during the various periods evaluated.

The NEutrinoMediterranean Observatory-Submarine Network 1 (NEMO-SN1) seafloor observatory is located in the central Mediterranean Sea, Western Ionian Sea, off Eastern Sicily (Southern Italy) at 2100-m water depth, 25 km from the harbor of the city of Catania. It is a prototype of a cabled deep-sea multiparameter observatory and the first one operating with real-time data transmission in Europe since 2005. NEMO-SN1 is also the first-established node of the European Multidisciplinary Seafloor Observatory (EMSO), one of the incoming European large-scale research infrastructures included in the Roadmap of the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) since 2006. EMSO will specifically address long-term monitoring of environmental processes related to marine ecosystems, climate change, and geohazards. NEMO-SN1 has been deployed and developed over the last decade thanks to Italian funding and to the European Commission (EC) project European Seas Observatory NETwork-Network of Excellence (ESONET-NoE, 2007-2011) that funded the Listening to the Deep Ocean-Demonstration Mission (LIDO-DM) and a technological interoperability test (http://www.esonet-emso.org). NEMO-SN1 is performing geophysical and environmental long-term monitoring by acquiring seismological, geomagnetic, gravimetric, accelerometric, physico-oceanographic, hydroacoustic, and bioacoustic measurements. Scientific objectives include studying seismic signals, tsunami generation and warnings, its hydroacoustic precursors, and ambient noise characterization in terms of marine mammal sounds, environmental and anthropogenic sources. NEMO-SN1 is also an important test site for the construction of the Kilometre-Cube Underwater Neutrino Telescope (KM3NeT), another large-scale research infrastructure included in the ESFRI Roadmap based on a large volume neutrino telescope. The description of the observatory and its most recent implementations is presented. On June 9, 2012, NEMO-SN1 was successfully deployed and is working in real time