Journal of Geodynamics 29 (2000) 233244

A structural model for active extension in Central Italy

Paolo Boncio*, Giusy Lavecchia
Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Universita ``G. D'Annunzio'', Chieti Scalo, Italy

Abstract
This work presents a structural model for earthquake faulting in the Umbria-Marche Apennines
(Central Italy). The model is derived by an integrated analysis of geological, geophysical and
seismological data. At regional scale, the distribution and character of the seismicity appear to be
mainly controlled by a low-angle east-dipping normal fault (Altotiberina fault, AF). The latter is the
lower boundary of an active, continuously deforming hangingwall block moving toward NE. Moderate
magnitude earthquakes (4 < M < 6), such as the Norcia 1979 (M = 5.9), the Gubbio 1984 (M = 5.2)
and the Colorito 1997 (Mmax = 5.9), occur within the active hangingwall block and are related to the
activity of major west-dipping normal faults detaching on the AF. The geometry of the deep
seismogenic structures is listric (as in the case of Colorito) or more complex, because of local
reactivation of pre-existing low-angle thrust (e.g. Gubbio) or high-angle strike-slip faults (e.g. Norcia).
For all the analysed earthquakes the rupture nucleation is located at the base of the aftershock volumes,
near the line of intersection between the SW-dipping normal faults and the east-dipping AF basal
detachment. The progressive increase in depth of the earthquake foci from the northwest (e.g. Gubbio,
67 km) to the southeast (e.g. Norcia, 1112 km) appears to be related to the eastward deepening of
the basal detachment. These seismotectonic features are relevant for determining the seismogenic
potential of the Apennine active faults, which depends not only on the length of the faults, but also on
the depth of the detachment zone as well. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.

1. Introduction and Plio-Quaternary tectonic context

The Umbria-Marche Apennines (Central Italy) are aected by intense Plio-Quaternary
extensional deformations. Mainly SW-dipping normal and normaloblique faults, with
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: pboncio@unich.it (P. Boncio).
0264-3707/00/$ - see front matter Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.
PII: S 0 2 6 4 - 3 7 0 7 ( 9 9 ) 0 0 0 5 0 - 2

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associated intramontane basins, are the main expression of the extensional strain eld at the
surface (Fig. 1) (Calamita and Pizzi, 1994; Lavecchia et al., 1994). A regional east-dipping lowangle normal fault zone (Altotiberina Fault, AF), which represents the basal detachment to the
SW-dipping faults, is clearly imaged by the CROP-03 NVR seismic prole (Figs. 2a and 3) and
by commercial seismic reection proles (Barchi et al., 1998). It may be also deduced by
interpretation of seismic refraction data (DSS '78, Ponziani et al., 1995) (Fig. 2b). The AF
crops out west of the Tiber Basin and extends along strike up to 5060 km, deepening with a

Fig. 1. Structural map of the Umbria-Marche region with major extensional structures and related mean direction
of the horizontal minimum principal stress s3-axis) deduced from fault slip data (the s1-axis is sub-vertical). The
traces of the geological sections refer to Fig. 7.

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Fig. 2. Geological cross-sections through the Umbria-Marche Apennines along the CROP-03 NVR seismic prole
(section a, after Barchi et al., 1998) and along the DSS '78 prole (section b, after Boncio et al., 1998; DSS data
from Ponziani et al., 1995).

staircase trajectory to a depth of about 1214 km beneath the Umbria fold-and-thrust belt.
The fault average dip is about 308 and the total displacement is about as 45 km. Low-angle,
east-dipping, synthetic normal faults outcrop near the AF surface trace (Brozzetti, 1995), westdipping antithetic high-angle structures prevail further east within the Apennine mountain
chain (e.g. Gubbio, Colorito and Norcia normal faults).
Fault kinematic and tensorial analysis in a number of selected sites show that the UmbriaMarche extensional deformations are consistently related to a tensional stress eld with SWNE trending maximum tension (Fig. 1) (Lavecchia et al., 1994). This stress eld is still active as
shown by major recent earthquakes and by microseismic activity (Brozzetti and Lavecchia,
1994; Boncio et al., 1996).
The Umbria-Marche region, which has been extensively investigated from a structural,
geophysical and seismological point of view, represents a key-area in order to improve
knowledge of the structural processes which control the earthquake faulting and to constrain
the seismogenic potential of Apennine normal faults. With this aim, this paper proposes a 3D
structural model for active extension in the Umbria-Marche region.

