The 1511 Eastern Alps Earthquakes
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The 1511 Eastern Alps earthquakes: a critical update and comparison of existing macroseismic datasets Romano Camassi, Carlos Hector Caracciolo, Viviana Castelli, Dario Slejko To cite this version: Romano Camassi, Carlos Hector Caracciolo, Viviana Castelli, Dario Slejko. The 1511 Eastern Alps earthquakes: a critical update and comparison of existing macroseismic datasets. Journal of Seismol- ogy, Springer Verlag, 2010, 15 (2), pp.191-213. 10.1007/s10950-010-9220-9. hal-00652638 HAL Id: hal-00652638 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00652638 Submitted on 16 Dec 2011 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Manuscript Click here to download Manuscript: camassi.doc Click here to view linked References Romano Camassi, Carlos Hector Caracciolo, Viviana Castelli, Dario Slejko, 1 2 3 4 The 1511 Eastern Alps earthquakes: a critical 5 6 7 update and comparison of existing 8 9 10 macroseismic datasets 11 12 13 14 R. Camassi [corresponding author] 15 16 17 Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Sezione di Bologna 18 Via Donato Creti, 12, 40128 Bologna, Italy 19 phone. +39.051.4151421 fax +39.051.4151499 20 21 22 e-mail: [email protected] 23 24 25 C.H. Caracciolo 26 27 28 Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Sezione di Bologna, Italy 29 e-mail: [email protected] 30 31 32 33 V. Castelli 34 35 Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Sezione di Bologna, Italy 36 37 e-mail: [email protected] 38 39 40 D. Slejko 41 42 Istituto Nazionale di Oceanografia e di Geofisica Sperimentale, Sgonico (Trieste), 43 44 Italy 45 e-mail: [email protected] 46 47 48 49 Abstract Three earthquakes condition the seismic hazard estimates of the eastern Alps: the 1348 50 “Villach”, the 1511 “Idrija”, and the 1976 Gemona events. Only the last one can be well 51 52 documented, while doubts remain for location and size of the other two. New documents have 53 been found about the 1511 quake that, together with a complete revision of the information already 54 55 available, offer some new indications on the location and size of the event. 56 57 58 59 Keywords Historical earthquakes, 1511, Eastern Alps, Seismic hazard 60 61 62 63 1 64 65 1 1 Introduction 2 3 4 In the past centuries the eastern Alps were hit by several 5 6 destructive earthquakes, most of which clustered in the narrow 7 8 strip of land running along the foothills which divide the Friuli 9 10 plain from the Alpine chain proper (Fig. 1). Information on the 11 12 earliest among these earthquakes is comparatively scarce; some 13 14 strong 20th century earthquakes (Tolmezzo 1928; Cansiglio 15 16 1936; and, above all, Gemona 1976) have been thoroughly 17 18 studied (Gortani 1928; Cavasino 1929; Andreotti 1937; Carulli 19 20 and Slejko 2005). 21 22 The most seismically active sector of the eastern Alps is the area 23 24 connecting them with the Dinarides (Tab. 1). This seismic source 25 was modelled in various ways (Slejko et al. 2008) and seems to 26 27 be the foremost contributor to the regional seismic hazard 28 29 assessment (Rebez et al. 2001), though the seismicity of 30 31 western Slovenia and Carinthia (southern Austria) also plays a 32 33 part in shaping the seismic hazard of the eastern Alps. Among 34 35 the few earthquakes that can be considered as key events for 36 37 regional seismogenesis a fundamental role is played by the 1511 38 39 earthquake. 40 41 In addition to the specific studies on the 1511 earthquake based 42 43 on archive investigations (the main locations obtained are shown 44 45 as stars in Fig. 1), and widely documented in the following 46 47 sections, Fitzko et al. (2005) modelled a possible epicentre and 48 49 mechanism for the earthquake by using macroseismic data and 50 51 recent studies on active tectonics. They obtained as best solution 52 a 6.9 magnitude event rupturing 50 km of the Idrija right strike- 53 54 slip fault (star labelled 7 in Fig. 1). 55 56 Aim of the present study is to document the new findings on the 57 58 1511 earthquake obtained by an intensive, although not 59 60 exaustive, historical investigation and to highlight how the 61 62 63 2 64 65 improved macroseismic data contribute to a seismotectonic 1 2 comprehension of the earthquake. 3 4 5 2 Seismotectonic framework and implications for 6 7 8 the regional seismic hazard 9 10 The area studied (Fig. 1) represents the north-eastern portion of 11 12 the deformed margin of the Adria microplate, where a complex 13 14 interaction between two orogenic chains occurs. The area 15 16 comprises the hinge zone between the eastern sector of the 17 18 Southern Alps and the north-western part of the External 19 20 Dinarides. Both systems reflect in shape and in geodynamic 21 22 evolution the effects of the collision between the Adria microplate 23 24 and the European plate, and of the fragmentation of the 25 26 microplate itself (Carulli et al. 1990). 27 28 The mountainous part of Friuli (excepted the Paleocarnic Chain of 29 30 Paleozoic age) comprises the eastern portion of the Southern 31 32 Alps, here gradually passing towards the east into the Dinaric 33 34 orogenic belt. The southern parts of these mountain chains 35 36 (Carnian and Julian Prealps) face southwards on the Friuli plain 37 38 (i.e. the eastern end of the Po plain), which can be considered as 39 their foreland basin. The structural units of the Dinaric orogenic 40 41 belt have a SW vergence, while the Alpine ones have a S-SE 42 43 vergence. The highest crustal shortening of the entire Southern 44 45 Alps (up to 1/3 of the original terrain extension) can be seen in 46 47 Friuli (Castellarin 1979; Castellarin and Vai 1981). 48 49 The Southern Alps orogenic belt is composed of closely-spaced, 50 51 generally south-verging overthrusts (Fig. 1). The southernmost 52 53 overthrusts, in the maximum shortening zone, developed in 54 55 response to the more recent N-S oriented compressional stresses 56 57 (Zanferrari et al., 2000). The recent activity of these tectonic 58 59 lines is amply documented by geological data (Carulli et al. 60 61 62 63 3 64 65 1980; Zanferrari et al. 1982) and high-precision topographic 1 2 measurements (Talamo et al. 1978). 3 4 The Dinaric system is characterized by overthrusts and by mostly 5 6 dextral, sub-vertical faults with direction ranging between NW-SE 7 8 and NNW-SSE, the most important of which is the Idrija line (g 9 10 in Fig. 1) with its auxiliary faults, among which the Ravne line (f 11 in Fig. 1) needs a mention. Seismic reflection data indicate 12 13 buried overthrusts of Dinaric direction also in the northern Friuli 14 15 plain (Carulli et al. 1990; Galadini et al. 2005). The displacement 16 17 along the faults that cross the Southern Alps thrust front is 18 19 smaller than that along the same faults in the External Dinarides. 20 21 This suggests that the thrusting of the Southern Alps is younger 22 23 than the faulting of the External Dinarides (Zupancic et al. 24 25 2001). In northern Slovenia, the main structures are E-W 26 27 oriented and are the eastern continuation of the Gail line (a in 28 29 Fig. 1), the Fella-Sava line (b in Fig. 1), and the Southern Alps 30 31 thrusts (e.g., c and d in Fig. 1). 32 33 Thanks to the early settlement of this area (some towns, such as 34 35 Belluno, Cividale, Ljubljana and Trieste did already exist in 36 37 Roman times and flourished in the Middle Ages) the historical 38 39 seismicity of the eastern Alps is comparatively well known 40 (Bonito 1691; Baratta 1901). The eastern Alps and western 41 42 Dinarides have a long history in instrumental data collection too, 43 44 some seismographic stations (e.g.: Trieste, Ljubljana, Pula, 45 46 Padova, Venezia, Treviso) having been operating since early 47 48 20th century. Thanks also to studies on regional seismicity (e.g.: 49 50 Slejko et al. 1989), the latest Italian earthquake catalogues 51 52 (Camassi and Stucchi 1996; Boschi et al. 1995, 1997; CPTI 53 54 Working Group 1999, 2004) give a creditable overview of the 55 56 seismically most active areas. Major seismicity occurs along the 57 58 piedmont belt, from Cividale to Belluno, reaching its maximum in 59 60 central Friuli. Other seismic areas are located in Southern 61 62 63 4 64 65 Austria, western Slovenia, and along the Croatian coast. On the 1 2 whole, seismicity appears more uniform in Slovenia and in 3 4 Croatia than it does in Veneto and Friuli (Del Ben et al. 1991). 5 6 Owing to the regional tectonic regime (mostly overthrusts), a 7 8 direct association of earthquakes to faults is very difficult and, 9 10 consequently, seismicity was more easily associated to fault 11 systems. The association of some of the main earthquakes to 12 13 individual faults was proposed by Galadini et al.