The Bathymetry of the Adriatic Sea

F. Foglini1, E. Campiani1, A. Cattaneo3, A. Correggiari1, A. Remia1, D.Ridente2, F. Trincardi11, Institute of Marine Sciences, CNR, Bologna, Italy2, Institute of Environmental Geology and Geoengineering, CNR, Roma, Italy3, French Research Institute for Exploration of the Sea, Brest, Francefederica.foglini@bo.ismar.cnr.it

Abstract

The Istituto di Scienze Marine (ISMAR-CNR) conducted several research projectsin the Italian side of the Adriatic Sea over more than 15 years collecting bathymet-ric, geophysical, and sediment core data and performing multidisciplinary studiesto reconstruct paleoenvironmental changes and sediment dynamics during the lasteustatic cycle. A key issue in any marine dataset is the construction of a detailedbathymetry. The Adriatic Sea bathymetry is unique because, due to the shallow wa-ter depth of large areas of the basin, standard hydrographic surveys to obtain a com-prehensive Multi Beam bathymetry are not applicable. The Adriatic Sea bathymetricmap is necessarily based on heterogeneous data with uneven spatial distribution andincludes both Single Beam echo-soundings and Multi Beam surveys in key studyareas. The main objectives of this work are to illustrate the methodology appliedto compile a new bathymetric map of the Adriatic Sea integrating Single Beam andMulti Beam data, to describe the morphological units reflecting the main geologicalfeatures, and to discuss the limits of reliability of the data when a bathymetric mapis to used by oceanographic modellers

1 Introduction

The bathymetry plays a key role not onlyin geological, geomorphological and geo-physical studies, but also in the fields ofphysical oceanography and habitat map-ping in submarine areas. In particular, thebathymetry represents a crucial constrainfor oceanographic models in basin-scalecirculation and in bottom-boundary-layerstudies, and for the simulation of tsunamipropagation across continental margins andin shallow areas. The seafloor morphol-ogy has been investigated for more than acentury, but only with the technologies de-veloped during the last decades it revealed

world-wide scale physiographic featuressuch as mid-ocean ridges, transform faultsand deep-sea trenches [2]. Heezen et al. [2]represented the morphology of the seafloorin a semi-pictorial way based on continu-ous echosoundings profiles together withan intelligent interpretation of the seafloorfeatures to fill-in areas where no suchsoundings existed. Their purpose was to il-lustrate the morphology rather than to offera precise measure of the water depth at anygiven point.In 1922, De Marchi provided the first rep-resentation of the Adriatic Sea bathymetrygiving, in particular, a conceptual imageof the network of fluvial valleys incising

Marine Geology

Multi Beam

systems

Water depth range

surveyed

Frequency

kHz

Beam

width

N°

of Beams

Total area

surveyed

Reson Seabat 8160 100-1200m 50 1.5°X1.5° 126

Kongsberg EM300 100-1000m 30 1°x 2° 135

Kongsberg EM710 100-900m 70-100 1°X1° 258

Konsberg EM3000 30-100 300 1.5° x 1.5° 127

7700 km2

Konsberg EM3002D 30-100 m 300 1.5° x 1.5° 508

Reson Seabat 8125 30-100 455 0.5°x1° 240 1600 km2

Tab. 1 - Technical characteristics of the Multi Beam echo sounders used to survey the South West Adriatic

Margin and some selected areas of the Adriatic continental shelf.

Fig. 1 - General morphology of the Adriatic Sea from Giorgetti and Masetti, 1969 (Mercator Projection -

Scale 1:750.000). Compiled from O.G.S Trieste from 1966-67 cruises with the CNR oceanographic vessel

“Bannok” and integrated with I.I.M published data.

Figure 1: General morphology of the Adriatic Sea from Giorgetti and Masetti [1] (Mer-cator Projection - Scale 1:750.000). Compiled from O.G.S Trieste from 1966-67 cruiseswith the CNR oceanographic vessel ”Bannok” and integrated with I.I.M published data.