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Fig. 3. Seismic image of the Altotiberina low-angle normal fault (arrows) on the CROP-03 seismic prole (stack),
vertical axis is two-way travel-time in seconds (from Barchi et al., 1998). The depth-converted section is given in
Fig. 2a.

2. Seismotectonic setting
2.1. Regional seismicity
The Umbria-Marche region is characterised by a well-documented historical and
instrumental seismicity, mainly conned within the upper part of the crust (<16 km)
(Lavecchia et al., 1994 and references therein) (Fig. 4). West of the Tiber Basin, the seismic
activity is the lowest. It increases remarkably within the Apennine area, where small to
moderate (4 < M < 6) earthquakes are frequent, while largest earthquakes (I rIX,
6 < M < 7; Camassi and Stucchi, 1996) have long recurrence-intervals. Four highly damaging
earthquakes (1279 Camerino, 1328 Norcia, 1703 Norcia and 1751 Gualdo Tadino) have
occurred in the last centuries within the Citta di Castello-Gubbio-Gualdo Tadino-Norcia
seismic band. In the same area the largest instrumental earthquakes of the last twenty years
(Norcia 1979 M = 5.9, Gubbio 1984 M = 5.2 and Colorito 1997 Mmax = 5.9) are located.
2.2. Microseismicity
Microseismic records with local seismic networks are proved to be very useful to describe the
distribution of the seismicity and to ascertain the geometry of the active stress tensor. We have
analysed data from the MayJune 1987 temporary network (Deschamps et al., 1989) and from
the 19911995 Umbria local seismic network (Boncio et al., 1998) (Fig. 5). The rst database,
although covering a short period, provides good quality information about the depth
distribution of the seismicity; the second database does not provide such a good quality data,
but it covers a much long period and helps to demonstrate that the geometry shown by the

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237

Fig. 4. Historical seismicity with epicentral intensity (I ) greater than VI on the MCS scale (Camassi and Stucchi,
1996); the numbers in the map refer to the year of occurrence of the largest historical earthquakes (I rIX). Stars
and relative numbers indicate the epicentres of the largest instrumental earthquakes (19801997).

MayJune 1987 database is not time-dependent. The epicentral distribution of the

microseismicity remarks that depicted by historical seismicity: the zone located west of the
Tiber Valley is almost aseismic, the Apennine area is highly seismic. The hypocentral
distribution (sections a and b of Fig. 5) delineates a wedge-shaped seismogenetic volume whose
base, that progressively deepens towards ENE, ts in well with the AF fault plane.
2.3. Active stress eld
Focal mechanisms of major events (Gubbio, Colorito and Norcia), related aftershocks
(Gubbio and Norcia) and spread microseismicity (MayJune 1987), analysed through the
application of stress inversion techniques (Carey's method), allow us to dene the geometry of
the active stress tensor in the Umbria-Marche region (Brozzetti and Lavecchia, 1994; Boncio et
al., 1996; Boncio, 1998) (Fig. 6). The Norcia, Gubbio and Colorito major events as well as a
major group of microearthquakes show fault motions compatible with a tensional state of
stress characterised by a NE-trending sub-horizontal s3-axis. This tensor, which is similar to

Fig. 5. Spread microseismicity in the Umbria-Marche Apennines and relative depth distribution. Microseismic data
are from a temporary survey (MayJune 1987) and from the 19911995 recording of the Umbria local network
(after Deschamps et al., 1989; Boncio et al., 1998). Data from the rst database have been plotted in the northern
section (GubbioFabriano area); data from the second database have been plotted in the southern section (Massa
M.ColoritoNorcia area). Both databases indicate a seismogenic, continuously deforming, rock-volume with a
wedge-shaped east-deepening geometry.

Fig. 6. Active state of stress in the Apennines of Central Italy (after Brozzetti and Lavecchia, 1994; Boncio et al.,
1996). The focal mechanisms refer to the CMT solutions of the largest instrumental Apennine-earthquakes. The
stress tensors (Tr, Tt, Tc) were calculated applying the Carey's method to the MayJune 1987 spread microseismicity
(a) and to the aftershock sequences of the Gubbio 1984 (b) and Norcia 1979 (c) earthquakes. The regional stress
tensor (Tr) is in agreement with the kinematics of the largest earthquakes and of the Plio-Quaternary extensional
structures; Tt and Tc represent local tensional and compressional stress tensors coaxial with the Tr tensor.

