Chamot-Rooke, N.

Structural analysis and field mapping together with simple geometrical and flexural elastic models, document that two styles of Quaternary extensional tectonics characterized the Gran Sasso range (central Apennines, Italy). In the western part of the range, extension took place on 10–15-km-long range-front normal faults with associated 600–1000-m-high escarpments showing evidence of Late Glacial–Holocene activity. This topography has been reproduced with a thin elastic plate subjected to the isostatic forces induced by the movement along high-angle (55°–65°) planar normal faults. In the eastern part of the belt extension occurred on shallow-dipping normal faults (30°–35°) which reactivated progressively deeper pre-existing thrusts. In this area antithetic "domino" faults formed to accommodate the mechanical adjustment of the hanging-wall over a variably dipping major fault surface. The eastward increase in shortening, due to the earlier compressional phase, documented in the Gran Sasso belt by previous authors, accounts for the more developed zones of weakness and high topographic relief in the eastern sector. This setting could explain the different styles of extension and the more advanced northeastern limit of normal faulting in the eastern sector. This work suggests that normal faults can originate either with low- or high-angle geometry in the upper crust according to the pre-existing tectonic setting and that topography could be important in controlling the geometry and pattern of migrating normal faulting.

We analysed the ground deformation produced by the Mw = 6.1 2014 January 26 and Mw = 6.0 2014 February 3 Cephalonia earthquakes, western Greece. Campaign GPS measurements and RADARSAT-2 synthetic aperture radar (SAR) interferometry provide constraints on the overall deformation produced by the sequence. TerraSAR-X and COSMO-SkyMed SAR interferometry provide constraints on the second earthquake separately. Two permanent GPS stations captured the two coseismic offsets and show no pre- or post-seismic transients. Most of the deformation is concentrated in the Paliki peninsula which is consistent with the location of the seismicity and the damages. Both GPS and SAR interferometry indicate areas with large deformation gradients probably due to shallow effects. Given the limitations on the data and on the knowledge of the structure and rheology of the crust, we used a simple elastic model to fit the ground displacements. Although such model cannot fit all the detail of the deformation, it is expected to provide a robust estimate of the overall geometry and slip of the fault. The good data coverage in azimuth and distance contributes to the robustness of the model. The entire sequence is modelled with a strike slip fault dipping 70° east and cutting most of the brittle crust beneath Paliki, with an upper edge located at 2.5 km depth and a deeper edge at 8.5 km. This fault is oriented N14° which corresponds to the azimuth of the Cephalonia Transform Fault (CTF). The fit to the data is significantly improved by adding a secondary shallow strike-slip fault with low dip angle (30°) with a component of reverse faulting on that shallow fault. The modelling of the February 3 event indicates that the faulting is shallow in the north of Paliki, with a centroid depth of ∼3.2 km. The fit is improved when a single planar fault is replaced by a bent fault dipping ∼30° in the uppermost 2 km and ∼70° below. The fault of the January 26 earthquake, inferred from the difference between the two above models, is located south and beneath the February 3 fault, with a centroid depth of ∼6.4 km. We interpret the 2014 fault zone as an east segment of the CTF located ∼7 km east of the main axis of the CTF, which location is constrained by the elastic modelling of the interseismic GPS velocities. The aftershock sequence is mostly located between the January 26 fault and the axis of the CTF. According to our analysis, the Paliki peninsula is partly dragged north with the Apulian platform with ∼7 mm yr–1 of shear accommodated offshore to the west. During the last 30 yr three main sequences occurred along the CTF, in 1983, 2003 and 2014 breaking a large part of the fault, with a gap of 20–40 km left between Cephalonia and Lefkada.

We present a new GPS velocity field covering the peri-Adriatic tectonically active belts and the entire Balkan Peninsula. From the velocities, we calculate consistent strain rate and interpolated velocity fields. Significant features of the crustal deformation include (1) the eastward motion of the northern part of the Eastern Alps together with part the Alpine foreland and Bohemian Massif toward the Pannonian Basin, (2) shortening across the Dinarides, (3) a clockwise rotation of the Albanides-Hellenides, and (4) a southward motion south of 44°N of the inner Balkan lithosphere between the rigid Apulia and Black Sea, toward the Aegean domain. Using this new velocity field, we derive the strain rate tensor to analyze the regional style of the deformation. Then, we devise a simple test based on the momentum balance equation, to investigate the role of horizontal gradients of gravitational potential energy in driving the deformation in the peri-Adriatic tectonically active mountain belts: the Eastern Alps, the Dinarides, the Albanides, and the Apennines. We show that the strain rate fields observed in the Apennines and Albanides are consistent with a fluid, with viscosity η ∼ 3×1021 Pa s, deforming in response to horizontal gradients of gravitational potential energy. Conversely, both the Dinarides and Eastern Alps are probably deforming in response to the North and North-East oriented motion of the Adria-Apulia indenter, respectively, and as a consequence of horizontal lithospheric heterogeneity.