Southern Calabria is rising up to 12 mm a year, five to ten times above earlier estimates, study finds
A team led by Rebecca J. Dorsey of the University of Oregon dated marine terraces in Calabria. The authors link the uplift to a possible breakup of the Ionian plate at depth.
Parts of southern Calabria, in southern Italy, are rising by up to 12 millimetres per year, according to a new study reported by dnevnik.si. dnevnik.si
dnevnik.sidnevnik.siOpen source ↗ This is five to ten times more than earlier estimates. The work was led by Rebecca J. Dorsey of the University of Oregon, with the participation of Italian scientists, and was published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment.
Optical dating of marine terraces
The researchers studied marine terraces along the coast of southern Calabria. These are areas that originally formed at sea level and were later raised above it by geological movements.
Using optical dating, the team determined the age of the sediments. The layers examined are on average about 118,800 years old.
The results showed that several marine terraces formed later than scientists had previously assumed. As a consequence, some existing calculations of uplift rates and of movement along the local faults will have to be revised. dnevnik.si
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A possible deep cause and seismic hazard
The reason for the unusually fast uplift may lie deep underground. According to one scientific explanation, the Ionian plate is splitting beneath southern Calabria. It is part of the African plate region, which is subducting beneath the Eurasian plate. Changes in its position and its breakup could affect forces in the Earth's crust and cause the surface to rise.
Strong tectonic activity in the area is also indicated by the motion between Calabria and Sicily: the two areas move apart by 0.5 to 0.8 millimetres each year.
Accurate knowledge of active faults matters for assessing seismic hazard. Geologists track mainly the speed at which tectonic plates and rock blocks move relative to other parts of the crust. These data feed statistical seismic hazard models, with which specialists estimate the probability of stronger earthquakes in a given area. dnevnik.si
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Italy is among the more seismically active regions of Europe, and Calabria, located at the junction of tectonic structures, is of particular interest to geologists. According to the article, the new findings could help in understanding the processes beneath its surface and in refining seismic hazard estimates.