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the Plio-Quaternary stress eld deduced from fault kinematics, may be considered
representative of the mean regional present-day state of stress. The remaining focal
mechanisms appear to be compatible with tensional (Tt) and/or compressional (Tc) stress
tensors dierent from, but co-axial with, the regional one (Tr). The observed complexity of the
microseismicity can be modelled by adding to the regional tensional state of stress local pushes
due to the interaction of fault-bounded blocks moving within a pre-fractured rock-body
(Mercier and Carey, 1989).

3. Three examples of Apennine normal faulting earthquakes

The seismotectonic features of the three major earthquakes (5 < M < 6) occurred in the
Umbria-Marche region in the last twenty years (1979/09/19 Norcia, 1984/04/29 Gubbio,
SeptemberOctober 1997 Colorito) were analysed along three SWNE geological sections
crossing the epicentral areas (Fig. 7). In all three cases, the main shock focal mechanism
(Harvard CMT database) shows seismic slip on a fault plane with moderate to low-angle dip
(20408) which well ts with the geometry of SW-dipping normal faults (Gubbio fault in
section 1, M. Prefoglio fault in section 2, NottoriaPreci fault in section 3). All the faults are
well exposed at the surface and are associated with intramontane basins lled with Quaternary
continental deposits (Brozzetti and Lavecchia, 1994; Calamita and Pizzi, 1994; Boncio et al.,
1996; Cello et al., 1997).
For the Gubbio and Colorito earthquakes, the nucleation area of the main shock is located
close to the intersection between the SW-dipping normal faults and the AF, at the base of the
aftershock volume (Boncio, 1998; Amato et al., 1998; Boncio and Lavecchia, 1999). Moderate
to low-angle geometry of the rupture plane is well supported by both focal mechanism and
aftershocks distribution.
In the Gubbio case, the low-angle dip (20308) of the rupture plane might be explained by
an inversion during the extensional regime of a low-angle thrust inherited from the MioPliocene compressional phase. The reactivation at the depth of an old low-angle thrust plane
by the Gubbio normal fault is well shown by seismic reection data (Boncio et al., 1998). In
the Colorito case, the moderate dip (40458) of the rupture plane may be simply related to a
primary listric geometry of the normal fault (Boncio and Lavecchia, 1999).
Much complex is the situation in the Norcia case. The focal depth resolution of the major
event is poor, the CMT fault-plane solution of the main shock shows almost pure normal
faulting along a low-angle plane dipping toward SW and the main aftershock volume is subvertical (Deschamps et al., 1984; Boncio, 1998). For analogy with Gubbio and Colorito, the
nucleation of the major event might be located at the base of the aftershock sequence, on the
deeper segment of the Nottoria-Preci normal fault. The low-angle geometry of the initial
motion, indicated by the focal mechanism, might be explained by considering a reactivation of
a pre-existing low-angle thrust plane (M. Sibillini thrust) during the earthquake nucleation
phase. The sub-vertical geometry of the aftershock volume may be related to the activation of
an high-angle shallower segment of the Nottoria-Preci normal fault. The latter also might have
reactivated a pre-existing discontinuity, possibly a high-angle NS transcurrent fault of the
Umbria-Marche fold and thrust belt (Lavecchia and Pialli, 1980).

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The bottom of the aftershock volume is not deeper than 67 km in the Gubbio zone, it is
slightly deeper in the Colorito zone (about 78 km) and deeps to 1112 km in the Norcia
zone. The progressive increase in depth of the hypocenters from the westernmost sectors
(Gubbio) to the easternmost ones (Norcia) appears to be well related to the eastward
deepening of the AF basal detachment.

