C. Pirrotta

University of Catania | UNICT · Department of Biological, Geological and Environmental Sciences (BIOMLG)

This paper focuses on the acquisition and analysis of ambient vibrations for structural monitoring in the Castello Ursino Museum in Catania, Italy. The main goals are twofold: using the Tromino® measurement system for structural monitoring and identifying highenergy zones to place self-sustaining autonomous nodes for vibration measurement. The stud...

QUIN database integrates and organizes structural-geological information from published and unpublished sources to constrain deformation in seismotectonic studies. The initial release, QUIN1.0, comprised 3,339 Fault Striation Pairs, mapped on 445 sites exposed along the Quaternary faults of central Italy. The present Data Descriptor introduces the...

The integration of geophysical methodologies applied in an unexplored area of the Valley of the Temples, in the ancient Akragas (ancient name of Agrigento), has led to the exciting discovery of buried building remains. The study site, situated north of Plateia I-L, is largely unexplored and considered to be rich in archaeological remains. The site,...

In tectonically active areas, such as the Italian peninsula, studying the faults responsible for strong earthquakes is often challenging, especially when the earthquakes occurred in historical times. In such cases, geoscientists need to integrate all the available information from historical reports, surface geology, and geophysics to constrain the...

This study aimed to evaluate the soil–structure interaction of three historical buildings at the University of Catania using ambient noise. The results point out the different oscillation modes of Villa Cerami and Palazzo Boscarino buildings sharing a side. They also show different damping values, which are probably linked to the different rigiditi...

In this work, we investigated the landscape response to the recent activity of the faults affecting the Catanzaro Trough, a seismically active structural basin that developed transversally to the Calabrian Arc (Southern Italy) during the Neogene–Quaternary. We carried out a geomorphological and morphometric study of the drainage networks and basins...

A multidisciplinary work integrating structural, geodetic and seismological data was performed in the Catanzaro Trough (central Calabria, Italy) to define the seismotectonic setting of this area. The Catanzaro Trough is a structural depression transversal to the Calabrian Arc, lying in-between two longitudinal grabens: the Crati Basin to the north...

We present the results of an Italian-Maltese research, carried out to collect the macroseismic data needed to update the seismic catalogue of the Maltese Islands [Galea, 2007]. In this work we adopted the most up-to-date criteria developed by Italian historical seismology, obtaining results that significantly improve knowledge, particularly for the...

This study deals with the earthquakes which occurred in southeastern Sicily in 1693 (January 9 and 11, Mw ≈ 6.1 and 7.3, respectively). Although they have been largely studied, robust and commonly accepted seismic sources are still missing. We performed a revision of the 1693 macroseismic data and, for the fore and main-shocks, modeled new NNE-SSW...

In 1968, six earthquakes with magnitude between 5.1 and 6.4 destroyed or heavily damaged several towns in the Valle del Belìce(western Sicily), causing some three hundred fatalities. There have been some critical issues in the intensity assessment however in the macroseismic studies produced over the years , since the MCS scale was used as an estim...

Three main tectonic depressions (the Pantelleria, Linosa and Malta troughs), the expression of a continental rift, characterize the Sicily Channel, a region with recent volcanic activity attested by the Pantelleria and Linosa volcanic islands, as well as numerous seamounts. To understand the seismic and eruptive behaviour of this area, we compare h...

This work integrates new detailed geomorphic analyses of the Petrace and Catona fluvial network (southern Calabria) with structural geology data in order to characterize the activity of the fault systems intercepting the fluvial basins and to constrain the seismotectonic setting of the study area. Several strong earthquakes (Maw 6.0-7.1) occurred i...

This study investigates the size, shape, position, pre-transport setting and long-axis orientation of 175 boulders found along the south-eastern Ionian coast of Sicily. These megaclasts were deposited by the sea or moved from the same rocky coast to the shore platform and distributed within 60 m of the shoreline. Most boulders are rectangular to el...

A new dataset of landslides, occurred in a tectonically active region, has been analysed in order to understand the causes of the slope instability. The landslides we have dealt with took place along the volcanic rock cliff of S. Caterina and S. Maria La Scala villages (eastern Sicily, Italy), a densely inhabited area located on the eastern margin...

Historical accounts, archaeoseismic and paleoseismological evidence allowed us to reappraise two earthquakes affecting northeastern Sicily and southern Calabria in the 1st (probably between 14 and 37) and 4th (likely between 361 and 363) centuries AD, to obtain a better reconstruction of their effects and to reconsider their sources.The 1st century...

The Greek necropolis of Abakainon (NE Sicily, southern Italy) was destroyed suddenly, some time after the 2nd century BC. In order to identify the destruction cause of the necropolis, we analyzed geological, geomorphological data, and site stratigraphy. Evidence on the site suggests that the observed collapse and deformation may be consistent with...

A Chirp sub-bottom sonar investigation was performed in the 150 km(2) wide Augusta Basin, located offshore eastern Sicily, a region repeatedly hit by strong earthquakes in historical time, with the end of identifying possible evidence of active tectonics. Seismostratigraphy shows two main reflectors: R1, which represents the Last Glacial Maximum er...

We present geological evidence for paleotsunamis along the ~230 km-long coast of eastern Sicily (Italy); combining this information with historical data, we reconstruct a unique history of tsunami inundations. We integrate data on 38 paleotsunami deposits (from fine sand layers to boulders) collected at 11 sites (one offshore). The geological data...

Analysis of tsunami deposits from the Pantano Morghella area provided geological evidence for two inundations occurred along the south-eastern Ionian coast of Sicily. Pantano Morghella is a large pond characterised by a fine-grained sedimentation indicating a low-energy depositional environment. Two anomalous yellow sandy layers found at different...

