A violent gas outburst occurred offshore the Scoglio d'Affrica islet (Tuscan Archipelago, Northern Tyrrhenian Sea) on March 16th 2017, with local fishermen observing columns of dirty water rising up to 10 m above the sea surface. The integration of video footage and dissolved CH₄ measurements collected 5 days after the event with high-resolution multibeam data collected 4 months later, allowed us to characterize the source area of the outburst, corresponding to a shallow-water mud volcano. The mud volcano covers an area of ca. 170,000 m², has a vertical relief of ca. 30 m with respect to the surrounding seafloor and an estimated volume of ca. 1 × 10⁶ m³, based on bathymetric reconstruction. The elongated NNW-SSE shape of the mud volcano is compatible with local structural trends, indicating a tectonic control for its development. The mud volcano is made up of two mounds whose tops are located at a depth of ca. 10 m. The southern mound was responsible for the 2017 outburst, as testified by a 15–20 m wide circular crater on its summit where a large amount of mud breccia and diffuse seepage from small pockmarks were observed in video footage . The flanks of the mud volcano are steep and characterized in the upper part by a hummocky morphology and multiple sediment flows on the western flank.

The characterization of the mud volcano and the deposits associated with the 2017 gas outburst provides insight into seafloor-shaping processes linked to fluid seepage in shallow-water sectors. This is a particularly relevant issue considering both the paucity of studies on shallow-water mud volcanoes as well as the hazard associated with violent gas outbursts in such settings, as witnessed by the March 16th 2017 event.

2017年3月16日，Scoglio d'Affrica小岛（第勒尼安海北部的托斯卡纳群岛）近海发生了猛烈的瓦斯爆发，当地渔民观察到几列高出海平面的脏水。事件发生后5天收集的视频素材和溶解的CH ₄测量值与4个月后收集的高分辨率多波束数据的集成，使我们能够表征爆发的源区，对应于浅水泥火山。泥火山占地约200米。170,000 m ²，垂直浮雕约为。相对于周围海底约30 m，估计体积约为 1×10 ⁶立方米³，基于测深重建。泥火山的拉长的NNW-SSE形状与局部结构趋势兼容，这表明了其发育的构造控制。泥火山由两个土墩组成，它们的顶部位于大约1米的深度。10米 南部丘陵是2017年爆发的原因，其山顶上有一个15-20 m宽的圆形环形山，在录像中观察到大量泥泞角砾岩和小麻点的弥漫性渗漏，证明了这一点。泥火山的侧面陡峭，上部为丘状形态，西部侧面有多处泥沙流。

泥火山的特征以及与2017年瓦斯爆发有关的沉积物提供了与浅水区流体渗漏有关的海底成形过程的洞察力。考虑到对浅水泥火山的研究很少以及在这种情况下与猛烈瓦斯爆发相关的危害，这是一个特别相关的问题，正如2017年3月16日的事件所见证的那样。