The cruise began September 10th and ended October 30th after 49 effective days of sea operations. A two-day port stop in Napoli partitioned the campaign into two legs. The vessel utilised was the 104 metre R/V Gelendzhik owned by Central Marine Geological and Geophysical Expedition (CGGE) of the Russian Federation. Survey planning and acquisition was undertaken by personnel from the Marine Geology Institute of Bologna while collaborative technical assistance to the marine gravimeters and seismic streamer were undertaken by personnel from Moscow State University and the Geology Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Additionally, as part of a collaboration agreement with France, two French students were also on board.
The survey targeted the south-central portions of the Tyrrhenian basin and the northwestern Ionian Sea slope/rise along the eastern coast of Sicily (Fig. 2). Full swath bathymetric and geophysical coverage was obtained along the slope areas (in general to minimum depths of 600/800 metres) bordering northern and eastern Sicily, northern Calabria and the Campanian margin bounded northwards by the Sorrento Peninsula. In the Tyrrhenian bathyal plain, the survey covered an area bounded northwards by latitude 40 15'N’ and westwards by the R. Selli Line, roughly along 11 30' E. The portion of the northern Ionian Sea investigated, was south of the Messina Strait up to a latitude of 36 40'N and eastwards to longitude 16 10'E. An estimated 20,500 km were covered by the ship comprising a surface area of aproximately 72,000 km2.