the alluvial plain during the Last GlacialMaximum and drowned during the fol-lowing sea level rise. Later, Giorgettiand Mosetti [1], constructed a map of thegeneral morphology of the Adriatic basinbased on a great number of echosounderrecords taken during several geophysicalcruises that covered nearly the entire Adri-atic Sea. The morphological map of Gior-getti and Mosetti [1] was drawn with thepurpose of representing a pictorial view ofthe seafloor structures (Figure 1). Over thelast 15 years, the Istituto di Scienze Ma-rine (ISMAR-CNR) conducted several re-search projects in the Italian side of theAdriatic Sea collecting bathymetric data inorder to obtain a high resolution map of

the seafloor features [3]. This map rep-resented a key step for multidisciplinarystudies aimed to reconstruct paleoenvi-ronmental changes and sediment dynam-ics during the last glacial-interglacial cy-cle. The bathymetric map is necessar-ily based on heterogeneous data with un-even spatial distribution and includes bothSingle Beam echo-soundings and variable-frequency Multi Beam surveys in key studyareas such as the South West Adriatic Mar-gin and part of the continental shelf on theItalian side. The aim of this paper is topresent the new bathymetric map of theAdriatic Sea compiled by CNR-ISMAR forthe Italian side of the Adriatic Sea and to il-lustrate the main geological features of the

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Western Adriatic Basin. In this framework,we will examine the methodological ap-proaches applied to process and to integratesingle beam and multi beam echosound-ings and we will discuss the limits of re-liability of the data when the bathymetricmap is to used by oceanographic modellersinterested either in basin-scale circulationor in bottom-boundary-layer studies.

2 Methodology

2.1 Single Beam bathymetry -Data acquisition and pro-cessing

Single Beam sonar data were collected us-ing an hull mounted Echo sounder (At-las Deso25 operating at frequencies of12, 100, 33 and 210 kHz) along about17.830 km of seismic profiles during 22cruises performed by ISMAR from 1991to 2005 on board R/V Urania in the Ital-ian side of the Adriatic Sea (Figure 2). Theecho sounding profiles are unevenly dis-tributed and the seafloor coverage is withinthe range of one sounding every 20-40m, along track. The Echo sounder At-las Deso25 was merged with the naviga-tion system NAV PRO from Communica-tion Technology and with DGPS position-ing system with metrical accuracy. Thesound speed was set at 1500 m·s−1. In ar-eas where the sound speed profiles werehighly variable, as for example in frontof the Po River Delta, local values ob-tained from CTD (Conductivity, Temper-ature, and Depth) measurements were ap-plied. The navigation and water depth datawere stored every 2 seconds in a Databaseand filtered to correct positioning errorsand to delete null values using filteringprocedures implemented by ISMAR (e.g.

Kalman filter). Afterwards, the bathymet-ric data were migrated in a GIS (Geo-graphic Information System) Database andplotted as water depth points in maps atdifferent scale depending on the soundingsdensity, dividing the Adriatic in subset ar-eas from north to south. The bathymetriccontours were manually drawn and digi-tised as vector data in a GIS, with variablespace according to water depth range (con-tour every 1 m from 5 to 150 m and every20 m from 150 m to 1200 m). The con-tours were used to generate a uniform grid(200 m) applying computing technology(KRIGING algorithm with variable resolu-tion depending on the soundings density)in order to give a more flexible product forvisualisation and manipulation of data.

2.2 Multi Beam bathymetry -Data acquisition and pro-cessing

The Multi Beam data were collected witha variety of Multi Beam Echo. with vari-able frequency, beam number and beam an-gles, according to the scientific objectivesor to the instruments available. The MultiBeam acquisition strategy comprised a fullcoverage survey of the entire South Adri-atic Continental slope on the Italian side(from 200 to 1200 m) and the investigationof selected areas of the continental shelf(from 10 to 150 m) characterised by com-plex seafloor morphology. Table 1 sum-marizes the Multi Beam Echo. technicalcharacteristics and the water depth rangesurveyed. The Multi Beam data process-ing was carried out using both PANGEAMulti Beam System and CARIS HIPS andSIPS 7.0. The processing methodologyapplied implies the creation of a 2D and3D best-fit interpolated surface using dif-

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Fig. 2 – Single Beam data (grey lines) collected by ISMAR from 1991 to 2005 on board R/V Urania in the

Italian side of the Adriatic Sea. The blue boxes represent the areas surveyed with high frequency Multi Beam

systems on the continental shelf, the red boxes represent the areas surveyed with low frequency Multi Beam

systems on the Adriatic continental slope.

