Coseismic Damage at an Archaeological Site in Sicily, Italy: Evidence of Roman Age Earthquake Surface Faulting

Geophysical surveys - Tập 39 - Trang 1263-1284 - 2018
C. Bottari1, R. Martorana2,3, S. Scudero3, P. Capizzi2, D. Cavallaro4, A. Pisciotta5, A. D’Alessandro3,2, M. Coltelli4, L. Lodato4
1Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Sezione di Roma 2, Rome, Italy
2Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra e del Mare, Università degli Studi di Palermo, Palermo, Italy
3Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Osservatorio Nazionale Terremoti, Rome, Italy
4Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Sezione di Catania, Osservatorio Etneo, Catania, Italy
5Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia—Sezione di Palermo, Palermo, Italy

Tóm tắt

Archaeoseismology can provide a useful chronological tool for constraining earthquakes and documenting significant evidence that would otherwise be lost. In this paper, we report a case of surface faulting on ancient man-made structures belonging to the archaeological site of Santa Venera al Pozzo situated along the eastern flank of Mt. Etna volcano in eastern Sicily (southern Italy), which is affected by well-developed tectonic faults. Geological surveys highlight a set of fractures affecting the archaeological ruins, suggesting the occurrence of a capable fault zone across the area. An integrated geophysical survey was carried out in order to identify the main subsurface tectonic discontinuity ascribable to the fault zone. The information derived from different geophysical techniques, such as electrical resistivity tomography, seismic refraction tomography, ground-penetrating radar, and magnetic surveys allowed us to infer that the fractures observed at the surface could have been produced by coseismic rupture. They are conceivably linked to a strong earthquake that probably occurred in the Roman period, around mid-end of the third-century AD; time constraints are inferred through the dating of buildings of the archaeological site.

Tài liệu tham khảo

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