HR: 1340h
AN: T53B-0497    [Abstracts]
TI: Block modeling of Crustal Velocity in Italy and Surrounding Regions
AU: Serpelloni, E
EM: serpeloni@ingv.it
AF: Istituto Nazionale Geofisica Vulcanologia, Via D. Creti, 12, Bologna, 40128 Italy
AU: * Battaglia, M
EM: battag@seismo.berkeley.edu
AF: Dept of structural Geology and Geodynamics, Goldschmidtstr. 3, Goettingen, 37077 Germany
AU: Murray, M H
EM: mhmurray@sesimo.berkeley.edu
AF: UC Berkeley Seismological Laboratory, 215 McCone Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720 United States
AU: Burgmann, R
EM: burgmann@seismo.berkeley.edu
AF: UC Berkeley Seismological Laboratory, 215 McCone Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720 United States
AB: We use GPS measurements and block modeling to investigate the present-day deformation of the Italian peninsula and surrounding regions. The central Mediterranean displays an assemblage of lithospheric blocks with different structural and kinematics features and a variety of geodynamic processes, including subduction, back-arc spreading, rifting, thrusting, normal and strike-slip faulting, trapped between the relatively rigid African and Eurasian plates, for which global plate motion models predict a NW-SE convergence at about 7 mm/yr. The block model incorporates secular velocity and fault geometry estimates, as well as elastic strain accumulation. With this model we can assess whether different hypotheses are compatible with geodetic data, estimates of fault slip rates and locking depths, areas of rigid block rotation, and regions of anomalous strain accumulation. We present a geodetic velocity solution for Italy and surrounding areas, obtained from the analysis of continuous and survey-mode Global Positioning System observations collected between 1991 and 2002. The velocities are relative to a stable Eurasian frame. The block model shows extension in the Apennines, shortening in the central Alps, Dinarides and Ionian Island (Epiro coast), and right-lateral slip along the Kefallinia fault zone. The predicted faults slip rates are in good agreement with geodetic and geologic observations. The deformation pattern observed in the Adriatic domain suggests that the Adriatic is a microplate (Adria) and that the southern boundary with the Nubia plate and the Aegean domain may be located along the Apulia Escarpment and the Kefallinia fault.
DE: 8107 Continental neotectonics
DE: 1206 Crustal movements--interplate (8155)
DE: 1243 Space geodetic surveys
SC: Tectonophysics [T]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting