This study investigates the coastal landscape evolution within the area of the geological Sheet 628—“Sciacca”, in south-western Sicily (central Mediterranean region). According to the Italian Landscape Physiographic Units Map, this area is classified as “Terrigenous Hill Landscape with Plateaus” to the West and as “Heterogeneous Hill Landscape with Plateaus” to the East. Notably, Capo San Marco, located to the west of the town of Sciacca, represents the most prominent plateau formed in these units, displaying a concave profile with at least three orders of polygenetic coastal plains, where littoral and continental deposits related to MIS 5 and MIS 7 crop out. Among these coastal plains, the lowermost one, located at the Carboj River mouth, is characterized by a low relief energy and the presence of calcarenites and sands, providing critical insights into the coastal landscape evolution of this region. The physiographic unit of the Carboj River alluvial plain extends from sea level up to 80 m in altitude and comprises sandy clays and overbank silts interspersed with oligomictic ortho-conglomerates. These deposits suggest the presence of a NW–SE trending river bar, capped by marine terrace deposits dating the Middle-Late Pleistocene. Understanding the sedimentological and structural characteristics of these sectors with specific focus on the interplay between sediment transport, wave action, and sea-level changes in shaping coastal margins could provide relevant important information on the coastal landscape evolution and develop a geomorphic and sedimentary model to help the prediction of future coastal evolution scenarios. This knowledge is essential for effective coastal management and the development of sustainable policies to preserve the Mediterranean landscape’s cultural and environmental heritage.

Landslides are significant natural hazards frequently triggered by heavy rainfall and earthquakes, representing the most damaging secondary coseismic environmental effects. In geologically active regions like the Northern Apennines (Italy), high seismic hazard often couples with frequent large-scale slope failures. Global evidence suggests a complex interplay between triggers: earthquakes following intense rainfall tend to induce more landslides, while seismically impacted areas often show elevated landslide rates in subsequent years. Analyzing these tectonic-meteorological interactions is crucial for accurate hazard prediction.The central goal of this research is to resolve the intricate interactions among tectonic, meteorological, and surface processes by evaluating the role of seismicity and rainfall (whether concurrent or not) in the evolution of slope failures. This presentation details the conceptual framework and preliminary implementation of a newly initiated project aimed at monitoring these dynamics in real-time. The investigation focuses on the fundamental mechanisms of landslide induction, considering pre- and post-seismic meteorological states to identify crucial triggering parameters.The study utilizes a dedicated, multi-technique monitoring network at the Roncovetro landslide, a relatively young complex-earthflow, with a mean discharge rate of ∼ 0.16 × 105 m3/yr, that serves as a natural laboratory for landslide characterization in the Apennines. To discriminate between induction mechanisms, we integrate:Remote Sensing Tools: Repetitive Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) surveys are employed to conduct high-resolution terrain analysis and quantify volumetric changes. Comparison of digital topography (including historical 1973 data vs. 2014–2025 datasets) allows for the assessment of long-term discharge rates and morphological evolution.Ground-Based Monitoring: An already existing local network of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) stations and Ultra Wide Band (UWB) sensors provides high-frequency displacement data, enabling the correlation of movement with specific triggers. New GNSS stations will be installed in different sectors of the landslides in order to extend the real time analysis of the slope movements.Meteorological Data: Continuous hydro-meteorological parameters are gathered from a nearby weather station managed by the Regione Emilia Romagna, providing the high-resolution rainfall data necessary to establish triggering thresholds.Novel Geophysical Sensing: High-resolution seismic data will be acquired through Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS), leveraging fiber optic cables to create a dense linear array of seismic sensors at a 1-meter spatial scale.Field Analysis: Conventional geomorphological mapping and field-based geological surveys validate the remote sensing products and ground-truth the internal boundaries of the landslide body.The availability of this integrated observational network will allow for the spatial and temporal discrimination of landslide sectors triggered by meteorological events versus those sensitive to seismic shaking. Future analysis of the Roncovetro site—an area already characterized by historical data and impacted by both significant earthquakes (e.g., the 1996 Mw 5.4 event) and recent extreme rainfall (2024–2025)—will try to highlight relationships between antecedent moisture conditions and seismic history to define slope stability. This integrated analysis is expected to provide fundamental insights into event timing, shaking intensity, and the ultimate magnitude of landslide movements. Ultimately, the project will offer a robust, multi-sensor framework for multi-hazard risk assessment in complex terrain.