4. The seismogenetic model

The upper crust seismicity recorded in the last decades in the Umbria-Marche Apennines
shows that the extensional strain and stress elds have not signicantly changed since PlioPleistocene times. Judging from the geometrical relationships between seismological and
geological (surface and sub-surface) data, the structural style of the crustal extension remained
unchanged as well.
We propose a model for active extension in the Umbria-Marche region which in agreement
with the observed seismotectonic features might be helpful in determining the seismogenic
potential of the Apennine active faults (Fig. 8). We propose that the low-angle east-dipping
Altotiberina normal fault (AF) and its antithetic west-dipping structures have been able to
drive the distribution of the crustal seismicity. In particular, the AF discontinuity is believed to
play a fundamental role in separating an active seismic hanging-wall block, moving towards
NE, from an almost aseismic footwall block. An almost continuous microseismic activity
(M < 3) is spread within the AF hangingwall rocks.
Relatively frequent small to moderate earthquakes (4 < M < 6), such as the Norcia 1979,
Gubbio 1984 and Colorito 1997 events, occur on the major west-dipping normal faults close
to the intersection with their AF basal detachment. The related aftershocks mainly concentrate
on the rupture zone which shows a moderate to low-angle dip due to local reactivation of preexisting thrust planes (Gubbio and deeper part of the Norcia rupture zone) or to listric
geometry of the fault plane (Colorito). Steeply dipping aftershocks clustering is interpreted to
be related to structural irregularities, such as high-angle pre-existing discontinuities, strongly
controlling the evolution of the rupture processes (as in the case of Norcia).
The seismogenic potential of the major west-dipping normal faults, directly linked to the
geometry of the seismogenic volume, would increase southeastward depending on the
increasing depth of the splaying from the AF basal detachment. In spite of almost equal
rupture length (1520 km), the seismic potential of faults is smaller in the western sector (e.g.,
Fig. 7. Seismotectonic interpretation of the Gubbio 1984 (section 1), Colorito 1997 (section 2) and Norcia 1979
(section 3) earthquakes. The traces of the sections are located in the structural map of Fig. 1. Sections 1 and 2 were
drawn integrating surface geological data with seismic reection data; section 3 was constructed accordingly with
the structural style of the area (after Brozzetti and Lavecchia, 1994; Boncio et al., 1998; Boncio and Lavecchia,
1999). The hypocentres projected onto the sections refer to the aftershock sequences relocated and selected by
Boncio (1998) for sections 1 and 3 and by Amato et al. (1998) for section 2. The nodal planes of the main shocks
(CMT solution) are projected on the vertical plane parallel to the sections; arrows indicate the movement on the
inferred seismogenic plane (west-dipping).

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Fig. 8. Proposed structural model for earthquake normal faulting in Central Italy.

Gubbio fault, detachment zone at about 67 km) with respect to the easternmost Apennine
sector were the detachment is deeper (e.g., Norcia faults, detachment at about 1112 km).
Concerning the seismotectonic interpretation of the largest historical Central Apennines
earthquakes I X, M 6:7, Camassi and Stucchi, 1996), a number of dierent hypothesis
may be erected. The most conservative theory is that they are simply due to closely cumulate
eects of several smaller magnitude events; alternatively, they can be considered to be discrete
rupture episodes on large fault segments.
Following the second hypothesis, a minimum rupture area of about 400 km2 would be
admitted. In the case of the Norcia 1328 and 1703 earthquakes, the seismogenetic rupture area
can be related to west-dipping normal faults, such as the Nottoria-Preci fault which has
appropriate dimension (maximum along-strike length of about 30 km and down dip length up
to 1214 km). Alternatively, the AF east-dipping normal fault, which extends up to 5060 km
along strike, would be considered. The east-dipping seismogenetic structure should be restricted
to the relatively high-angle down-dip segment (average dip of 408 and length of about 10 km)

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that cross-cuts the high-velocity crystalline basement (grey layer in Fig. 2b) beneath the weak
phyllitic basement. In the case of the Camerino 1279 and Gualdo Tadino 1751 earthquakes, a
seismogenetic area of about 400 km2 cannot be easily related to west-dipping normal faults,
whereas a seismogenetic role of the AF seems a reasonable working hypothesis.
In conclusion, we think that the frequency and distribution of Apennine extensional
seismicity within the upper crust is mainly controlled by the geometry of the geological
structures. Only subordinately it reects rheological changes with depth. The denition of a
structural model is, therefore, fundamental in order to better understand and predict the
processes which control the nucleation and evolution of earthquake faulting.

Acknowledgements
The Authors are grateful to R. Scarpa (University of L'Aquila) and to G. De Luca (Servizio
Sismico Nazionale) who provided the phase readings of the Gubbio 1984 and Norcia 1979
aftershock sequences. This study was supported by COFINZIAMENTO MURST 1997 and
CNR-GNDT 1998 grants (resp. G. Lavecchia).

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