Tyrrhenian Sea

The Tyrrhenian Sea (Italian: Mar Tirreno) is the part of the Mediterranean Sea that extends west of the Italian peninsula between the islands of Corsica, Sardinia and Sicily and the mainland coasts of Tuscany, Lazio, Campania and Calabria. It is linked to the Ionian Sea by the Strait of Messina and separated from the Ligurian Sea by the island of Elba. Its maximum depth is 3731 meters. It is close to the fault that divides Africa from Europe, which is why mountain ranges and volcanoes abound.

It takes its name from the ancient Tyrrhenian people, better known as Etruscan; Herodotus recounts that, from western Anatolia, the Lydian people emigrated looking for a new homeland guided by the Tyrrhenian prince, and that upon reaching the coasts of the Italian peninsula, in gratitude to their prince, they took the name of Tyrrhenians.

Delimitation of the IHO

The highest international authority on sea delimitation, the International Hydrographic Organization, considers the Tyrrhenian Sea as a subdivision of the Mediterranean Sea. In his world reference publication, Limits of oceans and seas ('Limits of oceans and seas', 3rd edition of 1953), he assigns it the identification number 28 (e) and defines its limits. in the following way:

In the Mesina Strait.
A line that unites the north end of Cape Paci (15°42'E) with the eastern end of the island of Sicily, Cape Peloro (38°16' N).
In the southwest.
Teulada Cape Extreme (8°38 'E) in Sardinia.
In the Bonifacio Strait.
A line that unites the western end of Cape Testa (41°14'N), in Sardinia, with the southwest end of Cape Peno (41°23' N), in Corsica.
North.
A line that links the Corsica (Cabo Grosso, 9°23 'E), in Corsica, with the island of Tinetto (44°01'N, 9°51'E) and from there, through the Palmaria and Tino islands, to the tip of San Pedro (44°03' N, 9°50 'E) on the coast of Italy.

Limits of oceans and you are, p. 17.

Outputs

There are four outlets from the Tyrrhenian Sea (from north to south):

Watersheds

The Tyrrhenian Basin is divided into two basins (or plains), the Vavilov Plain and the Marsili Plain. They are separated by the underwater ridge known as the Issel Bridge, after the Italian geologist Arturo Issel.

Geology

The Tyrrhenian Sea is a back-arc basin that formed due to the southeastward retreat of the Calabrian plate during the Neogene. Episodes of rapid and slow trench retreat formed first the Vavilov Basin and then the Vavilov Basin. that of Marsili. The submarine volcanoes and the active volcano Stromboli formed because the trench retreat causes an extension in the overburden plate that allows the mantle to rise below the surface and partially melt. Magmatism here is also affected by fluids released from the slab.

Origin of name

Its name derives from the Greek name for the Etruscans, who were said by the Greeks to be emigrants from Lydia and led by the Tyrrhenian prince. The Etruscans settled along the coast of present-day Tuscany and referred to as to these waters as the "Sea of the Etruscans".