Figure 2: Single Beam data (grey lines) collected by ISMAR from 1991 to 2005 on boardR/V Urania in the Italian side of the Adriatic Sea. The blue boxes represent the areas sur-veyed with high frequency Multi Beam systems on the continental shelf, the red boxesrepresent the areas surveyed with low frequency Multi Beam systems on the Adriaticcontinental slope.

ferent algorithms and grid resolutions. Thefirst processing step is the analysis of thedata errors and the definition of a strat-egy to solve them. The latter includes: 1)the correction of the sensor angles (multibeam patch-test); 2) the sound speed cor-rection applying the ray-tracing techniqueafter data acquisition; 3) the manual clean-ing of the spikes (beam remove) only inthe area where they are visible on the 2Dand 3D surface; 4) the automatic filteringfor a depth window, by beam number or

slope between points. The second process-ing step is the creation of a new surface af-ter the data correction and cleaning using adifferent resolution grid for a given waterdepth range and for geologically relevantseafloor features. The processing method-ology applied is based on an interpreta-tive approach instead of a traditional lineto line cleaning system. The role of thedata processing is to understand the relia-bility of the seafloor features detected onthe grid surface and to identify all kinds of

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Fig.3 - Single Beam bathymetry contour map of the Italian side of the Adriatic (contour lines every 1 m from

5 to 150 m and contour every 20 m from 150 to 1200 m). A) Incised valleys on the north Adriatic shelf,

offshore Ancona, between 75 and 100 m of water depth formed during the subaerial exposure of this area

during the Last Glacial Maximum and the early stages of the post-glacial sea-level rise; B) Sand dunes on the

north Adriatic shelf are located 20 km SE of Venice between 20 and 24 m water depth.

.

Figure 3: Single Beam bathymetry contour map of the Italian side of the Adriatic (con-tour lines every 1 m from 5 to 150 m and contour every 20 m from 150 to 1200 m). A)Incised valleys on the north Adriatic shelf, offshore Ancona, between 75 and 100 m ofwater depth formed during the subaerial exposure of this area during the Last GlacialMaximum and the early stages of the post-glacial sea-level rise; B) Sand dunes on thenorth Adriatic shelf are located 20 km SE of Venice between 20 and 24 m water depth.

noise and their origin. The interpretativeapproach leads to achieve a high resolutionbathymetry focusing the processing effortin revealing the geologically most signifi-cant seafloor features. This method is lesstime consuming in terms of manual datacleaning and implies a change in the per-spective of the entire processing work flow.

2.3 Multi Beam and SingleBeam data integration

The Single Beam and Multi Beam datawere integrated at regional scale using thesoftware PANGEA MB Manager and its“Tuning filter” tool. The “Tuning filters”represent special areas, drawn by the op-erator as polygons with variable shapes,where it is possible to apply a specific res-olution. The software assigns an ID num-ber to each Tuning filter with its associ-ated resolution value. The Single Beam

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Marine Geology

Multi Beam

systems

Water depth range

surveyed

Frequency

kHz

Beam

width

N°

of Beams

Total area

surveyed

Reson Seabat 8160 100-1200m 50 1.5°X1.5° 126

Kongsberg EM300 100-1000m 30 1°x 2° 135

Kongsberg EM710 100-900m 70-100 1°X1° 258

Konsberg EM3000 30-100 300 1.5° x 1.5° 127

7700 km2

Konsberg EM3002D 30-100 m 300 1.5° x 1.5° 508

Reson Seabat 8125 30-100 455 0.5°x1° 240 1600 km2

Tab. 1 - Technical characteristics of the Multi Beam echo sounders used to survey the South West Adriatic

Margin and some selected areas of the Adriatic continental shelf.

Fig. 1 - General morphology of the Adriatic Sea from Giorgetti and Masetti, 1969 (Mercator Projection -

Scale 1:750.000). Compiled from O.G.S Trieste from 1966-67 cruises with the CNR oceanographic vessel

“Bannok” and integrated with I.I.M published data.

Table 1: Technical characteristics of the Multi Beam echo sounders used to survey theSouth West Adriatic Margin and some selected areas of the Adriatic continental shelf.

and the Multi Beam DTM (Digital Ter-rain Model, respectively 200 m and 20 mresolution) were loaded in the software assoundings. According to the sounding den-sity, at a given water depth range, the op-erator drawn Tuning Filters including ar-eas with homogenous characteristics. Foreach areas a different resolution was as-signed in order to emphasize the most rel-evant seafloor features and to maintain thedetails of the Multi Beam DTM. At the bor-der between the Multi Beam surveys andthe Single Beam ones, several Tuning fil-ters were drawn increasing progressivelythe resolution, going from the Single Beamto the Multi Beam data, in order to mini-mize the differences between the two areasand to avoid the creation of morphologi-cal steps. The Tuning filters allowed thecreation of a DTM with variable resolutiondepending on the operator choice, permit-ting to merge Single Beam and Multi Beamdata maintaining the high resolution of thearea surveyed with Multi Beam E.

3 Results and discussion

3.1 Single Beam bathymetry ofthe Western Adriatic Sea

The new contour map of the Western Adri-atic Sea resulting from the acquisition, pro-cessing and interpretation of data collectedby ISMAR over the last 15 years showsin detail the seafloor morphology of theAdriatic from the northern shelf to southernslope (Figure 3). The bathymetry showsthat the Northern Adriatic has a low lon-gitudinal topographic gradient (ca 0.02°),whereas the maximum shelf gradient alongthe central Adriatic is on the order of 0.5°.The central Adriatic is characterised bya narrower shelf and localised bathymet-ric irregularities that are the expression ofstructural highs offshore Punta Penna, theTremiti Islands and the Gargano promon-tory, and reaches a maximum depth of 260m in two remnant slope basins aligned ina SW-NE direction. The Southern Adri-atic, beyond the Pelagosa Sill, reaches thedepth of ca 1200 m and is flanked by asteep slope. In this area, the shelf is gen-erally narrow except in the Gulf of Man-

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Fig. 4 - Slope map of the Late Holocene clinoform on the Adriatic shelf. The offlap break (yellow and red

slope values) occurs in progressively deeper waters from the Po Delta (few meters water depth) to the area

offshore Gargano The geometry of the clinoform varies between Ancona and Ortona where the gradient

gradually increases.

Fig. 5 - Subsurface undulations between 28 m and 93 m water depth the foreset region of the late Holocene

progradational clinoform in the area offshore Ortona (Location in Fig 2 - Area 1). The undulations

(maximum slope of 2°) are associated with mud reliefs that occur further seaward (60 m water depth).

Figure 4: Slope map of the Late Holocene clinoform on the Adriatic shelf. The offlapbreak (yellow and red slope values) occurs in progressively deeper waters from the PoDelta (few meters water depth) to the area offshore Gargano The geometry of the clino-form varies between Ancona and Ortona where the gradient gradually increases.

fredonia, south of the Gargano Promon-tory, where it broadens to about 80 km.The main morphological features detectedon the Single Beam bathymetry reflect thefollowing main geological elements of thearea:

• The Late Holocene mud wedge clino-form extending over 600 km along thecoast of Italy from the modern Po Deltato the area south of the Gargano Promon-tory, with a characteristic subaqueous of-flap break, marking the transition be-tween topset and foreset deposits (Fig-

ure 4). The Late Holocene clinoform onthe Adriatic shelf reaches up to 35 m inthickness with a volume of 180 km3 andrests above the maximum flooding sur-face (mfs), a regional downlap surfacedated ca. 5.5 cal kyr BP [4, 5, 6];

• Several incised valleys on the NorthAdriatic shelf, offshore Ancona, between100 and 75 m of water depth formed dur-ing the subaerial exposure of this areaduring the Last Glacial Maximum and inthe early stages of the post-glacial sealevel rise (Figure 3A). The valleys are

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Fig. 4 - Slope map of the Late Holocene clinoform on the Adriatic shelf. The offlap break (yellow and red

slope values) occurs in progressively deeper waters from the Po Delta (few meters water depth) to the area

offshore Gargano The geometry of the clinoform varies between Ancona and Ortona where the gradient

gradually increases.

Fig. 5 - Subsurface undulations between 28 m and 93 m water depth the foreset region of the late Holocene

progradational clinoform in the area offshore Ortona (Location in Fig 2 - Area 1). The undulations

(maximum slope of 2°) are associated with mud reliefs that occur further seaward (60 m water depth).

