Alessandra Ascione

A decoupled kinematic model for active normal faults: Insights from the 1980, MS = 6.9 Irpinia earthquake, southern Italy

A significant uncertainty exists in the definition of both surface pattern and subsurface continuity (i.e., coupling vs. decoupling) of active normal faults in the Apennines. In this study, we investigated the epicentral area of the M S = 6.9, 1980 Irpinia earthquake—one of the most destructive historical earthquakes in Italy—based on detailed topography analyses, morphostratigraphic and structural data, and new age constraints from Quaternary deposits. The active tectonic behavior of the study area is controlled by a series of subparallel, mainly WNW-ESE– to NW-SE–trending, dominantly extensional faults spanning over the southern Apennines axial belt. A large part of the active fault strands is characterized by a subdued topographic expression, as a result of the young age of extensional faulting initiation, and of relatively low mean slip rates. In addition, as already known from long historical seismicity records elsewhere, long-lasting quiescence might alternate with clusters of closely spaced, strong earthquakes. The long-term morphostratigraphic record confirms that long-lasting quiescence may punctuate fault activity, with major implications for seismic hazard assessment. The relatively small-sized cumulative fault throws estimated by surface evidence contrast with subsurface information provided by crustal-scale cross sections and seismological evidence, which both suggest the occurrence at depth of large-displacement, mature fault zones capable of nucleating large earthquakes. Furthermore, although the surface distribution of active fault strands overlaps the belt affected by present-day low-magnitude seismicity and by large historical earthquakes, a mismatch in the attitude and kinematics of shallow versus deep faults is unraveled by a comparison of surface geological versus seismological data sets. This feature suggests a decoupling between surface and deep fault zones, and that outcropping fault planes cannot always be straightforwardly traced down to hypocentral depths, particularly in fold-and-thrust belts characterized by strong rheological contrasts. On the other hand, stress inversion from outcropping active faults and from earthquake focal mechanisms indicates a general consistency of the stress field, thus suggesting that a homogeneous late Quaternary extensional regime produces complex reactivation of the inherited, articulated fault network affecting different structural levels of the southern Apennines.

Low-angle normal faulting and focused exhumation associated with late Pliocene change in tectonic style in the southern Apennines (Italy)

In the southern Apennines, low-temperature thermochronometry data indicate that exhumation of previous tectonically buried sedimentary units started at around 10 Ma and took place mostly during the last 6 Ma. Relatively high exhumation rates are obtained from apatite fission track (AFT) and (U-Th)/He (AHe) analysis, pointing to a substantial contribution of tectonic processes to rock exhumation besides erosion. Exhumation rates derived from new apatite (U-Th)/He data (AHe) for the last 3 Ma are generally lower than rates determined by AFT data and almost in line with erosion rates inferred from cosmogenic nuclides and sediment yield, thus suggesting that tectonic exhumation was dominant during the older exhumation stages of this region. However, younger cooling ages in the Monte Alpi area from both AFT and AHe analyses point out focused exhumation during the last 3 Ma. Structural and morphotectonic analyses indicate that fast exhumation occurred specifically in this area—where the Apulian Platform reservoir carbonates, elsewhere buried beneath a several kilometer-thick allochthonous cover, are exposed at the surface—as a result of a complex interplay between steep-rooted reverse faulting and shallow low-angle extension. This deformation involved the development of foreland-dipping low-angle normal faults affecting the allochthonous cover units during the late stages of reverse fault-related anticlinal growth in the underlying buried carbonates. Extension of the region triggered focused exhumation in the footwall of the extensional low-angle faults, which was followed by widespread crustal extension and associated development of high-angle normal faults, leading to surface uplift of Monte Alpi.

Soil gas distribution in the main coseismic surface rupture zone of the 1980, Ms = 6.9, Irpinia earthquake (southern Italy)

Soil gas measurements of different gas species with different geochemical behaviors were performed in the area of the Pecore Plain, a 200 m × 300 m sized, fault-bounded extensional basin located in the northern Mount Marzano massif, in the axial belt of the southern Apennine chain. The Pecore Plain area was affected by coseismic surface faulting during the Ms = 6.9, 1980 Irpinia earthquake, the strongest and most destructive seismic event of the last 30 years in southern Italy. The collected data and their geostatistical analysis provide new insights into the control exerted by active fault segments on deep-seated gas migration toward the surface. The results define anomalies that are aligned with the NW-SE trending coseismic rupture of the 1980 earthquake along the western border of the plain, as well as along the southern border of the plain where a hidden, E-W striking fault is inferred. Geospatial analysis highlights an anisotropic spatial behavior of 222Rn along the main NW-SE trend and of CO2 along the E-W trend. This feature suggests a correlation between the shape and orientation of the anomalies and the barrier/conduit behavior of fault zones in the area. Furthermore, our results show that gas migration through brittle deformation zones occurs by advective processes, as suggested by the relatively high migration rate needed to obtain anomalies of short-lived 222Rn in the soil pores.

