On May 26, the setting of the Rampinzeri Castle (Santa Ninfa - TP) will host the presentation of the results of the multi-year research activity financed by the "Earthquakes" structure of the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) and conducted by a group of researchers from INGV, the University of Catania, the University of Palermo and the “Federico II” University of Naples.
The object of the study was the identification and characterization of active fault systems in the sector of south-western Sicily between the upper Belìce River Valley and the coastal strip between Mazara del Vallo and Sciacca, assuming that these systems host the faults responsible for the seismic sequence that dramatically hit the Belìce in 1968 and the ancient city of Selinunte between the V-IV century BC and the IV century AD
Despite the high number of victims and the devastation caused, the Belìce earthquake has not had a particular response in geological and geophysical research over the last few decades. Few and typically monodisciplinary are the scientific works that have had that earthquake and its geodynamic context as their subject.
Three activities carried out within the project: definition of the tectonic framework of southwestern Sicily; investigation and characterization of active land and sea faults, potential sources of destructive earthquakes; and finally, geodetic evaluation of the current rate of deformation of the Belìce area and of the coastal area between Mazara del Vallo and Sciacca. The results of this project will provide new data useful for the revision of the faults cataloged in the INGV database of DISS Seismogenic Sources (http://diss.rm.ingv.it/diss/) which are used for drawing up the Seismic Hazard Chart, published by INGV and which, since 2006, has been the official state chart.
Photo 1 - High resolution sparker profile made off the coast of Sciacca
Photo 2 - SAR image obtained from the new SENTINEL satellites