Cultrera, Fabrizio

Framed in the current geodynamics of the central Mediterranean, the Aeolian-Tindari-Letojanni fault system is part of a wider NW-SE oriented right-lateral wrench zone which accommodates diverging motion between regional-scale blocks located at the southern edge of the Calabrian Arc. In order to investigate the structural architecture and the active deformation pattern of the northern sector of this tectonic feature, structural observations on-land, high and very-high resolution seismic reflection profiles, swath bathymetry and seismological and geodetic data were merged from the Lipari-Vulcano volcanic complex (central sector of the Aeolian Islands) to the Peloritani Mountains across the Gulf of Patti. Our interpretation shows that the active deformation pattern of the study area is currently expressed by NW-SE trending, right-transtensional én-echelon fault segments whose overlapping gives rise to releasing stepover and pull-apart structures. This structural architecture has favored magma and fluid ascent and the shaping of the Lipari-Vulcano volcanic complex. Similarly, the Gulf of Patti is interpreted as an extensional relay zone between two overlapping, right-lateral NW-SE trending master faults. The structural configuration we reconstruct is also supported by seismological and geodetic data which are consistent with kinematics of the mapped faults. Notably, most of the low-magnitude instrumental seismicity occurs within the relay zones, whilst the largest historical earthquakes (1786, Mw=6.2; 1978, Mw=6.1) are located along the major fault segments.

The Gulf of Patti and its onshore sector represent one of the most seismically active regions of the Italian Peninsula. Over the period 1984–2014, about 1800 earthquakes with small-to-moderate magnitude and a maximum hypocentral depth of 40 km occurred in this area. Historical catalogues reveal that the same area was affected by several strong earthquakes such as the Mw = 6.1 event in April 1978 and the Mw = 6.2 one in March 1786 which have caused severe damages in the surrounding localities. The main seismotectonic feature affecting this area is represented by a NNW–SSE trending right-lateral strike-slip fault system called “Aeolian–Tindari–Letojanni” (ATLFS) which has been interpreted as a lithospheric transfer zone extending from the Aeolian Islands to the Ionian coast of Sicily. Although the large-scale role of the ATLFS is widely accepted, several issues about its structural architecture (i.e. distribution, attitude and slip of fault segments) and the active deformation pattern are poorly constrained, particularly in the offshore. An integrated analysis of field structural geology with marine geophysical and seismological data has allowed to better understand the structural fabric of the ATLFS which, in the study area, is expressed by two major NW–SE trending, en-echelon arranged fault segments. Minor NNE–SSW oriented extensional structures mainly occur in the overlap region between major faults, forming a dilatational stepover. Most faults display evidence of active deformation and appear to control the main morphobathymetric features. This aspect, together with diffused continental slope instability, must be considered for the revaluation of the seismic and geomorphological hazard of this sector of southern Tyrrhenian Sea.

The TOMO-ETNA experiment was planned in order to obtain a detailed geological and structural model of the continental and oceanic crust beneath Mt. Etna volcano and northeastern Sicily up to the Aeolian Islands (southern Italy), by integrating data from active and passive refraction and reflection seismic methodologies, magnetic and gravity surveys. This paper focuses on the marine activities performed within the experiment, which have been carried out in the Ionian and Tyrrhenian Seas, during three multidisciplinary oceanographic cruises, involving three research vessels (“Sarmiento de Gamboa”, “Galatea” and “Aegaeo”) belonging to different countries and institutions. During the offshore surveys about 9700 air-gun shots were produced to achieve a high-resolution seismic tomography through the wide-angle seismic refraction method, covering a total of nearly 2650 km of shooting tracks. To register ground motion, 27 ocean bottom seismometers were deployed, extending the inland seismic permanent network of the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV) and a temporary network installed for the experiment. A total of 1410 km of multi-channel seismic reflection profiles were acquired to image the subsurface of the area and to achieve a 2D velocity model for each profile. Multibeam sonar and sub bottom profiler data were also collected. Moreover, a total of 2020 km of magnetic and 680 km of gravity track lines were acquired to compile magnetic and gravity anomaly maps offshore Mt. Etna volcano. Here, high-resolution images of the seafloor, as well as sediment and rock samples, were also collected using a remotely operated vehicle.

Between the October 2011 and the July 2012, several seismic swarms occurred in the Hyblean foreland domain of SE Sicily (Italy) along the Cavagrande Canyon, one of the most impressive fluvial incisions of Sicily. Despite the low magnitude of the events (main shock with M~3.7), they represent the biggest strain release of the Hyblean area over the last ten years. A careful wave-form analysis of the earthquakes revealed that most of them form a family of ―multiplets‖. These findings allow us to reconstruct the attitude of the accountable fault plane by interpolating their highprecision 3D location parameters into a GIS platform. A detailed morpho-structural analysis, performed at the ideal updip projection of the modelled plane, showed that during the Middle-Late Pleistocene the epicentral area has been deformed by a belt of extensional faults, a segment of which matches well with the computer-generated surface. Despite the field evidence, computed focal solutions support contrasting strike-slip kinematics on the same fault plane, clearly indicating a dextral shearing on this pre-existing normal fault. The seismic swarms nucleated on a small rupture area along a ~10 km long, NW-SE trending fault segment, that could be able to generate M~6 earthquakes. Following our analysis and looking at seismicity distribution in the SE portion of Hyblean area, we asses that a stress pattern reorganization occurred all over the Hyblean foreland between the Late Pleistocene and present-day. Change in the trajectory of the max stress axes (from vertical to horizontal) seems to have involved a pre-existing large scale fault configuration with considerable seismotectonic implications.

