17. Earthquake and tsunami hazards of active faults at the Southwest Iberian Margin: deep structure, high-resolution imaging and paleoseismic signature - SWIM 2005 CRUISE REPORT

SWIM is a research carried out on behalf by the European Science Foundation (www.esf.org) for a length of three years, starting on July 2003 and it is designed to study of the geological processes that are affecting the SW Iberian Continental Margin and the nearby oceanic crust. This research sees the participation of Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, French and Moroccan Scientific Institutions: Istituto Scienze del Mare - Sezione di Bologna (ISMAR – CNR); Centre Mediterrani d’Investigacions Marines i Ambientals (CMIMA-UTM-CSIC); Centro de Geofísica da Universidade de Lisboa (CGUL); Université de Bretagne Occidentale (UBO); Southampton Oceanography Centre (SOC); Université Chouaïb Doukkali (UCD). One of the main goals of the project is the study of the active processes occurring at continental margins as tectonic deformation, mass sediment flux, and fluid circulation, which determine a high concentration of natural hazards linked to seismicity, tsunami generation, and large submarine mass wasting. The mitigation of these hazards requires an in-depth knowledge of the dynamics along margins and surrounding basins, and requires multidisciplinary and high-resolution marine geophysics. In particular it is planned to complete the swath-bathymetry survey of the area encompassing the Continental Margin of South-West Iberia, the Gorringe Bank, the Tagus Plain and the northern portion of the Seine Plain (Fig5). Within the frame of SWIM, during summer 2004, two large areas SW of Cape San Vincente have been already surveyed with a Simrad 120s multibeam: campaign Matespro 2004 (Resp. L.Matias) and campaign Delila 2004 (Resp. M.A. Gutscher). The compilation of these surveys, plus the data collected previously, is shown in fig.5. The survey carried now by R/V OGS Explora will contribute to complete the swath-bathymetry coverage of the area.