Is blind faulting truly invisible? Tectonic-controlled drainage evolution in the epicentral area of the May 2012, Emilia-Romagna earthquake sequence (northern Italy)

Abstract

For decades alluvial plains have been the areas of fastest population growth over most of the globe. Modern societies demand growing extensions of flat and easily accessible land to accommodate swelling urban areas, booming industrial districts, large power plants, and multi-runway airports. But how can we tell if one of such flat areas hides large active faults? How can we assign a significant pre-instrumental earthquake to its causative source? In other words, how can modern societies deal with buried, that is to say, invisible faults, and with the elusiveness of the hazard they pose?