First evidence of the Late Pleistocene—Holocene activity of the Roveto Valley Fault (Central Apennines, Italy)

We investigated the Late Quaternary activity of a major, crustal fault affecting
the southern sector of Central Apennines, i.e., the Roveto Valley Fault (also
known as Liri Valley fault). This sector of the chain was hit by numerous
M>5 historical seismic events. For some of these, e.g., the 1654 one (Mw
6.33), the causative seismogenic source has never been conclusively
defined. Within this seismotectonic framework, the recent activity of the
Roveto Valley Fault is still a matter of debate. Some authors defined its
activity as ended in the Middle Pleistocene; others considered it as currently
active and seismogenic at least in its southern portion. We collected new
geologic and geomorphologic data along the eastern (left) flank of the
Roveto Valley, where the fault crops out, and we identified evidence of
displacement of alluvial fans that we attributed to the Early, Middle, and Late
Pleistocene. Moreover, the analysis of the relationship between colluvial/detrital
deposits, chronologically constrained by means of radiocarbon dating, allowed
us to define the activation of the Roveto Valley fault also during historical times,
that is, over the past few centuries. Evidence of this has been collected along a
large sector of the fault trace for a length of some tens of kilometres. The results
of our studies contribute to improve the knowledge of the seismotectonic
setting of a large sector of the Central Apennines. Indeed, proving the current
activity of the Roveto Valley fault casts new light on possible seismogenic
sources of major seismicity of central Italy, potentially responsible for severe
damage over a wide area and to relevant cities, Rome being among them.

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