A Chirp sub-bottom sonar investigation was performed in the 150 km 2 wide Augusta Basin, located offshore eastern Sicily, a region repeatedly hit by strong earthquakes in historical time, with the end of identifying possible evidence of active tectonics. Seismostratigraphy shows two main reflectors: R1, which represents the Last Glacial Maximum ero...

Boulders in three areas (Capo Campolato, Vendicari, and San Lorenzo) along the Ionian coast of Sicily were analyzed, in order to distinguish if they were deposited by storm waves or tsunamis. On the whole, the size, shape, position and long-axis orientation of 328 boulders were accurately evaluated. These mega-clasts were deposited from the sea or...

Twelve anomalous layers, marked by a high concentration of displaced epiphytic foraminifera (species growing in vegetated substrates like the Posidonia oceanica) and subtle grain-size changes were found in a 6.7 m long, fine sediment core (MS-06), sampled 2 km off the shore of the Augusta Harbor (Eastern Sicily) at a depth of 72 m, recording the pa...

Eastern Sicily has been affected in historical times by large earthquakes followed by devastating tsunamis, such as the 1169, 1693 and 1908 events. In order to provide a long-term assessment for tsunami recurrence and related hazards, we developed a multi-disciplinary study, with a paleoseismological approach, aimed to recognize and date historical...

A singular association of deformation structures that have disturbed terrains up to Quaternary age, has been detected along the rocky coast of Vendicari (south-eastern Sicily). These structures are soft sediment deformations consisting of autoclastic breccias, diapyr-like injections and thixotropic wedges, as well as fractures, generally opened and...

In historical time strong earthquakes such as the 1169, 1693 and 1908 events, followed by deva-stating tsunamis, affected eastern Sicily (Tinti et al., 2007). Since these earthquakes occurred in preinstrumental periods and there is not clear surface faulting evidence in-land, their sources are roughly defined mainly on the basis of historical data....

We present a study to discriminate the kind of anomalous waves, storms or tsunamis, that were responsible for the large boulder accumulation in the Vendicari Reserve along the south-eastern Sicilian coast. These depositional and erosional indicators of the large wave impact have been already observed in some rocky coasts of the Mediterranean basin...

Strong earthquakes can produce direct and permanent geological effects on the earth surface. Beyond surface faulting, other effects, such as landslides, liquefactions and ground deformations (seismites), take place in the epicentral area as a consequence of the seismic wave propagation in the sediments. Since the last three decades only, these feat...

Five years ago we started a coring campaign with the purpose to identify evidence for tsunami inundations along the coastal areas of eastern Sicily, that were affected in historical times by devastating tsunamis, generated both by local earthquakes, such as the 1169, 1693 and 1908 events, and by distant seismic sources, such as those belonging to t...

The importance of hazard plans based on realistic inundation scenarios was dramatically highlighted in December 2004. These scenarios are generally based on numerical models of tsunami wave propagation that can become more realistic and accurate when calibrated with the distribution of true inundated locations and the frequency of event occurrence....

Eastern Sicily is an area where some of the most catastrophic earthquakes in Italian history occurred. As reported by historical sources, these earthquakes induced liquefaction phenomena. In two areas along the Ionian coast of Sicily we found liquefaction evidence in Holocene deposits. In the Minissale site (east of Mount Etna), the observed liquef...

Eastern Sicily has been affected in historical times by large earthquakes followed by devastating tsunamis, such as the 1169, 1693 and 1908 events. In order to provide a long term assessment for tsunami recurrence and related hazard, we developed a multi-disciplinary study, with a paleoseismological approach, aimed to recognize and date historical...

Strong earthquakes can trigger several phenomena inducing soil deformation, such as liquefaction, ground fracturing and landslides, which can often cause more damage than the seismic shaking itself. A research performed on numerous historical accounts reporting descriptions of seismogeological effects in central-eastern Sicily, allowed the authors...

Geomorphological analyses allow the study of modifications that affect hydrographic basins, particularly modifications due to active tectonics, and the quantitative description of landforms. The evaluation of geomorphic indices may be used to appraise the influence of active faults on the hydrographic network. A geomorphological analysis was carrie...

In this paper we present the geological evidence of paleotsunamis in the Augusta area together with some paleoseismological implication derived from the discovery of multiple inundation events. It is well known that eastern Sicily has been affected in historical time by large earthquakes (CPTI Working group, 2004) and its southern sector in particu...

During the 4th century AD southern Calabria and eastern Sicily were hit by an earthquake documented by archaeoseismic analyses, which was interpreted by Guidoboni et al. (2000) as the predecessor of the well-know 1908 earthquake, located in Messina Strait, whereas Galli and Bosi (2002) interpreted this event as the precedessor of the 1783 earthquak...

The aim of this work is to present geological evidence of liquefactions triggered by earthquakes in eastern-Sicily and to analyze their characteristics. Liquefaction prone areas have been selected on the basis of the historical observations and by using aerial photographs, geological maps and field investigations.Though the difficulties caused by t...

In the past decade, the methodologies and techniques of paleoseismological studies have evolved towards a multidisciplinary approach for the characterization of past earthquakes. Along with traditional geologic and geomorphologic near-fault investigations, off-fault studies of evidence for past earthquakes, such as soft sediment deformation (e.g. M...

In this paper, we present the geological evidence for 4000 yrs long record of multiple tsunami inundations along the coast of the Augusta Bay (eastern Sicily) and discuss its paleoseismological implications. The research was carried out through a multi-theme approach which benefited of an extraordinarily long historical record that was used to guid...