Our work aims to reconstruct the morpho-evolutionary history of the Alburni Mts, an impressive, significantly karstified, carbonate massif of the Campania segment of the southern Italian Apennines (Fig. 1), and to define the seismo-tectonic hazard deriving by its dense Quaternary fault networks. To this scope, a morphostructural analysis has been carried out to map morpholineaments, land surfaces, and other morphotectonic markers. Further, structural data about fault and fracture systems have been collected from both surface and subsurface survey, using in the latter case the extended net of explored karst caves. The Alburni Mts represent in fact the major karst area of southern Italy, including 243 underground caves. The study area is located inside the National Park of Cilento and Vallo di Diano and is bordered by two major rivers such as the Calore and Tanagro rivers, along which there are many villages and small towns. This area has been repeatedly affected in the last centuries by the effects of the activity of a regional, partly blind, NW-SE-striking fault system responsible for several huge earthquakes. From a morphostructural viewpoint, The Alburni Mts constitute a quite simple NW-SE-trending monocline, dipping toward SW. The massif covers an area of about 250 km2 crossed by several sets of faults, often showing a clear morphological expression, responsible for the genesis of a squared framework of flat-topped ridges and flat-bottomed valleys at the top of the massif. Its geological backbone is made of a thick succession of Mesozoic and Cenozoic limestones, partly referred to a back-reef environment, locally covered by Miocene terrigenous units. Such unit derives from the deformation of the African-Apulian palaeodomain of the Campania-Lucania Platform (D’Argenio et al., 1975; Patacca and Scandone, 2007). Cretaceous to Oligocene deep-sea internal units have been also trapped in some extensional troughs at the top of the massif, after their regional thrusting on the African palaeomargin units.
Morphostructural analysis of the Alburni carbonate massif, southern Italy: first results and remarks about the seismo-tectonic hazard
PARISE, Mario;
2014-01-01
Abstract
Our work aims to reconstruct the morpho-evolutionary history of the Alburni Mts, an impressive, significantly karstified, carbonate massif of the Campania segment of the southern Italian Apennines (Fig. 1), and to define the seismo-tectonic hazard deriving by its dense Quaternary fault networks. To this scope, a morphostructural analysis has been carried out to map morpholineaments, land surfaces, and other morphotectonic markers. Further, structural data about fault and fracture systems have been collected from both surface and subsurface survey, using in the latter case the extended net of explored karst caves. The Alburni Mts represent in fact the major karst area of southern Italy, including 243 underground caves. The study area is located inside the National Park of Cilento and Vallo di Diano and is bordered by two major rivers such as the Calore and Tanagro rivers, along which there are many villages and small towns. This area has been repeatedly affected in the last centuries by the effects of the activity of a regional, partly blind, NW-SE-striking fault system responsible for several huge earthquakes. From a morphostructural viewpoint, The Alburni Mts constitute a quite simple NW-SE-trending monocline, dipping toward SW. The massif covers an area of about 250 km2 crossed by several sets of faults, often showing a clear morphological expression, responsible for the genesis of a squared framework of flat-topped ridges and flat-bottomed valleys at the top of the massif. Its geological backbone is made of a thick succession of Mesozoic and Cenozoic limestones, partly referred to a back-reef environment, locally covered by Miocene terrigenous units. Such unit derives from the deformation of the African-Apulian palaeodomain of the Campania-Lucania Platform (D’Argenio et al., 1975; Patacca and Scandone, 2007). Cretaceous to Oligocene deep-sea internal units have been also trapped in some extensional troughs at the top of the massif, after their regional thrusting on the African palaeomargin units.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
