Paleoseismic Investigation of Historical Liquefactions Along the Ionian Coast of Sicily

Abstract

Eastern Sicily is an area where some of the most catastrophic earthquakes in Italian history occurred. As reported by historical sources, these earthquakes induced liquefaction phenomena. In two areas along the Ionian coast of Sicily we found liquefaction evidence in Holocene deposits. In the Minissale site (east of Mount Etna), the observed liquefaction features can be related to the 1169 and 1693 earthquakes, while in the Agnone site (south of Catania), the deformational structures can be tentatively associated to the 1542 and 1693 events. Both sites locate in areas where historical liquefaction has been observed in the past, thus confirming the actual liquefaction susceptibility/potential in this region. The evidence of repeated liquefaction events at the same site, highlights the relevance of the paleoseismic approach for modeling the recurrence time and preparing scenarios of seismic effects in eastern Sicily, where seismogenic sources are scantly defined.

Keywords:

• Liquefaction Structures
• Paleoseismology
• Holocene Deposits
• Eastern Sicily

Acknowledgments

This work was funded by the Italian Civil Defence through INGV-DPC Project S2, grants to MSB and PMDM. E. Gliozzi is thanked for assistance with ostracodes analyses. We wish to thank P. Galli that with its criticism and suggestion contributed to substantially improve the original manuscript.