Approximately 20 km north-east of Rome, along the modern trace of the Tiburtina road, recent archaeological diggings have brought to light a system of aqueduct galleries constructed by Roman engineers. This site falls inside the Acque Albule Basin, a travertine plateau Upper Pleistocene in age, that has been interpreted as a rhombshaped pull-apart basin created by strike-slip faulting within a N-S shear zone. This study provides evidence that two narrow water channels of this aqueduct system were significantly deformed by tectonic movement that occurred subsequent to their construction (II-III century A.D.). The geometry of the deformation pattern is compatible with that expected for a shear zone bounded by N-S oriented, right-lateral faults. The palaeomagnetic study of the volcanic formation («Pozzolane Rosse» Formation, 457± 4 kyr) containing the Roman aqueduct system evidences significant clockwise rotation around sub-vertical axis, consistent with the above-mentioned tectonic style.

Aqueduct

Clockwise

10.4401/ag-3366

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An improved stress map for Italy and surrounding regions (central Mediterranean)

Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres (2004)

P. Montone Maria Teresa Mariucci Silvia Pondrelli Alessandro Amato

We present an updated present‐day stress data compilation for the Italian region and discuss it with respect to the geodynamic setting and the seismicity of the area. We collected and analyzed 190 new stress data from borehole breakouts, seismicity, and active faults and checked in detail the previous compilation [ Montone et al. , 1999 ]. Our improved data set consists of 542 data, 362 of which with a reliable quality for stress maps. The Italian region is well sampled, allowing the computation of constrained smoothed stress maps; for surrounding regions we added the World Stress Map 2003 release data. These maps depict the active stress conditions and, in the areas where the data are sparse, contribute to understand the relationship between active stress, past tectonic setting, and the seismicity of the study region. The new data are particularly representative along the northern Apennine front, from the Po Plain to offshore the Adriatic, and along the southern Tyrrhenian Sea, north of Sicily, where they point out a compressive tectonic regime. In the Alps both compressive and transcurrent regimes are observed. Our data also confirm that the whole Apenninic belt and the Calabrian arc are extending. Along the central Adriatic coast, changes from one stress regime to another are shown by abrupt variations in the minimum horizontal stress directions. Other gentler stress rotations, as, for instance, from the southern Apennines to the Calabrian arc or along the northern Apennines, follow the curvature of the arcs and are not associated to a stress regime variation.

Seismotectonics

Island arc

Stress field

10.1029/2003jb002703

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Comment on egusphere-2024-1249

P. Montone Simona Pierdominici Maria Teresa Mariucci Francesco Mirabella Marco Urbani

Abstract. The ICDP STAR drilling project aims to study the seismic and aseismic fault slip behaviour of the active low-angle Alto Tiberina normal Fault (ATF) in the Northern Apennines, Central Italy, drilling and instrumenting six shallow boreholes with seismometers and strainmeters. During the STAR field work, a geophysical downhole logging campaign was carried on defining the optimal target depth for instrument deployment and formation rock characterization. In particular, the main objectives of this study were to define in situ physical properties of the rocks and the tectonic discontinuity geometry along the boreholes. The downhole logging data provide new findings and knowledge especially with regards to the physical properties such as resistivity, gamma ray and wave velocity. The collected parameters were compared to the results of literature data collected in similar lithologies, as well as with the results of logging performed in deeper wells drilled for commercial purposes. The physical properties of the Mesozoic-Early Tertiary calcareous formations show low Gamma Ray values and high compressional (Vp) and shear wave (Vs) velocities (up to 5.3 km/s and 2.9 km/s, respectively), whereas the overlying clay-rich Late Tertiary formations exhibit high Gamma Ray and low resistivity and relatively low Vp and Vs values (up to 3.5 km/s and 2.0 km/s, respectively). The results obtained from the analysis of the orientations of the tectonic structures, measured along the six boreholes, show a good agreement with the orientations of the present-day extensional stress field, NE-SW oriented. Our study allowed to bridge the gap between the physical properties obtained from literature data and those obtained from the deep wells measurements, representing a possible case history for future projects. These new data will contribute to the advancement of knowledge of the physical properties of the rocks at shallow depths, typically overlooked.

10.5194/egusphere-2024-1249-rc2

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