The 2001 Bhuj earthquake (Mw 7.6) underscored the seismic potential of the slow-deforming Kachchh region, a concern echoed by historical and archeological accounts of earthquakes despite its distance from plate boundaries. Our study investigates such tectonic signals in the Kachchh region by analyzing deformed geomorphic paleo-geodetic markers associated with the Jhura Anticline along the Northern Hill Range of Kachchh Upland and performing a full morphotectonic inversion of the underlying fault. Findings reveal a shallow detaching reverse fault dipping 51 degrees south and characterized by a slip rate of similar to 1.5 mm/yr, horizontal shortening rate of similar to 0.96 mm/yr, and uplift rate of 0.6 mm/yr during the last 30 ka. These findings not only refine the understanding of the Kachchh Mainland Fault's seismotectonic behavior but also suggest a complex fault system that challenges prevailing views on regional seismic sources. Our work emphasizes the need for revised seismic hazard assessment and contributes critical insights into the long-term deformation and seismogenic potential of the Kachchh region.

Understanding the long-term deformation rate of the Kumaun region is essential to assess the seismotectonic behaviour of the central Himalaya. Geodetic data from the past two decades indicate that the Kumaun Himalaya shortens at an arc-normal convergence rate of similar to 18 mm/yr. However, the distribution of this strain across the major thrust systems-particularly whether it is partitioned between the Himalayan Frontal Thrust (HFT), the Main Boundary Thrust (MBT), or other hinterland faults-remains unclear. While the northwestern Himalaya exhibits distributed deformation across multiple faults, studies in Nepal and Bhutan Himalaya suggest that a majority of the strain is localized along the HFT. To address this uncertainty in the Kumaun region, we conducted detailed tectono-geomorphic mapping of deformed and vertically displaced river terraces and alluvial fan surfaces along the HFT. This study focuses on three major river systems-Gaula, Nandhaur, and Sarda-and their tributaries. The height of incised and vertically displaced river terraces and alluvial fans were measured using high-resolution CARTOSAT-I data, and their depositional ages were determined using Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) dating. Our results indicate that uplift rates along the HFT range from 6.2 +/- 1.3 mm/yr to 10.5 +/- 1.5 mm/yr. The estimated horizontal shortening rates vary between 10.8 +/- 2.2 mm/yr and 18.3 +/- 4.0 mm/yr corresponding to average shortening of 14.0 +/- 3.0 mm/yr. These findings suggest that majority of regional shortening is accommodated along the HFT, while only a portion similar to 2-3 mm/yr is taken up by the wedge between MBT and Main Central Thrust (MCT) in Kumaun Himalaya. The deformation pattern and strain localization indicate that the Kumaun Himalaya behaves more like the frontal-locked segments of Nepal and Bhutan Himalaya rather than the distributed deformation regime of the northwest Himalaya.

Active tectonics and coastal deformation predispose continental margins to submarine gravitational instability and canyon head retreat. Here we investigate the drivers of this susceptibility along the Italian coasts. We analyze a dataset of over 2700 canyon heads using a multi-parametric susceptibility model that integrates bathymetry, instrumental seismicity, uplift rates, and crustal deformation fields derived from satellite geodesy. Results indicate that proximity to river mouths and regional seismicity are primary drivers of retreat susceptibility, suggesting that such susceptibility characterizes canyon dynamics at least since the establishment of the current tectonic regime. By integrating these results with demographic exposure data, we identify priority areas for mitigating natural disasters such as landslide-generated tsunamis and coastal erosion in highly populated regions.