Figure 5: Subsurface undulations between 28 m and 93 m water depth the foreset regionof the late Holocene progradational clinoform in the area offshore Ortona (Location inFigure 2 - Area 1). The undulations (maximum slope of 2°) are associated with mudreliefs that occur further seaward (60 m water depth).

up to 20 km long, several hundred me-tres to a kilometre wide and between 4and 15 m deep. The orientation of thevalleys is predominantly north-south andtheir sinuosity is low [7]. The valleys arespatially associated to preserved barrier-lagoon deposits, which originated duringthe Late Pleistocene and Holocene sea-level rise [8, 9];

• Sand dunes on the North Adriatic shelfare located 20 km SE of Venice between20 and 24 m water depth (Figure 3B)[10]. The sand dunes rest on a broadshore-parallel mound bounded landwardby an elongated trough. The dunes areup to 2 km long, characterised by low

sinuosity and extend across the entirewidth of the underlying mound to theedge of the shoreline parallel trough [10].The sand dunes off shore the Venice La-goon are formed from the reworking of adrowned coastal lithosome accompaniedby secondary erosion in the troughs andrecycling of low stand fluvial sand [10].

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Fig. 6 – DTM (20 m grid) of the South West Adriatic Margin showing the extreme geological and morphological complexity of the slope. A) Areas with enhanced bottom-current features in the upper slope. B) The Gondola Slide representing the largest mass failure deposit on the SAM. c) The Bari Canyon System, the main sediment conduit active since the Last Glacial Maximum

Figure 6: DTM (20 m grid) of the South West Adriatic Margin showing the extremegeological and morphological complexity of the slope. A) Areas with enhanced bottom-current features in the upper slope. B) The Gondola Slide representing the largest massfailure deposit on the SAM. C) The Bari Canyon System, the main sediment conduitactive since the Last Glacial Maximum.

3.2 Multi Beam bathymetry ofthe Italian side of the centralAdriatic continental shelfoffshore Ortona

The Multi Beam map the Adriatic Con-tinental shelf offshore Ortona (Figure 5.location in Figure 2) defines the seafloorexpression of subsurface undulations be-tween 30 m and 75 m water depth (typi-cally 300 m wide, 2.5 m high, and severalkm long, parallel to the bathymetric con-tour) affecting the foreset region of the lateHolocene progradational clinoform abovea regional downlap surface (the mfs) inareas where it shows evidence of defor-

mation and fluid escape [5, 11, 12, 13].The undulations are associated with mudreliefs that occur farther seaward in elon-gated swarms perpendicular to the regionalslope and to the crests of the undulations.Cattaneo et al. [11], suggested that theseseafloor undulations evolved in responseto sediment deformation and were succes-sively amplified by differential depositionfrom bottom currents crossing an irregu-lar seafloor. Recently Sultan et al. [14]demonstrated that the basal unit of theHolocene mud wedge immediately abovethe mfs has coarser grain size than the un-derlying and overlying units. The latterrepresents a weak layer where liquefaction

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can occur during earthquake of M1≤4.5,typical of this area.

3.3 Multi Beam bathymetry ofthe South West Adriaticslope

The high resolution Multi Beam map ofthe South West Adriatic Margin (SAM)shows the extreme geological and morpho-logical complexity of the slope and allowsdetailed description of the seafloor fea-tures (Figure 6). The SAM slope is gener-ally characterised by: 1) widespread mass-failure features including slide scars up to10 km wide and extensive slide depositswith runout distances greater than 50 km[15]; 2) a large variety of bottom-currentfeatures [16, 17]; 3) the Bari Canyon Sys-tem (BCS), the main sediment conduit ac-tive since the Last Glacial Maximum inter-val [17]; 4) the Dauno Seamount, the mainstructural feature on the slope, with a clearmorphologic expression. A large variety ofbottom current features (Figure 6A) char-acterises a confined sub-triangular slopearea suggesting the constructive interactionbetween two distinct southerly bottom wa-ter masses: the contour-parallel LevantineIntermediate Water and the North AdriaticDense Water, cascading seasonally acrossthe slope. By analyzing the large varietyof bottom-current features, it was possibleto identify areas in the upper slope stronglyswept by bottom currents and characterisedby predominant erosion. Seaward and east-ward of the main current path, the bottomcurrent progressively loses energy, througha field of progressively more continuousand aggradational sediment waves [16, 18].The Gondola slide (Figure 6B) is one ofthe largest mass failure deposits on theSAM. It is 10 km wide on the slope, up to

