Earthquake effects and insights on fault activity at the Beatrice Cenci cave (Abruzzo, Central Apennines)

Abstract

The focus of this study is the analysis of a cave in Central Italy, the Beatrice Cenci cave, in order topoint out and constrain evidence of possible past earthquakes and of fault activity in the area. Weperformed a survey of seismic related damages within the cave. This included the analysis ofbroken/collapsed speleothems, the recognition of structural collapse, of tilting/growth alteration inthe speleothems, and the mapping of fractures, joints and/or faults. To timely set the occurrence ofthe recognized damage, organic sediments were dated with 14C radiocarbon method. The resultsmerged toward the recognition of two distinct seismic shaking events affecting the caveenvironment, one older than 30 kyr and another around 7 kyr. The deformation observed withinthe cave led us to the hypothesis that the events of damage were possibly linked to the activity ofthe regional tectonic lineament that crosses the cave, i.e., the Liri normal fault. The morphology andthe evolution of the cave appear controlled by the fault zone. These speleoseismological resultsprovided a new contribution on the knowledge of the past activity of the Liri fault and on theearthquake history of this sector of Central Apennines.