A new deep picture of the Alps-Apennines system derived from seismological data

Abstract

The diverse studies carried out with geophysical and geodetic data in the last decades greatly improved the knowledge of the Alps-Apennines system. However, most of these studies were limited to portions of the system or to the shallow structures, and for these reasons reconstruction of the tectonic setting for a larger area and for the deeper layers is still open to different approaches and interpretations; in particular, very little is known about the deeper conjunction between the two chains. One of the most powerful tools to investigate the deeper part of an earth’s volume is seismic tomography. In fact, not only seismic tomography may reach depths that are far beyond those of many other methodologies, but it can provide information on very large areas (up to the entire earth) with a unique level of details. In this study, we applied diverse tomographic techniques to perform a multi-approach investigation on the crustal structure of the North-Western part of Italy, in particular to obtain the under surface velocity structure and the attenuation distribution. An accurate analysis of seismicity and focal mechanisms complemented the study. In the light of our new analysis of velocity tomography, attenuation tomography and focal mechanisms a more in deep interpretation of the characteristics of the Alps-Apennine system is now possible.