NEOTECTONICS AS A PROCEDURE TO UNCOVER ACTIVE SEISMOGENIC FAULTS: THE PRESENT EFFICACY OF THE ITALIAN APPROACH MATURED IN 1970-1980 Neotectonics for investigating active and seismogenic faults

Abstract

Earthquakes are generated by active faults. Defining a fault as active can allow to make inferences about seismicity and the seismotectonic characteristics of the territories in which a fault is nestled. This contributes to make inferences about the hazards connected to active faults, that is seismic shaking and surface faulting hazard. Scientific literature doesn’t still get to a univocally accepted definition of what can be considered as active fault, or of which are the characteristics that a fault must display to be considered as active. Since the seventies of the past century the definition of a fault as active has been linked to the tectonic regime affecting a given region. Therefore, to assess fault activity it is fundamental to ascertain the tectonic regime affecting a given region. Neotectonics, defined by Carlo Bosi (1992) in his noteworthy synthesis as “an integrated set of researches with the aim to define the Plio-Quaternary (in the Italian case) tectonic evolution defined through a temporal scan of hundreds of thousands of years”, represents a fundamental and irreplaceable methodological instrument to assess the tectonic regime affecting a given territory and thus to make inferences on fault activity in a seismotectonic perspective.