The transformation of Segesta, from the Hellenistic period (sixth century BCE) to the early Middle Ages (fifth–sixth century CE), has been extensively studied by archaeologists and historians. While social and political changes were the main drivers of urban evolution, practices such as abandonment, spoliation, and building transformations increased buildings’ structural vulnerability, making them more prone to seismic damage. Although historical sources from the Roman period do not mention any earthquakes affecting Segesta, recent archaeological investigations have revealed collapsed layers in the Agora and Mango Sanctuary, and structural deformations in the Theater and Doric Temple. Furthermore, architectural analysis indicates the use of anti-seismic construction techniques in at least two structures on the site. Through multidisciplinary archaeoseismological investigations, this study aims to: (i) provide evidence of past earthquakes based on recent excavations literature review, and on-site observations; (ii) explain, through local site-effects, the selective collapse observed in the Agora and Mango Sanctuary, as well as the deformations at the Theater and Doric Temple; and (iii) analyze the seismotectonic framework of the potential seismic sources. To achieve these objectives, the study combines architectural damage surveys, stratigraphic analysis, drone-based photogrammetry, and non-invasive geophysical prospection (HVSR and MASW). This integrated approach enables a quantitative reconstruction of the local seismic response and deformation patterns across the site, while supporting a replicable framework for investigating ancient seismicity in similarly complex archaeological landscapes. These findings highlight a previously unrecognized gap in the seismic history of this low tectonic strain rate region, pointing to the occurrence of significant past earthquakes that are absent from historical records and current seismic catalogs—which, for this area, list only the 1968 Belice Valley sequence. Therefore, this study contributes essential input data for refining the seismic hazard and enhances our understanding of the historical seismicity and regional seismic risk.

The seismic history of the Kumaun-Garhwal region in the Central Himalaya has been a subject of ongoing debate, particularly regarding the extent of the surface-rupturing earthquakes, their magnitude, and impacts along the Himalayan Frontal Thrust (HFT)-a splay of the basal d & eacute;collement-the Main Himalayan Thrust (MHT). We report evidence of three surface-rupturing earthquakes based on detailed paleoseismic studies and river terrace analyses. Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) and Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon (14C) dating suggest that Event I occurred between 1250 CE and 1419 CE. It ruptured the HFT across similar to 300 km in the Kumaun-Garhwal Himalaya, with an estimated magnitude of Mw 8.6. Event II, the penultimate event, is bracketed between 1445 CE and 1623 CE and may correlate with the 1505 CE earthquake, which had an estimated magnitude of Mw 8.4 and a rupture length of similar to 350 km. The Most Recent Event (MRE), dated between 1770 CE and 1945 CE, may correspond to the 1803 CE earthquake. We suggest that the MRE, although less intense, ruptured a similar to 150 km segment of the HFT, with an estimated magnitude of Mw 7.8, and likely released residual strain from earlier seismic events. Geodetic fault dislocation modeling further suggests the presence of along-strike variations in MHT geometry, which could have played a significant role in hindering rupture propagation. Our findings shed new light to better assess future earthquake hazards in and around the Himalayan region.

We explored the behaviour and earthquake potential of an active fault system in the slowly deforming part of southern Tuscany. This region corresponds to the eastern margin of the Siena Basin, a Neogene structural depression that developed during the extensional tectonics that affected the inner northern Apennines. Here, N-, NE- and WNW-trending faults were active during the Zanclean-Latest Quaternary. Clear evidence of the activity of these faults, particularly the most recent WNW-striking ones, is represented by faulted Late Pleistocene-Holocene travertine deposits that preserve also evidence of active seismogenic faulting. Indeed, this area in recent times was mostly interested by low-magnitude seismic sequences that occurred in the uppermost 10 km of the crust, mainly characterized by transcurrent and transtensive faulting mechanisms. However, the historical record includes also damaging earthquakes in the 5.0-6.0 Mw range, such as the 7 August 1414, Mw 5.7, Colline Metallifere, 13 April 1558, Mw 6.0, Valdarno Superiore, and 25 August 1909, Mw 5.3, Crete Senesi events, but, to date, very little is known about the geometry, maximum earthquake potential and slip rate of their causative faults.In this study, we characterize an active, capable, and seismogenic fault system identified in the saw-cut walls of an active travertine quarry near Serre di Rapolano, a few kilometres south-east of the city of Siena. To document the geometric and kinematic features of the active faults, we carried out a detailed geological and structural field survey of the quarry outcrop, collected samples for U-Th dating and constructed a virtual outcrop model. We found compelling evidence for nearly SW-NE surface-breaking faulting, perpendicular to the main structural fabric of the central and northern Apennines, whose activity extends at least into the Upper Pleistocene. The peculiar geology of the area also suggests that these faults have generated earthquakes associated with surface faulting, namely the occurrence of clastic dykes injected within the fault zones during earthquake-induced liquefaction.Our results may help to address the current lack of understanding concerning earthquake activity in the slowly deforming region, and improve the current knowledge of the seismotectonic setting of the Siena Basin and the corresponding part of the inner northern Apennines. Our findings hint to a still unexplored tectonic mechanism, which suggests that the earthquakes affecting this part of southern Tuscany may be caused by segments of rather elusive, very long, SW-NE and WNW-ESE lineaments crossing the entire Apennine stack.

