Vertical and horizontal crustal movements in central and northern Italy

Abstract

The data from continuous GPS stations located in central and northern Italy, installed with different criteria and planned for scientific or commercial aims, are analyzed to provide the actual crustal movements. The mean velocity of 185 sites have been used to describe both the horizontal and vertical displacement field: the results indicate that the outer part of the Apennine belt moves in a north-eastern direction significantly faster than the inner Tyrrhenian side of the same chain; both Alpine and Apenninic regions show a low uplift, while in the central and eastern sector of the Po Plain the subsidence rate is constant or, in some cases, is decreasing with respect to the values obtained from the last measurements, performed up to 2006 by means of both SAR and leveling techniques. Only the central part of the eastern Po Plain close to the Apennine border (Modena city area) seems to be characterized by an anomalous rate subsidence (15 mm/yr).