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Low Strain Rate regions (LSRrs), i.e., areas undergoing tectonic deformation at rates of 1 mm/yr or less, often host important cities and highly vulnerable anthropogenic assets, and due to their subdued topography and relatively infrequent seismicity, are often considered low seismic hazard areas. Despite this, infrequent but high-magnitude earthquakes in such regions suggest that identifying active structures in the LSRr is one of the primary challenges for both the scientific community and modern societies. In such regions, one of the main issues in identifying active faults is the lack of valuable outcrop data due to erosional/sedimentation rates overwhelming the fault deformation, causing the hidden morphological signature of the tectonic structures. This work proposes a multidisciplinary approach designed to detect active geological structures and their related deformation in such areas. Our approach consists of quantitative morphotectonic, offshore and onshore tectonostratigraphic and GNSS joint analyses. To test this approach, we selected as a natural laboratory the partially offshore northern Sicilian LSRr (southern Italy) in the coastal sector located between the two major cities of Palermo and Termini Imerese. This area includes the compressional structures of the northern sector of the Apennine-Maghrebian fold and thrust belt, presently accommodating the slow Africa-Europe plate convergence. The main results we achieved are 1) new evidence of active tectonic deformation in this region; 2) the 3D modelling of two NNW-trending active faults; 3) the slip rate of a segment of the westernmost of the two detected faults; 4) a newly recorded relative GNSS velocity field; 5) a new morphotectonic map and morphotectonic evolution model of the study area. Our multidisciplinary approach allowed us to shed new light on the active tectonic framework of a slowly deforming area that crosses the physical limit of the coastline.

Flank margin caves form in coastal regions by mixing dissolution. Their development is controlled by the position of the freshsalt water mixing boundary, which in turn, is related to sea-level position. They are characterized by a typical cave pattern and cave-wall morphologies and represent good indicators of past sea levels. This contribution shows the results of recent studies conducted in the Carburangeli Cave, a small sub-horizontal cavity developed in Northern Sicily, close to Palermo. This cave was firstly known for paleontological and archaeological findings and for these reasons, along with its speleological and biological interest, a Nature Reserve has been instituted by the Sicilian government, and the cave was put under the management of “Legambiente Sicilia”. Carburangeli Cave opens on a marine palaeocliff at 22 m a.s.l., roughly 500 m far from the coastline, and is partially developed in Mesozoic limestone and in the overlying Pleistocene calcarenites. Its position, pattern, peculiar morphologies, lack of turbulent-flow wall sculptures and alluvial/colluvial sediments suggest an origin controlled by coastal mixing processes giving also important information on the Upper Pleistocene sea level and coastline position in this Northern sector of Sicily.

160 km long hill ranges in the Kachchh region (NW-India) form a major E-W oriented topographic break delimiting the marshy plain of Banni in the North from the more elevated area of the Katrol Hill Range (KHR) in the south. Such topographic break is considered as the superficial expression of a quaternary active fault labelled Kachchh Mainland Fault (KMF). Numerous rivers cross this hilly region flowing roughly from South to North. The majority of those rivers are characterized by extensive fan lobes pinching out from the 200–300-meter anticlines of the hilly range.Starting from archaeological evidence from the past 4000-5000 years, it has been inferred that an extremely fast coastal landscape evolution brought such a region to evolve from an initial gulf landform to the current setting, i.e., the marshy plains of Banni and the salt-encrusted Rann. The location of the fans lobes marked the boundary between the fluvial and marine environments.High sedimentation rates varying between 1.1-2 mm/yr reported for the Banni plains together with historical and recent earthquakes (1668 Indus Delta, 1819 Allah Bund, 1845 Lakhpat, 1956 Anjar and 2001 Bhuj) provide valuable constraints for inferring the climatic and tectonic forcing on the region's quick dynamics.In our ongoing work, we propose a multidisciplinary approach made by morphotectonic mapping, morphometric analyses, and geochronology to understand better how the interplay of tectonics and eustatic perturbations drove such an abrupt landscape evolution.

La cittadina di Cefalù, ubicata a circa 70 km da Palermo, è una delle perle del Mediterraneo, per la bellezza dei luoghi, dominati dalla Rocca, imponente rupe carbonatica alta circa 250 m s.l.m., e per i beni architettonici (Figg. 1 e 2). Fondata dai greci con il nome di Κεφαλοίδιον tra il XIV e il XIII a.C., conserva sulla Rocca il palazzo santuario ciclopico-megalitico, noto come Tempio di Diana. Sul ciglio della Rocca e per il suo intero sviluppo si snoda la cinta muraria di tipo megalitico risalente alla fine del V secolo a.C. (periodo pre-ellenico), in parte ricostruita nel periodo bizantino (VII÷IX secolo d.C.). Nel periodo normanno (secolo XII d.C.) furono costruiti i principali monumenti, tra i quali la cattedrale, sito UNESCO dal 2015 (Fig. 2). La Rocca è caratterizzata da un’elevata suscettibilità ai fenomeni di crollo che, spesso, si verificano in concomitanza di eventi sismici o meteorici particolarmente intensi. Tali crolli determinano condizioni di rischio molto elevato per gran parte dell’abitato, compresa la Cattedrale, ubicata ad alcune decine di metri dalla Rocca, e possono coinvolgere le sovrastanti preesistenze storico-archeologiche. In ogni caso inibiscono lo sviluppo socio-economico della cittadina normanna, ad evidente vocazione turistica.