tGeological studies and morphological analysis, compared with seismological and geodetic data, suggestthat a compressive regime currently occurs at crustal depth in the western sector of Mt. Etna, accommo-dated by shallow thrusting and folding at the front of the chain, south of the volcanic edifice. In particular,a large WSW-ENE trending anticline, interpreted as detachment fold, is growing west and north of Cata-nia city (the Catania anticline). Geological data suggest that during the last 6000 years the frontal foldhas been characterized by uplift rates of ∼6 mm/yr along the hinge, consistent with the interferometricdata (10 mm/yr) recorded in the last 20 years. Moreover, a NNW-SSE oriented axis of compression hasbeen obtained by seismological data, consistent with GPS measurements over the last 20 years whichhave revealed a shortening rate of ∼5 mm/yr along the same direction. Besides the activity related to thevolcanic feeding system, the seismic pattern under the Mt. Etna edifice can be certainly related to theregional tectonics. The compressive stress is converted into elastic accumulation and then in earthquakesalong the ramps beneath the chain, whereas on the frontal area it is accommodated by aseismic defor-mation along an incipient detachment within the clayish foredeep deposits. The high rate of shorteningat the aseismic front of the chain, suggests a greater “seismic efficiency” in correspondence of ramps atthe rear.

Integrated geological, geodetic and marine geophysical data provide evidence of active deformation insouth-western Sicily, in an area spatially coincident with the macroseismic zone of the destructive 1968Belice earthquake sequence. Even though the sequence represents the strongest seismic event recordedin Western Sicily in historical times, focal solutions provided by different authors are inconclusive onpossible faulting mechanism, which ranges from thrusting to transpression, and the seismogenic sourceis still undefined. Interferometric (DInSAR) observations reveal a differential ground motion on a SW–NEalignment between Campobello di Mazara and Castelvetrano (CCA), located just west of the maximummacroseismic sector. In addition, new GPS campaign-mode data acquired across the CCA alignment doc-uments NW–SE contractional strain accumulation. Morphostructural analysis allowed to associate thealignment detected through geodetic measurements with a topographic offset of Pleistocene marine sed-iments. The on-land data were complemented by new high-resolution marine geophysical surveys, whichindicate recent contraction on the offshore extension of the CCA alignment. The discovery of archaeo-logical remains displaced by a thrust fault associated with the alignment provided the first likely surfaceevidence of coseismic and/or aseismic deformation related to a seismogenic source in the area. Resultsof the integrated study supports the contention that oblique thrusting and folding in response to NW–SEoriented contraction is still active. Although we are not able to associate the CCA alignment to the 1968seismic sequence or to the historical earthquakes that destroyed the ancient Greek city of Selinunte,located on the nearby coastline, our result must be incorporated in the seismic hazard evaluation of thisdensely populated area of Sicily.

Geological, geodetic and seismological data have been analyzed in order to frame the Lipari–Vulcano complex (Aeolian archipelago, southern Italy) into the geodynamic context of the southeastern Tyrrhenian Sea. It is located at the northern end of a major NNW–SSE trending right-lateral strike-slip fault system named “Aeolian–Tindari–Letojanni” which has been interpreted as a lithospheric discontinuity extending from the Aeolian Islands to the Ionian coast of Sicily and separating two different tectonic domains: a contractional one to the west and an extensional one to the north-east. Structural field data consist of structural measurements performed on well-exposed fault planes and fractures. The mesostructures are mostly represented by NW–SE striking normal faults with a dextral-oblique component of motion. Minor structures are represented by N–S oriented joints and tension gashes widespread over the whole analyzed area and particularly along fumarolized sectors. The analyzed seismological dataset (from 1994 to 2013) is based on earthquakes with magnitude ranging between 1.0 and 4.8. The hypocenter distribution depicts two major alignments corresponding to the NNW–SSE trending Aeolian–Tindari–Letojanni fault system and to the WNW–ESE oriented Sisifo–Alicudi fault system. GPS data analysis displays ∼3.0 mm/yr of active shortening between the two islands, with a maximum shortening rate of about 1.0 × 10−13 s−1, between La Fossa Caldera and south of Vulcanello. This region is bounded to the north by an area where the maximum values of shear strain rates, of about 0.7 × 10−13 s−1 are observed. This major change occurs in the area south of Vulcanello that is also characterized by a transition in the way of the vertical axis rotation. Moreover, both the islands show a clear subsidence process, as suggested by negative vertical velocities of all GPS stations which exhibit a decrease from about −15 to −7 mm/yr from north to south. New data suggest that the current kinematics of the Lipari–Vulcano complex can be framed in the tectonic context of the eastward migrating Sisifo–Alicudi fault system. This is dominated by transpressive tectonics in which contractional and minor extensional structures can coexist with strike-slip motion.