The study of the occurrence and incidence of environmental coseismic phenomena is becoming an increasingly demanding and fundamental need for the seismic hazard evaluation and risk reduction. Landslides triggered by earthquakes are the most diffuse environmental phenomena and can cause significant long-lasting impacts and losses across the area affected by the earthquake shaking. The combination of the relatively frequent seismic release with a very high landslide susceptibility, makes the Italian territory especially prone to the occurrence of earthquake-induced landslides.The CFTIlandslides (https://cfti.ingv.it/landslides/) is a recently released database of historical earthquake-induced landslides (HEILs) in Italy that includes over 1,000 landslides associated with 140 seismic events. The data are collected from the review of historical sources and the analysis of scientific articles and technical reports and are geographically localized in a GIS environment comparing the historical information with modern topographic datasets and the Italian national inventory of landslides (IFFI database: https://www.progettoiffi.isprambiente.it). Based on these criteria CFTIlandslides is currently the only historical dataset available at a global, regional, and national scale.The CFTIlandslides was designed as continuously updated repository, and as such it is open to later additions and improvements in future releases. The first version of the database features historical earthquake-induced landslides subdivided into classes based on location accuracy and type of movement. The CFTIlandslides is conceived as a publicly accessible online WebGIS, it has interactive access to external data via web-services. This allows to visualize and compare HEILs localization with other geophysical and geological information. Data can be analyzed using a 3D terrain map. Moreover, the CFTIlandslides data are distributed through OGC web services, and can be downloaded in different file formats.The HEILs collected in the CFTIlandslides can be used to:- to develop empirical relationships between landslide density and seismological parameters of the triggering earthquakes at national and regional scales;- make comparison between earthquake-induced landslides distribution of past and recent earthquakes; - perform detailed historical studies of a single landslide or a specific area. Therefore, this new dataset is the starting point for new elaborations about the study of earthquake-induced landslides. These results can subsequently be applied to mitigate seismic hazards and reduce risks and build effective strategies for urban planning and emergency management.The database is addressed to a large audience of potential users and stakeholders, including researchers and scholars, administrators and technicians of local institutions, and civil protection authorities.

The Roncovetro landslide is a complex active earth flow located in the Enza Valley (Emilia-Romagna Region, Italy). It carves the southern flank of Monte Staffola from its summit to the riverbed of Tassobbio stream, with a total involved volume of ~ 3×106 m3. This ~ 2.5 km landslide has a maximum width of 300 m and a 30-40 m wide channel that separates the depletion zone from the accumulation zones. Since the clay fraction is largely dominant, the landslide mainly behaves like a fluid-viscous earthflow. capable of reaching maximum velocities of up to 10 m/day. The perennial activity of the Roncovetro landslide is characterized by phases during which the detachment is limited to deep creep, sliding, and flowing, as well as major events that result in the interruption of the white road between Roncovetro and Vedriano villages. In recent years, the Roncovetro landslide has been selected as a test site for evaluating new monitoring technologies based on Ultra-Wide Band (UWB) wireless sensors. Currently, it has been designated as a study area for the "Land-slide Enhanced Monitoring Network (LEMON)" project funded by the INGV. As part of the LEMON project, a small network of UWB wireless sensors has been installed on the landslide body to monitor its movement. The technology used was previously described in Intrieri et al. (2018) and Mucchi et al. (2018). The installed network consists of five sensors, comprising one master node and four slave nodes. The master node and one slave node were placed outside the area recently affected by displacements, while three nodes were positioned inside the landslide body. The acquisition frequency was set at one acquisition every three hours, totaling eight acquisitions per day. In November 2023, the Roncovetro landslide experienced a significant displacement that once again swept away the white road. This displacement was fully recorded by the UWB network. Additionally, an Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) survey was conducted before and after the displacement to offer a comprehensive view of the movement. In this work, we first describe the technological improvements and updates made to the UWB wireless network compared to previous works. Second, we describe the November 2023 displacement of the Roncovetro landslide as recorded by the UWB network with a frequency of one acquisition every three hours. And finally, we compare the data provided by the UWB network with the changes in the landslide detected through the comparison of pre- and post-UAS-derived orthophotos.

