“…The northern side of the Sicily Channel is characterized by a very uneven bathymetry, being a composite array of shallow continental shelves (the Siculo-Maltese Shelf and the Adventure, and Malta plateau), deep depressions, such the faultcontrolled Pantelleria, Linosa, and Malta grabens and a foredeep depocenter (the Gela Basin), and topographic highs, such us several small-to middle-scale banks of sedimentary origin (e.g., the Nerita, Terribile, Nameless, and Madrepore banks) (Colantoni, 1975;Calanchi et al, 1989;Cavallaro et al, 2017; Figure 1). Within the Sicily Channel, a widespread and scattered volcanism is known to have occurred during Upper Miocene to Pleistocene times, building up the alkaline volcanic islands of Linosa and Pantelleria and several other volcanic centers (e.g., Anfitrite, Tetide Galatea, Cimotoe banks) (Beccaluva et al, 1981;Calanchi et al, 1989;Rotolo et al, 2006;Civile et al, 2008Civile et al, , 2015Lodolo et al, 2012Lodolo et al, , 2019aPensa et al, 2019; Figure 1). Volcanism occurred up to historical times, with the 1831 submarine eruptions of Ferdinandea Island (Gemmellaro, 1831;Marzolla, 1831;Colantoni et al, 1975;Dean, 1980) and the 1891 eruption off NW Pantelleria Island (Washington, 1909; FIGURE 1 | Shaded-relief bathymetric map of the northern portion of the Sicily Channel (from GEBCO-General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans-Digital Atlas).…”