Giovanni Bortoluzzi compiled and finalized the main body of this report. M.Ligi, E.Bonatti, S.Skolotnev, A.Peyve, J.Sclater, N.Grindlay, A. Cipriani and D.Brunelli contributed to the geological and scientific background and to the preliminary data analysis. All the named participants to the cruise contributed to this report with their work and discussions aboard the R/V Strakhov .