Extreme submarine geo-hazards, such as strong earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions and submarine landslides have affected repeatedly the circum Mediterranean highly populated coastal regions. A record of these past events can be provided by large-volume turbidites or megaturbidites1, detected in the marine sedimentary record. Megaturbidites can be triggered by ground acceleration from seismic events2, impact on the seafloor of tsunami waves3, volcanic activity4, sea-level changes5, gas hydrate phase changes6 or a combination of any of these processes.
Megaturbidites have been identified in the Ionian basin, a deep and thickly sedimented relict of the Tethis Ocean7. It contains sedimentary sequences spanning from Jurassic to the present, that includes, in its upper part, about 2 km of Messinian (Late Miocene) evaporites overlain by Plio-Quaternary sediments8. The basin is located between the tectonically active Calabria and Hellenic subduction zones (to the North and to the East respectively), the Malta escarpment to the West and the African plate passive margin to the South (Fig. 1).
