Please note that this is an author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication following peer review. The definitive publisher-authenticated version is available on the publisher Web site Highlights ► Societies increasingly depend on timely information on ecosystems and natural hazards. ► Data is needed to improve climate-related uncertainty and geo-hazard early warning. ► Observatory networks coordinate and integrate the collection of standardised data. ► Ocean observatories provide opportunity for ocean science to evolve.

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In recent years, an increasing number of surveys have definitively confirmed the seasonal presence of fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus) in highly productive regions of the Mediterranean Sea. Despite this, very little is yet known about the routes that the species seasonally follows within the Mediterranean basin and, particularly, in the Ionian area. The present study assesses for the first time fin whale acoustic presence offshore Eastern Sicily (Ionian Sea), throughout the processing of about 10 months of continuous acoustic monitoring. The recording of fin whale vocalizations was made possible by the cabled deep-sea multidisciplinary observatory, “NEMO-SN1”, deployed 25 km off the Catania harbor at a depth of about 2,100 meters. NEMO-SN1 is an operational node of the European Multidisciplinary Seafloor and water-column Observatory (EMSO) Research Infrastructure. The observatory was equipped with a low-frequency hydrophone (bandwidth: 0.05 Hz–1 kHz, sampling rate: 2 kHz) which continuously acquired data from July 2012 to May 2013. About 7,200 hours of acoustic data were analyzed by means of spectrogram display. Calls with the typical structure and patterns associated to the Mediterranean fin whale population were identified and monitored in the area for the first time. Furthermore, a background noise analysis within the fin whale communication frequency band (17.9–22.5 Hz) was conducted to investigate possible detection-masking effects. The study confirms the hypothesis that fin whales are present in the Ionian Sea throughout all seasons, with peaks in call detection rate during spring and summer months. The analysis also demonstrates that calls were more frequently detected in low background noise conditions. Further analysis will be performed to understand whether observed levels of noise limit the acoustic detection of the fin whales vocalizations, or whether the animals vocalize less in the presence of high background noise.

S U M M A R YSeismicity in Eastern Sicily as recorded by the Submarine Network-1 seafloor observatory (SN-1) in the period from 2002 October to 2003 May is examined with the aim of identifying the as yet poorly known seismogenic zones placed in the Ionian basin, where some of the strongest earthquakes have occurred. A comparison between the seismic recordings of land networks and the seafloor station has allowed us to focus on low-magnitude seismicity only recorded by SN-1. We have analysed 239 high-quality events from among a total of 485 seismic signals not included in the land-based network bulletins. The waveform features and the possible source zones for those events are investigated by means of polarization and particle motion techniques. Most of the 239 events (213) are characterized by high values of rectilinearity typical of P-and S-arrival particle motions, while the remaining 26 events have different polarization features, with an emergent first phase and prevalently planar polarization. We have interpreted the latter signals as being associated to submarine landslides. From particle motion analysis, we have determined the azimuthal distribution of the events and the incidence angles of P waves in respect to the Observatory with the aim of determining their distribution in relation to the active but scarcely known structural setting of the off-shore area. Moreover, the integrated locations of some earthquakes occurring in the study area and recorded by SN-1 and land stations was performed to determine the apparent P-wave velocity necessary to calculate source-station distances. As an additional result of the integration, we have obtained more accurate locations of earthquakes occurring in the coastal and off-shore areas of Eastern Sicily, associated with reduced horizontal and vertical errors and significantly lower values of azimuthal gaps. Lastly, a location distribution of the 213 analysed events was obtained by setting two conditions: (1) a maximum epicentral distance to a fixed depth coinciding with the depth of the seafloor station and (2) a minimum epicentral distance associated to the maximum depth of events. Accordingly, two patterns of seismicity were determined for the maximum and the minimum expected spread of the hypocentres. The main features of both patterns are a diffuse seismicity in the Western Ionian basin with a major epicentre density SE of SN-1 and a depth of most of the events within 60 km. Local magnitude determination was also performed, taking into account an attenuation law proposed for Southeastern Sicily. Despite the uncertainties in the location distribution using single-station recordings, the results show diffuse seismicity all around SN-1 and, in particular, in the off-shore area.

We present an assessment of vertical seafloor deformation in the shallow marine sector of the Campi Flegrei caldera (southern Italy) obtained from GPS and bottom pressure recorder (BPR) data, acquired over the period April 2016 to July 2017 in the Gulf of Pozzuoli by a new marine infrastructure, MEDUSA. This infrastructure consists of four fixed buoys with GPS receivers; each buoy is connected by cable to a seafloor multisensor module hosting a BPR. The measured maximum vertical uplift of the seafloor is about 4.2 ± 0.4 cm. The MEDUSA data were then compared to the expected vertical displacement in the marine sector according to a Mogi model point source computed using only GPS land measurements. The results show that a single point source model of deformation is able to explain both the GPS land and seafloor data. Moreover, we demonstrate that a network of permanent GPS buoys represents a powerful tool to measure the seafloor vertical deformation field in shallow water. The performance of this system is comparable to on‐land high‐precision GPS networks, marking a significant achievement and advance in seafloor geodesy and extending volcano monitoring capabilities to shallow offshore areas (up to 100 m depth). The GPS measurements of MEDUSA have also been used to confirm that the BPR data provide an independent measure of the seafloor vertical uplift in shallow water.