Seismogenic fault detection, a basic step towards the correct management of territory in the earthquake-prone area of Northeastern Sicily and Southern Calabria
by
Giancarlo Neri
Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università di Messina, Messina, Italy
Coauthors: Giuseppe Oliva (Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università di Messina), Barbara Orecchio (Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università di Messina), Debora Presti (Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università di Messina), Graziella Barberi (Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Sezione di Catania), Ignazio Guerra (Dipartimento di Fisica, Università della Calabria)

Accurate investigation of the crustal structure and shallow seismicity in south Italy is being performed with the most advanced tomographic and earthquake location methods by Messina University Earth Science Department (MUESD) in cooperation with Calabria University, INGV and other italian and foreign research institutions. Profiting by the increasing accuracy of focal and tectonic stress parameters, we are making rapid progress in the fundamental task of detecting the faults capable of strong earthquakes in the study region. As also evidenced by workshops and meetings organized on this topic in the last few years by MUESD and INGV, a detailed knowledge of the most dangerous faults is basic for a correct planning of the territory use and a proper definition of the earthquake-related Civil Defense strategies. We propose in this study a review of the most recent findings by MUESD and cooperating institutions regarding the recent instrumental seismicity recorded in Northeastern Sicily and Southern Calabria, with particular reference to the main earthquake swarms occurring around the Messina Straits in the last fifteen years.

Date received: September 9, 2004

Copyright © 2004 by the author(s). The author(s) of this document and the organizers of the conference have granted their consent to include this abstract in Atlas Conferences Inc. Document # caon-38.