Active faulting and seismicity along the Siculo–Calabrian Rift Zone (Southern Italy)

Southern Italy is dominated by extensional tectonics that in the Calabrian arc and Eastern Sicily produced the development of the Siculo–Calabrian Rift Zone (SCRZ). This zone is represented by a ≈370 km-long fault belt consisting of 10 to 50 km long distinct fault segments whichextend both offshore and on land being also responsible of the crustal seismicity of this region. The geological and morphological observationsindicate that the active normal faults of the SCRZ are characterized by throw-rates ranging from 0.7 to 3.1 mm/a. They accommodate an almostuniform horizontal extension-rate of about 3.0 mm/a along a WNW–ESE regional extension direction. Based on our field observations andfollowing empirical relationships between magnitude and surface rupture length connections between large crustal earthquakes and distinct faultsegments of the SCRZ have been also tentatively tested. Our data indicate moreover that the magnitudes (M) of the historical and instrumentalearthquakes are consistent with the estimated values and that the geometry and kinematics of the fault segments and the related different crustalfeatures of the SCRZ control the different seismic behaviours of adjacent portions of the active rift zone.