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This study is focused on potential evidence of capable faulting affecting Southern Tuscany-Northern Latium, a region of high heat flow and moderate to low seismicity. Here we refer to this region as Tuscia, the Latin name for the land of the Etruscans. The review of the evidence for active tectonics in this area has allowed us to identify several potentially active/capable faults, mapped using a combination of analysis of digital terrain models with remote sensing and local geological information derived from bibliographic data and different scale maps. Active and capable faulting is certainly more evident in the eastern sector of Tuscia (Chianti-Cetona Ridge, Pienza, Amiata and Bolsena caldera). However, even in the western Tuscia (e.g. Colline Metallifere and Tyrrhenian coast), capable faulting may be hypothesized along numerous structural elements. The characterization of active faulting potential, in terms of geometry, slip types and rates, in such a high heat-flow environment, beyond its usefulness in improving the assessment of fault displacement and earthquake hazard, also helps to improve knowledge of the stress field and structural setting of the many geothermal fields in the area. This allows new useful insights into geothermal exploitation and hazard (e.g., induced-triggered seismicity). Moreover, this new knowledge of active tectonics and capable faults of the hinterland sector of the Northern Apennines may also provide useful insights into the siting processes of highly hazardous and strategic structures and, more generally, in land use planning and management of infrastructures, especially during emergencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The identification of vaginal fluids is crucial in forensic science. Several molecular protocols based on PCR amplification of mfDNA (microflora DNA) specific for vaginal bacteria are now available. Unfortunately mfDNA extraction and PCR reactions require manual optimization of several steps. The aim of present study was the verification of a partial automatization of vaginal fluids identification through two instruments widely diffused in forensic laboratories: EZ1 Advanced robot and Rotor Gene Q 5Plex HRM. Moreover, taking advantage of 5-plex thermocycler technology, the ForFluid kit performances were improved by expanding the mfDNA characterization panel with a new bacterial target for vaginal fluids and with an internal positive control (IPC) to monitor PCR inhibition. Results underlined the feasibility of a semi-automated extraction of mfDNA using a BioRobot and demonstrated the analytical improvements of the kit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metabarcoding through Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) has revolutionized environmental biological studies. The availability of this technical approach has opened the opportunity for a systematic implementation of fungal metabarcoding analysis in forensics, where standardized, sensitive and reproducible protocols are highly desirable. In the present paper, a pipeline including a semi-automated molecular protocol and user-friendly bioinformatics tools are applied to several kinds of environmental samples and forensic caseworks. The identification of fungi that characterize specific environments (like Aspergillus for indoor walls, or Penicillium, Debaryomices and Wickerhamomyces for food storage) can be informative for the provenance of samples. In some situations, fungal analysis cannot allow the identification of a defined environment but seems useful to cluster samples with similar provenance. Based on these considerations, fungal analysis can be included in a wider process of non-human DNA identification in order to provide clues on sample provenance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Uncertainty concerning the processes responsible for slip-rate fluctuations associated with temporal clustering of surface faulting earthquakes is a fundamental, unresolved issue in tectonics, because strain-rates accommodated by fault/shear-zone structures are the key to understanding the viscosity structure of the crust and seismic hazard. We constrain the timing and amplitude of slip-rate fluctuations that occurred on three active normal faults in central Italy over a time period of 20–30 kyrs, using in situ 36Cl cosmogenic dating of fault planes. We identify five periods of rapid slip on individual faults lasting a few millennia, separated time periods of up to 10 millennia with low or zero slip-rate. The rapid slip pulses migrated across the strike between the faults in two waves from SW to NE. We replicate this migration with a model where rapid slip induces changes in differential stress that drive changes in strain-rate on viscous shear zones that drive slip-rate variability on overlying brittle faults. Earthquakes increase the differential stress and strain-rate on underlying shear zones, which in turn accumulate strain, re-loading stress onto the overlying brittle fault. This positive feedback produces high strain-rate episodes containing several large magnitude surface faulting earthquakes (earthquake clusters), but also reduce the differential stress on the viscous portions of neighbouring fault/shear-zones slowing the occurrence of large-magnitude surface faulting earthquakes (earthquake anticlusters). Shear-zones on faults experiencing anticlusters continue to accumulate viscous strain at a lowered rate, and eventually this loads the overlying brittle fault to failure, initiating a period of rapid slip through the positive feedback process described above, and inducing lowered strain-rates onto neighbouring fault/shear-zones. We show that these patterns of differential stress change can replicate the measured earthquake clustering implied by the 36Cl data. The stress changes are related to the fault geometry in terms of distance and azimuth from the slipping structure, implying that (a) strain-rate and viscosity fluctuations for studies of continental rheology, and (b) slip-rates for seismic hazard purposes are to an extent predictable given knowledge of the fault system geometry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The San Demetrio fault is a NW-SE trending normal fault at the south-eastern tip of the L'Aquila Basin fault zone (Central Apennines, Italy). Detailed field surveys and geophysical investigations, performed in the frame of seismic microzonation studies after the 2009 L'Aquila earthquake in the San Demetrio ‘ne Vestini territory, have clearly indicated that it is a capable fault. This paper illustrates the results of paleoseismic investigations along this fault, confirming its capability. At least five surface faulting events took place during the Holocene and latest Pleistocene, with variable offsets from a few centimetres (four events, the latter one most likely occurred in historical time) to about 50 cm (one event occurred between 16,430–16010 BCE and 7030–6570 BCE). These results are consistent, in terms of displacement per event, with the paleoseismic data collected on adjacent faults (i.e., the Paganica, Roccapreturo, Mt. Pettino and Mt Marine faults). Concerning seismic hazard, being the San Demetrio fault the southeastern tip of the L'Aquila fault system, its Holocene reactivations should be associated to paleoearthquakes with epicentre located to the northwest centered in the L'Aquila basin, and minimum magnitude ranging between 6.0 and 6.3. Elsewhere, considering its position close to the transfer zone to the Subequana Valley faults system, another option is that surface faulting is sympathetic to larger ruptures produced by the reactivation of this latter faults system. Based on fault scaling relationships, the offset of 0.5 m occurred before the Holocene may indicate an earthquake of M > 6.5, never replicated afterwards on the San Demetrio fault. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This volume builds on presentations made at two thematic sessions on “The Active Tectonics of the Circum-Adriatic Region” at the EGU 2007 and 2008 General Assemblies in Vienna. In both sessions, contributions were invited from workers incorporating structural, geophysical, seismological, remote sensing, geodetic and thermochronological methods to better understand the crustal evolution and ongoing development of one of Europe''s most interesting tectonic regions. The Adriatic region occupies a central position within the geodynamic framework of the Central Mediterranean. It is surrounded by actively deforming belts of diverse character including transpressional, contractional, strike-slip and extensional domains, collectively defining the structurally complex and kinematically varied boundaries of the Adria plate. Because many countries occupy the circum-Adriatic region, international collaborative research into the tectonic activity and associated natural hazards of the region is relevant and important to European society. In this context, the papers presented in this volume provide important new data that bear on various aspects of the active tectonics of the circum-Adriatic region. These contributions typically draw on multidisciplinary structural, geophysical and geochronological datasets to draw new conclusions concerning the spatial and temporal evolution of Adria''s bounding deformation zones, especially the southeastern and southern Italian regions and NE Adriatic region. In this overview, we provide a state-of-the-art summary of different aspects of present-day Adria geodynamics to provide a common background for the individual contributions that follow. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]