Knowing the location, the extent and the characteristics of any earthquake-induced environmental phenomenon is becoming an increasingly pressing need for civil protection agencies and local administrations. In particular, earthquake-triggered landslides are known for being among the most important sources of secondary hazard, as they may cause significant losses and may delay rescue operations across large areas. The combination of the relatively frequent seismic release with a very high landslide susceptibility makes the Italian territory especially prone to the occurrence of earthquake-induced landslides. The CFTIlandslides dataset features over 1,000 landslides triggered by historical Italian earthquakes (up to 1997). The landslides effects are subdivided into classes based on location accuracy and type of movement. Knowing the distribution of the past earthquake-induced landslides provides the input information for assessing the related hazard. This dataset is addressed to a large audience of potential users, including researchers and scholars, administrators and technicians belonging to local institutions, and civil protection authorities.

This study explores the seismotectonics of Kachchh in western India, a region with a low-to-moderate strain rate and a history of significant earthquakes, notably the 1819, Mw 7.8 Allah Bund, and the 2001, Mw 7.6 Bhuj. Despite its substantial seismic risk, comprehensive studies on Kachchh's seismogenic sources are scarce. This is attributed to the concealed nature of active structures, hindering definitive age constraints in paleoseismological research. Our research comprises a detailed paleoseismic analysis of the north-verging, reverse Jhura Fault underlying the Jhura anticline, a segment of the Kachchh Mainland Fault. This fault segment shows evidence of surface-rupturing earthquakes in the area south of the Great Rann of Kachchh. The investigation reveals three paleoseismic events: Event I before 9.72 ka B.P., Event II between 8.63-8.20 ka B.P., and Event III between 6.20-6.09 ka B.P. The elapsed time since the last event on this fault is > 8000 years, suggesting that the area is exposed to a significant earthquake hazard. This highlights the need for more precise characterization of individual seismogenic sources for future earthquake preparedness.

We investigated the active tectonics and earthquake potential of the eastern Siena Basin, a slowly deforming portion of southern Tuscany in the inner Northern Apennines. This region hosts several historical settlements and valuable cultural heritage, but also frequent background seismicity and rare damaging earthquakes in the Mw range 5.0-6.2. We describe in detail an active, capable, and seismogenic fault system that we identified in the eastern Siena Basin, a few kilometers south-east of the city of Siena, thanks to the presence of an active quarry (Cava Capanni) that exploits travertines of Middle Pleistocene-Holocene age. Travertines are unique rock masses that may preserve living evidence of active and seismogenic faulting, thus providing remarkable seismotectonic insight. The active fault system consists of at least two segments rupturing travertines younger than 45 ka, with a cumulative vertical displacement of 111 cm, and an estimated minimum slip rate of 0.02-0.03 mm/y. We maintain that this displacement is the result of at least three coseismic movements accompanied by clastic dykes injected within the fault damage zone due to liquefaction phenomena. The fault system is seen to extend east of the quarry, affecting Pliocene and Mesozoic deposits. The Cava Capanni fault system is evidence of a poorly understood but potentially seismogenic tectonic mechanism of regional extent. Its orientation and kinematics are compatible with the activity of faults that are oriented obliquely or orthogonally to the main chain axis, in contrast with the setting of the axial and outer zone of the Northern Apennines, where extension and compression are accommodated by Apennines-parallel faults.

The coastal landscape of the Kachchh Upland (KU) region (NW-India) changed over the last few thousand years from a shallow marine gulf to a salty desert (1-4 meters asl). In this area, bordered to the south by the Northern Hill Range (NHR), the tectonic-climatic interaction triggered the sea level fall from +2/4 m circa (6000-2000 BP) to zero. An ancient river pattern deposited a tidally regulated delta area during the sea level fall that stopped 2000-3000 years ago due to tectonic activity and a dry climate.Deltaic-alluvial fans (DAF) in front of the NHR suggest that the KU's tectonic activity led to fast landscape evolution. We explored such drastic changes by integrating scientific information from a multidisciplinary literature review, identifying terraces and DAFs, and inferring faults through landform recognition, quantitative morphometry, and field surveys. Our interpretation, summarized in a map, provides new information on active processes along the NHR.