Vengono descritti i caratteri geologici e geomorfologici del territorio comunale di Contessa Entellina (PA), i cui risultati sono sintetizzati in una carta geologica, una carta geomorfologica e una carta litologica.

Durante i lavori di ristrutturazione del complesso edilizio di Villa Riso, villa storica ubicata nell’area della Piana dei Colli (Palermo), sono state applicate tecniche di prospezione georadar e di ispezione diretta che hanno permesso di rinvenire un cunicolo drenante di tipo qanat nel sottosuolo della corte antistante la villa. La presenza di cunicoli drenanti al di sotto di antiche ville è frequente in questo settore della città di Palermo, ma la possibilità di accedervi diventa sempre più difficoltosa, a causa del loro cattivo stato di conservazione. Il qanat di Villa Riso presenta la classica struttura dei qanat della Piana dei Colli, dai quali, tuttavia, si differenzia per la presenza di una grande cisterna di raccolta delle acque localizzata nella parte mediana del cunicolo. Nel presente lavoro viene effettuata una descrizione dell’ipogeo, delle sue caratteristiche costruttive, delle peculiarità geologiche della roccia in cui è scavato e delle sue attuali condizioni di conservazione. During the renovation of Villa Riso, a historic complex located in the Piana dei Colli area (Palermo), a qanat-type underground draining tunnel was found. In this sector of Palermo, the presence of qanat below important historical villas is frequent but often their access is hard because of the poor conservation conditions. The qanat of Villa Riso shows the classic structure of the qanat in the Piana dei Colli, from which, however, it differs for the presence of a large water cistern located in the middle part of the tunnel. The detailed description of the qanat, showing its structure and its conservation conditions, and geological features of the rock in which it carved are displayed in this paper.

Low Strain Rate regions (LSRr), i.e., areas deforming at a 1 mm/yr rate or less, represent the most globally widespread areas that host important cities and high-vulnerable anthropogenic assets. The occurrence of infrequent but high-magnitude earthquakes suggests that identifying active structures in the LSRr is one of the primary challenges for both the scientific community and modern societies.In such regions, one of the main issues in identifying active faults is the lack of useful outcrop data due to the anthropogenic and climate overprinting of the faults morphological signature. In this work, we propose a multidisciplinary approach designed to detect active geological structures and their related deformation. To test this approach, we selected as a natural laboratory an LSRr located between two major cities of Sicily (southern Italy). This area lies into the northern sector of the Apennine-Maghrebian fold and thrust belt and its offshore prolongation.Our approach consists of quantitative morphotectonic, offshore and onshore tectonostratigraphic and GNSS joint analyses. The main achieved results are 1) the first evidence of active, shallow-sited, NNW-trending transpressive blind faults that extends partially offshore for about 30 km, which décollement levels located at about 3 and 1 km depth, respectively and their 3D model, 2) a morphotectonic evolution model, that represents where and how these geologic structures drove the landscape evolution of the study area. Finally, we highlight that only a multidisciplinary approach could be useful for detecting and parametrising active faults in slow deforming areas that cross the coastline physical limit.

Vulcano, the southernmost island of the Aeolian Archipelago, has been characterized by an intense fumarolic activity since its last eruption from La Fossa cone (1888-1890). This island has a strong touristic vocation and frequentation, and here volcano-hydrothermal activity represents, at the same time, a landmark, one of the main causes of hydrogeological instability and a severe risk for human health. The space-time dynamic of this complex system is controlled by the mutual interactions among micro-meteorological, volcanic, tectonic, morphogenetic and anthropic processes.La Fossa cone is affected by intense water erosion phenomena, also controlled by fumarolic activity as an obstacle for the growth of vegetation and a weathering factor. Man-made structures, with particular reference to deep modifications in the natural stream network induced by buildings and roads, exert a strong influence on these erosion processes, also fostered by episodic wildfires.Another relevant theme is the acceleration of the coastal erosion processes in the Baia di levante area, driven by the circulation of chemically-aggressive hydrothermal fluids, which transforms the pristine volcanic minerals into phases like gypsum, anhydrite and clay minerals, significantly reducing the mechanical resistance of the rocks to the action of wave erosion. A general retreatment of the coastline (several meters in some locations) has been observed in the last twenty years, caused by the combined effect of volcanic activity, anthropic modifications and changes in sea level.

