Boundaries of magnetic anomaly sources in the Tyrrhenian region

Abstract

Analysis of the analytic signal of the aeromagnetic field in the Tyrrhenian region allowed the systematic location of the boundaries of magnetic shallow sources. This method was chosen because of its independence from the magnetization and inducing field direction, and the results were similar to those of the boundary analysis of the horizontal gradient of the pseudogravity transformed field. The analytic signal was computed by a stable algorithm based on the second order horizontal derivatives of the field and Laplace equation. The complexity of the investigated area is well reflected in the aeromagnetic field and an objective and systematic study, such as boundary analysis, provided a rather complete description of the main regional structures. Significant trends indicated the existence of structures, whose nature was still unknown or uncertain. These included structures located between the Vavilov and De Marchi seamounts, NW of Stromboli Island, south of Ponza Island, a buried horst immediately south of the Cilento coastline, a body located northwest of the Cassinis seamount and other small magnetized structures located south of the Tuscanian archipelago. In many cases, a better definition of several structures previously recognized was obtained as in the case of some tectonic alignments (e.g., the Elba ridge, the Romolo and Selli lines, etc.), a large number of igneous seamounts (e.g., Magnaghi, Marsili, Vavilov, Anchise, Quirra, Enarete, Eolo and Sisifo seamounts) and several crystalline outcrops (e.g., Ichnusa, Vercelli, M. della Rondine, Tiberino, Cassinis, Traiano, Glauco and Augusto seamounts).