Late Quaternary tectonics and active ground deformation in the Catania urban area (eastern Sicily): New constraints from a geological investigation

New surface and subsurface geological data on the Catania urban area, in eastern Sicily, are here illustrated by a detailed geological map of the city and by four significant cross-sections. Our study aims at defining the prolongation of the principal regional Late Quaternary tectonic features, beneath the city. The resulting geometry of the investigated structures completes the tectonic pictures of two different stages of deformation. The earlier structural association, ranging in age from 600 to 125 ka, consists of a transpressive dextral belt that include E-W oblique thrust ramp, located to the south and the north of the city respectively, connected by a wide NE-SW oriented anticline crossing the urban area. The younger structural association developed since the Late Pleistocene and includes a set of ENE-trending folds that originated at the hangingwall of a main thrust ramp running just beneath the old town (Catania Thrust Ramp). These contractional features have been active during the last 60 ka and their geometry is consistent with the active ground deformation observed by the available geodetic data (GPS vectors and DInSAR analyses). The entire set of the recent structures are bordered to the north by a dextral transfer zone, reactivating part of the previous E-W alignment, that now represents the tectonic boundary with the Mt. Etna Volcano transtensional domain. Our data suggest that the Catania Thrust Ramp could play a main role in the active deformation pattern of the region, thus representing a potential seismotectonic feature to be carefully investigated for the re-evaluation of the seismic hazard of the area.