The results of a geomorphological study carried out in the urban area of Palermo are summarized in a thematic map. Field survey, analysis of aerial photographs and topographic maps, consultation of historical documents and maps, stratigraphic and topographic reconstruction from numerous wells and subsoil data, and bibliographic search were performed, in order to display the geomorphological changes produced by man over time in a densely populated area and to define the Anthropocene of the study area. Palermo town rises along large marine terrace surfaces cut by small river valleys and bordered by wide degraded and abandoned coastal cliffs. Over the last 2700 years, this area was affected by remarkable man-made changes to topographic surface and underground, exposing large areas of the city to hydraulic, sinkhole, and landslide risks, and increasing the levels of seismic susceptibility. In light of these results, the produced map is useful for urban planning studies.

Urban-geomorphology studies in historical cities provide a significant contribution towards the broad definition of the Anthropocene, perhaps even including its consideration as a new unit of geological time. Specific methodological approaches to recognize and map landforms in urban environments, where human-induced geomorphic processes have often overcome the natural ones, are proposed. This paper reports the results from, and comparison of, studies conducted in coastal historical cities facing the core of the Mediterranean Sea – that is, Genoa, Rome, Naples, Palermo (Italy) and Patras (Greece). Their settlements were facilitated by similar climatic and geographical contexts, with high grounds functional for defence, as well as by the availability of rocks useful as construction materials, which were excavated both in opencast and underground quarries. Over centuries, urbanization has also required the levelling of relief, which was performed by the excavation of heights, filling of depressions and by slope terracing. Consequently, highly modified hydrographic networks, whose streams were dammed, diverted, modified in a culvert or simply buried, characterize the selected cities. Their urban growth, which has been driven by maritime commercial activities, has determined anthropogenic coastal progradation through port and defence or waterfront works. Aggradation of artificial ground has also occurred as a consequence of repeated destruction because of both human and natural events, and subsequent reconstruction even over ruins, buried depressions and shallow cavities. As a result, the selected cities represent anthropogenic landscapes that have been predominately shaped by several human-driven processes, sometimes over centuries. Each landform represents the current result, often from multiple activities with opposing geomorphic effects. Beyond academic progress, we believe that detecting and mapping these landforms and processes should be compulsory, even in risk-assessment urban planning, because of the increase of both hazards and vulnerability as a result of climate-change-induced extreme events and extensive urbanization, respectively.

The isotopic signature of slow-flowing dripwater collected in caves located in Western Sicily (Italy) was determined for evaluating its possible use as an isotopic tracer of the local groundwater recharge. These spot measures were compared with a longer series of local rain and spring compositions and with other samples taken, under different hydrogeological conditions, in caves of the Harz Mountains (Northern Germany). The slow flowing dripwater from Sicily showed δ 18 O/δD ratios similar to those of local rain and groundwater, demonstrating that these three are all parent waters. A parallel similarity was found in the vertical isotopic gradient (Δδ 18 O) of the three groups of water, accounting for their common meteoric origin. In the colder Harz Region, dripwater, spring water and rain have the same δ 18 O/δD ratio but fast flowing dripwater, infiltrating through open cracks, is significantly enriched in lighter isotopes and representative of short residence time percolation. These results lead to the conclusion that dripwater, even if collected as spot samples, can be considered as a good isotopic marker of the average local groundwater recharge on the condition that only slow, diffused drips due to seepages are sampled.

This paper proposes a morphoevolutionary model for western Sicily. Sicily is a chain–foredeep–foreland system still being built, with tectonic activity involving uplift which tends to create new relief. To reconstruct the morphoevolutionary model, geological, and geomorphological studies were done on the basis of field survey and aerial photographic interpretation. The collected data show large areas characterized by specific geological, geomorphological, and topographical settings with rocks, landforms, and landscapes progressively older from south to north Sicily. The achieved results display: (1) gradual emersion of new areas due to uplift, its interaction with the Quaternary glacio-eustatic oscillations of the sea level, and the following production of a flight of stair-steps of uplifted marine terraces in southern Sicily, which migrates progressively upward and inwards; in response to the uplift (2) triggering of down-cutting processes that gradually dismantle the oldest terraces; (3) competition between uplift and down-cutting processes, which is responsible for the genesis of river valleys and isolated rounded hills in central Sicily; (4) continuous deepening over time that results in the exhumation of older and more resistant rocks in northern Sicily, where the higher heights of Sicily are realized and the older forms are retained; (5) extensional tectonic event in the northern end of Sicily, that produces the collapse of large blocks drowned in the Tyrrhenian Sea and sealed by coastal-marine deposits during the Calabrian stage; (6) trigger of uplift again in the previously subsiding blocks and its interaction with coastal processes and sea level fluctuations, which produce successions of marine terraces during the Middle–Upper Pleistocene stages.

