Relocation and focal mechanisms of earthquakes in the south-central sector of the Aeolian Archipelago: New structural and volcanological insights

Abstract

To recognize possible spatial clusters and identify active seismogenic zones and structures in the Aeolian Archipelago, in the south of Italy, we analyzed the spatial pattern of seismicity between 1993 and 2010 in a selected area comprising Vulcano, Lipari, Salina and Filicudi and calculated 22 fault plane solutions (FPSs) for shocks with magnitude greater than 2.7. First, we computed a 1-D velocity model for this area including information from recorded earthquakes by a joint hypocenter-velocity inversion (Kissling et al., 1994). Successively, we applied the double-difference approach of Waldhauser and Ellsworth (2000), finding that a certain part of the scattered epicenter locations collapse in roughly linear features. Relocated seismicity evidenced three main alignments, oriented NNW-SSE and NE-SW at different depths that concur well with the known tectonic lineaments and focal mechanisms. A detailed discussion is focused on a seismogenetic structure, NE-SW oriented, 3-8 km deep, located in the northern area of Vulcano island. This recognized element could represent a link between magma accumulation zones, thus representing a possible preferential pathway along which magma may intrude. Two earthquake clusters, located south-west and east of Vulcano, with their focal mechanisms, highlight the Aeolian-Tindari-Letojanni Fault System seismic activity and the existence of a transitional zone going from the N-S compressive domain that dominates the Aeolian Islands to the NW-SE extensional domain characterizing the south-eastern Thyrrhenian.