Tettonica quaternaria ed elementi di sismotettonica nell'area delle Murge (Avampaese apulo)

Abstract

The paper illustrates the tectonic activity during the Quaternary in the Murge area, a portion of the Apulian foreland in southeastern Italy. Tensional and transtensional faults are the main structural features of this area and are associated with an horst-and-graben system cutting the whole foreland ramp (the Murge area s.s. and the substratum of the Bradanic trough). Terraced marine deposits of Quaternary age are also displaced indicating a Middle-Late Pleistocene fault activity. The same deposits display soft-sediment deformation structures induced by seismic liquefaction (seismites). Quaternary tectonic evidence and instrumental records of low-energy earthquakes (M≤3.2) allow for a revision of the seismotectonic zonation of the Murge area.