35 m thick, it has a total runout of about54 km [15] and a volume of the depositof about 30 km3. The evacuation zoneincludes a crescent-shaped headscarp lo-cated at the shelf edge with a maximumheight of 250 m with several sub-parallelsecondary scarps [15]. The morphologicalpattern reflects the interaction between thecomplex relief created by down-slope grav-ity flows and along-slope bottom currents[15, 18]. The Bari Canyon System (Fig-ure 6C) is a peculiar erosional-depositionalfeature characterised by two main, almostparallel, conduits emanating from a broadcrescent-shaped upper slope region [17].This setting is consistent with the flow ofbottom currents along the shelf from theNorth entering the canyon and interactingwith its complex topography, leading topreferential deposition on the up-currentside of pre-existing morphological relief[17]. Today, density-driven bottom cur-rents cascade off shelf and flow both acrossthe open slope and through the BCS, reach-ing velocities greater than 60 cm·s−1 [19].

3.4 Bathymetry and Oceanog-raphers - Multi Beam andSingle beam combined map

In the case of basin scale circulation mod-els, the Single Beam bathymetry of theItalian side of the Adriatic compiled byISMAR can be applied in oceanographicnumerical model as a uniform resolutiongrid. The main limitation in using this gridcomes from the heterogeneity of the bathy-metric data in terms of distribution andquality, and the possible errors generatedduring the interpolation procedures appliedto derive a grid with homogeneous resolu-tion. The Multi Beam bathymetry is moresuitable for bottom boundary layer appli-

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cations and for tsunami-propagation sim-ulation models in specific areas. The re-liability of Multi Beam data is higher be-cause the Multi Beam Sys. guarantee a fullcoverage of the seafloor ensuring an ho-mogeneous data quality. The processingof this kind of data leads to the reductionof instrumental noises and to the genera-tion of a high resolution DTM where theuncertainty, given by the interpolation pro-cedures, is extremely reduced. The inte-gration of Single Beam with Multi Beambathymetry, using a variable resolutiongrid, allows the generation of a completebathymetric map functional at differentscales. The resulting combined bathymetryis useful for the oceanographers in detect-ing areas of maximum strength of bottom-hugging currents and defining the regionalmorphological trends; for example in areasof flow restriction caused by the presenceof narrow passageways or shallow shoals.

4 ConclusionsDue to its large extent (200 x 800 km) andits physiographic setting with a wide shelfarea in the North and a slope basin in theSouth, the Adriatic bathymetric map is theresult of a merger of dataset from numer-ous oceanographic surveys performed dur-ing the last decades with variable tools. Inparticular, large areas at shallow depth havebeen mapped with Single Beam tools andinterpolated, because an extensive MultiBeam mapping would have been too timeconsuming in such conditions. The Sin-gle Beam contour map of the Italian sideof the Adriatic Sea compiled by ISMAR-CNR shows, at basin scale, the follow-ing main geological features: 1) the coast-parallel extent of the late Holocene mud

wedge; 2) the occurrence of incised valleyson the north Adriatic shelf; 3) the distribu-tion of sand ridges and sand dunes of vari-able size on the north Adriatic shelf. TheMulti Beam maps of the South AdriaticContinental slope on the Italian side (from200 to 1200 m water depth) and of some se-lected areas of the continental shelf (from10 to 150 m) show: 1) the complexityand variability of the progradational clino-forms of the late Holocene prodelta wedge;2) widespread mass-failure features on theslope; 3) a large variety of bottom-currentfeatures; 4) the Bari Canyon System ac-tive during the Last Glacial Maximum, butstill impinged by shelf density currents; 5)the Dauno Seamount, the main structuralfeature on the slope, with a clear morpho-logic expression. The Multi Beam dataprocessing was based on an interpretativeapproach instead of a traditional line to linecleaning system. This approach allows toachieve a high resolution bathymetry fo-cusing the processing effort in revealingthe geologically most significant seafloorfeatures. The integration of Single Beamwith Multi Beam bathymetry using a vari-able resolution DTM (Tuning filter tool) al-lows the generation of a complete bathy-metric map useful at different scales. Theresulting combined bathymetry is usefulnot only for marine geologists, but alsofor oceanographers in detecting areas ofmaximum strength of bottom-hugging cur-rents and defining regional morphologi-cal trends. In perspective, the methodol-ogy illustrated here could be furthered withthe acquisition of the bathymetry on theEast side of the Adriatic Sea, through in-ternational scientific projects in collabora-tion with eastern Adriatic countries such asCroatia, Slovenia, Montenegro and Alba-nia.

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