HR: 1340h
AN: S43C-1011 [Abstracts]
TI: Detailed Identification of Large Seismogenic Sources in Calabria, Southern Italy, Based on Recent
Shallow Seismicity and Crustal Tomographic Structure vs. Local Geology
AU: Gervasi, A
EM: gervasia@unical.it
AF: Dept. of Physics, University of Calabria, Cosenza, Italy, University Campus, Arcavacata di Rende,
Cosenza, 87036
Italy
AU: Guerra, I
EM: guerra@unical.it
AF: Dept. of Physics, University of Calabria, Cosenza, Italy, University Campus, Arcavacata di Rende,
Cosenza, 87036
Italy
AU: Neri, G
EM: geoforum@unime.it
AF: Dept. of Earth Sciences, Messina University, Messina, Italy, Ctr. Papardo Salita Sperone 31, Messina,
98166
Italy
AU: * Orecchio, B
EM: orecchio@unime.it
AF: Dept. of Earth Sciences, Messina University, Messina, Italy, Ctr. Papardo Salita Sperone 31, Messina,
98166
Italy
AU: Valensise, G
EM: valensise@ingv.it
AF: Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Sezione Roma 1, Rome, Italy, Via di Vigna Murata, 605,
Roma, 00143
Italy
AB:
Although Calabria is perhaps the most earthquake-prone region of the Italian peninsula and one of the most active areas in
the entire Mediterranean, the understanding of the geometry, kinematics and exact location of its main seismogenic sources is
still at a rather early stage. We tackled this problem by performing a joint reinterpretation of (i) hypocentral locations
and focal mechanisms of the local earthquakes recorded between 1978 and 2003 (about 7,000 events), (ii) the crustal
tomographic structure of Vp and Vs seismic velocities derived from the same dataset, (iii) the distribution of potential
sources of M5.5+ earthquakes recently hypotesized for the study area, and (iv) selected geologic and geomorphic information.
We specifically focused on the portions of the study region affected by significant seismic sequences or swarms during
1978-2003. Then, we analyzed with different methods the hypocentral trends in the separate space-time clusters and performed
separate tomographic inversions of earthquake data in the respective sectors. This step was aimed at obtaining the greatest
accuracy of the velocity structure in the crustal volumes affected by the sequences. Given the complexity of the study
region, during the investigation we encountered different anomalous or unexpected situations, including (a) spots of recent
low-magnitude seismicity that do not correspond to any identified potential earthquakes source, and (b) large seismogenic
faults that were partially or totally quiescent during the past 25 years. These were interpreted in the frame of the existing
geologic and tectonic knowledge and to constrain current seismotectonic hypotheses.
DE: 9335 Europe
DE: 7230 Seismicity and seismotectonics
DE: 8123 Dynamics, seismotectonics
SC: Seismology [S]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting