Publication Date:
2022-02-14
Description:
Marine seismic reflection data coupled with on-land structural measurements improve our
knowledge about the active deformation pattern of the northern sector of the Malta
Escarpment, a bathymetric and structural discontinuity in the near-offshore of Eastern
Sicily. As favourably oriented to be reactivated within the Neogene Africa–Europe
convergence, it is believed that the Malta Escarpment has a significant role in the recent
seismotectonic framework of the Western Ionian Basin and the Hyblean foreland domain of SE
Sicily, where some of the largest and most destructive Mediterranean earthquakes are located
according to available historical catalogs. Offshore seismic data along with bathymetric grids
illuminate the shallow subseafloor setting and allow more accurate mapping of the seafloor
expression of previously identified faults in the area. The seismic interpretation and the nearfault
sediment pattern analysis provide constraints on fault 3D geometries as well as on their
through-time tectonic activity, suggesting also that part of the observed deformation may have
been caused by nontectonic processes. Identified faults form currently an E-dipping, roughly
N–S trending, and 60 km-long extensional belt deforming the seafloor with a significant
displacement amount in the Ionian offshore between Catania and Siracusa. 3-dimensional
parameters of faults were then used to derive expected magnitudes and their reactivation
propensity. Empirical scaling relationships and forward methods point to a high seismic
potential for the detected fault as well as predict the fault slip behavior according to the fieldderived
differential stress. This combined analysis along with faults displacement
measurements pointed out how the longest and most continuous fault could be capable
of generating M 〉 7 seismic events, putting forward strong seismotectonic implications for the
adjacent and densely populated Hyblean Plateau. The expected magnitude and the estimated
recurrence time interval are compatible with those inferred for large historical earthquakes in the area even if other offshore seismic sources cannot be ruled out.
Description:
Published
Description:
594176
Description:
2T. Deformazione crostale attiva
Description:
JCR Journal
Repository Name:
Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV)
Type:
article
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