Subduction and continental collision events in the southern Apennines: constraints from two crustal cross-sections

Subduzione e collisione continentale in Appennino meridionale: vincoli da due sezioni crostali.Mediante l’integrazione di dati geologici di superficie e sottosuolo, sono state realizzate due sezioni crostali attraverso il sistema catena-avanfossa-avampaese dell’Appennino meridionale. Di tali sezioni, quella settentrionale e stata elaborata dall’interpretazione del profilo sismico a riflessione CROP 04, mentre quella meridionale attraversa i giacimenti petroliferi della Val d’Agri e di Tempa Rossa, in Basilicata. Le due sezioni mostrano la presenza, nel sottosuolo del Cilento, di unita di basamento continentale coinvolte nella strutturazione della catena appenninica. Queste evidenze suggeriscono che, dopo l’iniziale fase di subduzione oceanica, l’evoluzione tettonica dell’Appennino meridionale e stata caratterizzata da due eventi di subduzione continentale alternati a due stadi di collisione continentale.

Quaternary evolution of the Southern Apennines coastal plains: a review

Abstract The Quaternary evolution of the main coastal basins located along the southwestern margin of the Southern Apennines has been reconstructed by integrating the huge amount of existing stratigraphical and geomorphological data. The information produced in the last twenty years has shed new light on the recent (late Middle Pleistocene to Present) history of the Campanian and Sele plains or basins. During the early Quaternary, the analysed coastal basins originated as half-grabens in response to opening processes active since the late Tortonian in the southern Tyrrhenian back-arc basin. In some of these basins (e.g. the Campanian Plain), volcanism has also played an important role. In the inner sectors of the coastal basins, the complex interplay between block faulting, sedimentary inputs and glacioeustatic fluctuations gave rise to relative sea-level change and related coastline migrations, leading to the formation of the present-day coastal plains. In the Sele Plain basin, the construction of the present-day landscape mainly resulted from the substantial ceasing of subsidence in the final part of the Middle Pleistocene. Conversely, a strong contribution to the recent evolution of the Campanian Plain has been provided by abundant volcaniclastic aggradation, able to hinder the effect of the vertical motions that occurred in the last 100 ka.

Quaternary deformation in SE Sicily: Insights into the life and cycles of forebulge fault systems

Integrated geological, geomorphological, and differential interferometry synthetic aperture radar (DInSAR) data are used to constrain the timing and modes of activity of Quaternary fault systems in the Hyblean Plateau. This area, which represents a unique natural laboratory for studying surface deformation in relation to deep slab dynamics, has grown since middle Miocene times as a doubly plunging forebulge associated with slab rollback during NW-directed subduction. Bimodal extension has produced two mutually orthogonal normal fault systems. The detailed stratigraphic record provided by synrift sediments and postrift marine terraces allowed us to define the timing of activity of an early Pleistocene, flexure-related fault system, thus constraining the duration of a typical foreland extensional tectonic event to ∼1.5 m.y. Subsequent late Quaternary to present deformation was dominated by strike-slip faulting associated with NW-oriented horizontal compression. During this latest stage, regional uplift progressively increased toward the thrust front to the NW and was accompanied by differential uplift accommodated by dip-slip components of motion along active NNW-trending faults. The general active tectonic setting of the study area, characterized by NW-oriented horizontal compression consistent with major plate convergence, and the regional uplift pattern can both be explained within the framework of intraplate shortening and foreland rebound following complete slab detachment, a major geodynamic event interpreted to have taken place at ca. 0.7 Ma in southern Italy.

The 2013 Marche offshore earthquakes: new insights into the active tectonic setting of the outer northern Apennines

A seismic sequence offshore the Marche region sheds new light on the active tectonic setting of the outer northern Apennines, revealing the existence of a previously unknown transcurrent seismogenic structure. In contrast to the Po Plain area, where vigorous seismicity testifies to active frontal thrusting, the seismotectonic setting of the Adriatic domain is characterized by the occurrence of active crustal strike-slip faults dissecting the thrust belt. As recent studies suggest that thrust faults represent the unique seismogenic sources characterizing the Adriatic sector of the outer northern Apennines, our results pose new challenges to the identification of seismogenic structures in the region.