<p>The study of the incidence of coseismic phenomena is becoming an increasingly demanding and fundamental need in terms of civil protection agencies. Especially landslides triggered by earthquakes can cause significant impacts and losses across wide areas affected by earthquake shaking.</p><p>In this context, we present a new database of historical earthquake-induced landslides (HEILs) created within the project “Multi-scale, integrated approach for the definition of earthquake-induced landslide hazard in Italy”, funded by the Italian Ministry for the Environment. The goal of this project was to develop a multidisciplinary approach for assessing the earthquake-induced landslide hazard at national, regional and local scales, and integrating existing databases with the results from previous projects and research activities.</p><p>The Catalogue of Strong Earthquakes in Italy (CFTI) database holds a central role in this research. It collects the results of over three decades of research on historical seismicity in Italy. What makes CFTI different from other earthquake catalogues is that its database does contain not only parametric data and macroseismic intensities assigned to individual localities but also synthetic descriptions of the seismic scenario for each investigated earthquake sequence. It provides a complete account of the effects on the built and natural environment. In addition, for every investigated earthquake sequence, CFTI supplies the relevant bibliography in an organized form, allowing to navigate upstream from the parameters of a specific earthquake to the original sources used to investigate that event.</p><p>​​CFTI also provides descriptions of the effects induced by earthquakes on the natural environment, such as ground cracks, chasms, landslides, rockfalls, changes in the discharge rate of rivers and springs, tsunami effects, overflowing of lakes, etc. Specifically, its latest version, CFTI5Med, documents about 600 landslides associated with strong historical earthquakes.</p><p>We thus reviewed and integrated data relating to HEILs, already included in the CFTI database, by identifying new landslides. We focused on the review of historical sources, newly found or already archived in the CFTI database, the analysis of recent scientific articles and technical reports. Moreover, we carried out a comparison with other digital archives such as the CEDIT (https://doi.org/10.4408/IJEGE.2012-02.O-05) and the EEE catalogue (http://eeecatalogue.isprambiente.it/). The goal was reaching a more accurate localization and definition of the slope movement types of the HEILs, when the descriptions of the historical sources allowed it, through the geographical comparison with data of different origins, such as aerial photographs, geomorphological and instability maps. These effects were associated, where possible, with the individual landslides registered in the IFFI database (https://www.progettoiffi.isprambiente.it/).</p><p>The final result is a dataset with about 1,000 landslides divided into classes of location accuracy. The dataset is addressed to a large audience of potential users: researchers and scholars, administrators and technicians of local institutions, and civil protection authorities.</p><p>The results are collected in a new independent database, CFTI Landslides, connected to the CFTI5Med, which is publicly accessible online through a dedicated open-source geographic interface, designed to be interoperable with both INGV and external databases.</p><p> </p>

The Italian historical earthquake record is among the richest worldwide; as such it allows for the development of advanced techniques for retrieving quantitative information by calibration with recent earthquakes. Building on a pilot elaboration of northern Italian earthquakes, we developed a procedure for determining the hypocentral depth of all Italian earthquakes from macroseismic intensity data alone. In a second step the procedure calculates their magnitude, taking into account the inferred depth. Hypocentral depth exhibits substantial variability countrywide but has so far received little attention: pre-instrumental earthquakes were routinely “flattened” at the upper-crustal level (∼10 km), on the grounds that the calculation of hypocentral depth is heavily dependent on the largely unknown local propagation properties. We gathered a learning set of 42 earthquakes documented by reliable instrumental data and by numerous macroseismic intensity observations. We observe (1) that within 50 km from the epicenter the ground motion attenuation rate is primarily controlled by hypocentral depth and largely independent of magnitude, (2) that within this distance the fluctuations in crustal attenuation properties are negligible countrywide, and (3) that knowing both the depth and the expected epicentral intensity makes it possible to estimate a reliable magnitude.

