Tectonic Plates and Faults - Earthquake Engineering for Structural Design - page 162

162 Earthquake Engineering for Structural Design

Another very important zone where collision earthquakes are present is the
territory of Italy (Fig. 6.9a) (Rosenbaum et al, 2004, Valensise et al, 2003,
Carminati et al, 2004, Chiarabba et al, 2005, Solarino and Cassinis, 2007,
Battaglia,et al, 2004). It is mainly due to the presence of the Adria microplate.
During the last few decades the question whether the Adria Plate is a promontory
of the Africa Plate, or whether it moves as an independent microplate, have been
addressed by numerous authors. The Italian peninsula is formed by different
sectors deriving from different geodynamical processes. There are three different
orogenic belts characterizing the Italian geology (Solarino and Cassinis, 2007):
(i) In Northern Italy, the collision between the Adria Plate and the European

Tectonic Plate gave rise to the Alps Mountains.

(ii) In the central part, the collision between the Adria Plate and the European

Plate, represented by the Tyrrhenian Sea, produced the Apennines
Mountains.

(iii) The Southern zone is characterized by the crustal subduction of the

Ionian Plate belonging to the African Plate under the Tyrrhenian plate
belonging to the European Plate, along the Calabrian Arc.

(a)
Figure 5.18 (continues)