<p>The undersea portion of the Northern Apennines is characterized by blind thrust faults running parallel to the Adriatic Sea coastline in northeastern peninsular Italy. These thrusts are buried below a thick cover of syntectonic Quaternary deposits. Their elusive geological signature at shallow depths and the low seismicity associated with them gave rise to diverging interpretations and views concerning the current activity of these thrusts and their earthquake potential.</p> <p>On 9 November 2022, a seismic sequence started with an Mw 5.5 earthquake in the Pesaro Offshore. Hypocentral depth, focal mechanism, and aftershocks location all suggest that the earthquake was generated by one of the outermost thrusts of the Northern Apennines front that was already mapped as a potential seismogenic source in the DISS database (https://diss.ingv.it/diss330/sources.php?ITCS106).</p> <p>We present a 3D reconstruction of the thrust system that caused the Pesaro Offshore seismic sequence obtained through the reinterpretation of publicly available seismic reflection profiles and well logs. The 3D geometry and size of the thrust activated during the seismic sequence suggest that it can also host larger earthquakes. We also present the application of a well-established workflow for calculating the slip rates of this buried thrust already tested in nearby structures. The outcomes of this study represent a step forward for earthquake and tsunami hazard models, the study of the seismic source, the enhancement of earthquake location by mix and match of seismological and geological independent data, and the expected kinematics of future potential earthquake ruptures.</p> <p>These results are particularly relevant in offshore areas, where neither surface co-seismic ruptures nor GPS/InSAR deformation data are available in the aftermath of a significant earthquake. In these cases, multichannel seismic reflection profiles represent the only tool to appraise the subsurface structural setting. </p>

We present the geomorphological map of the upper sector of the Roncovetro active landslide (Enza Valley, Emilia-Romagna, Italy). The 1:1500 scale map provides an accurate picture of the landslide in October 2014. The map is mainly based on the data collected during an airborne LiDAR survey. The capability of LiDAR to 'penetrate' the vegetation cover makes these data the most complete and accurate topographic dataset of this landslide. The map shows that the upper sector of the Roncovetro landslide consists of gravity- and water runoff-related forms. Gravitational features are linked to sliding and flowing movements that characterize the short- and long-term behaviour of the landslide. By comparing the 2014 LiDAR-Digital Elevation Model (DEM) with the 1973 DEM provided by the Emilia-Romagna Region, we calculated that 6.2 +/- 0.8 x 105 m3 of material has moved from the top of the Roncovetro landslide in about 40 years.

We present and discuss the results of a geomorphological and geological study aimed at reconstructing the Plio-Quaternary evolution of the NW Sicily coastal belt , a low strain rate region in the central Mediterranean Sea.We performed morphometric and field analysis of Quaternary marine terraces extracting more than 300 shoreline location points subdivided into six orders. The obtained dataset was validate by investigating the morphological changes along topographic profiles and comparing the extracted locations and elevations with the stratigraphic boundaries in the Plio-Quaternary units.We distinguished two contiguous coastal sectors characterized by different paleo-shoreline elevations and Plio-Quaternary evolution, whose estimated uplift rates fit well with the well-known, regional eastward uplift rate increase along the Northern Sicilian continental margin.Obtained results, summarized in a geomorphological map and a morpho-evolutionary model, provide new valuable data to characterize the active deformation processes and the seismotectonic setting in this critical sector of the Africa-Europe plate boundary.

Abstract The prompt identification of faults responsible for moderate‐to‐large earthquakes is fundamental for understanding the likelihood of further, potentially damaging events. This is increasingly challenging when the activated fault is an offshore buried thrust, where neither coseismic surface ruptures nor GPS/InSAR deformation data are available after an earthquake. We show that on 9 November 2022, an Mw 5.5 earthquake offshore Pesaro ruptured a portion of the buried Northern Apennines thrust front (the Cornelia thrust system [CTS]). By post‐processing and interpreting the seismic reflection profiles crossing this thrust system, we determined that the activated fault (CTS) is an arcuate 30‐km‐long, NW‐SE striking, SW dipping thrust and that older structures at its footwall possibly influenced its position and geometry. The activation of adjacent segments of the thrust system is a plausible scenario that deserves to be further investigated to understand the full earthquake potential of this offshore seismogenic source.