The Capo San Vito peninsula is located along the north-westernmost sector of the Sicilian coastline. It is characterized by a complex geomorphological setting, where a large variety of coastal, gravity-induced and karst landforms allow the visitor to easily detect the interactions between Quaternary tectonics and climate changes as well as morphodynamic processes responsible for shaping the landscape. Thanks to natural reserves, the peninsula preserves a typical Mediterranean natural environment, marked by spectacular and suggestive landforms.

The promontory of Monte Gallo (Palermo, NW Sicily) is a spectacular site where Upper Triassic-Eocene carbonate platform rocks and Quaternary continental to marine deposits are well exposed. A Mesozoic-Paleogene rock succession allows the potential visitor to easily detect the features and the evolution of the Panormide carbonate platform, a shallow-water paleogeographic domain of the Southern Tethyan margin. Quaternary deposits, as well many landforms, enable the visitor to directly identify the interplay between climate changes, tectonics and fluctuations of marine level that occurred during the Quaternary Period. A detailed geological map (1:15,000 mapping scale) is presented, accompanied by a stratigraphic correlation of logged sections and morpho-stratigraphic and tectonic schemes of the area, aimed at highlighting the geological heritage of Monte Gallo in support of the establishment of a Geosite. The Geological Map and relevant explanatory notes should be used as cartographic support and as a field trip guide for possible geological itineraries.

A study of deep-seated gravitational slope deformation (DSGSD) phenomena affecting areas of various geological and geomorphological settings in western Sicily is described. Western Sicily is underlain by a thin-skinned imbricate wedge of Meso–Cenozoic carbonate and siliciclastic rocks that formed by the stacking of several thrust nappes over the Iblean foreland. Locally, the original thrust sheets are folded and cut by high-angle faults. Large areas of western Sicily now display high relief energy due to Plio-Pleistocene block-faulting and uplifting, and the Quaternary morphogenetic phases are characterised by incision, thereby triggering widespread DSGSDs. To identify controlling factors and triggering causes and to develop reliable morphoevolutionary models for the DSGSDs of western Sicily, a geomorphological study based on field surveys and aerial-photography interpretations was performed. Previous geomorphological data relating to well-known examples of DSGSDs were reconsidered, leading to remarkable revisions of the interpretative models in certain cases. New data were subsequently collected, enabling recognition of additional DSGSD phenomena. The whole body of data involves a total of 27 DSGSDs affecting areas in two specific geological settings: (1) areas with flat thrust surfaces, where differential settlements, back-tilting, lateral spreads in competent rocks overlying marls and clays, large topples, and/or block-type slope movements may develop; and (2) areas where deep-rooted carbonate units come into lateral contact with clayey–marly units along high-angle faults, where lateral spreads in brittle homogeneous rocks, sinking, and/or rock flows may occur. These DSGSD phenomena are associated with different evolutionary stages, allowing a morphoevolutionary model to be defined for the two geological conditions. For these two different morphoevolutionary models, the following structural features play an important role in the development of DSGSDs: (1) where carbonate bodies overlie clayey–marly rocks, triggering of the DSGSDs traces back to deformation of a ductile substratum that follows the exhumation of the flat thrust planes and the underlying clayey–marly rocks due to block-faulting and/or stream incision; and (2) where homogeneous carbonate rocks hundreds of metres thick crop out, the DSGSDs are triggered by very high relief energy and tensile stress that follow the combined actions of Quaternary block-faulting and stream deepening associated with differential erosion.

The paper describes the erosion processes acting at La Fossa cone (Vulcano Island, Italy). La Fossa cone is a stratovolcano made up of pyroclastic deposits and lavas covered by tuffs from the last eruption, dated 1888-90. Its flanks are affected by intense water erosion phenomena leading to the formation of denudation surfaces due to sheet erosion, rills, gullies and small canyons. As a consequence of very intense rainfalls, episodic debris flows occur along main gullies and canyons. Fumarolic activity plays an important role in the control of erosion processes, being both an obstacle for the growth of vegetation and a weathering factor. The GIS analysis and comparison of geo-referenced maps and aerial photos highlighted the influence of man-made structures on erosion processes, with particular reference to deep modifications in the natural stream network induced by buildings and roads. The combined effects of volcanic and anthropogenic activities, together with the additional role played by the strong inter-annual variability of rainfall amounts and intensities, give rise to significant changes in water erosion rates. A total volume of 5,700 m3 of volcanic products eroded between the years 1980 and 2008 from the upper portion of La Fossa cone has been estimated by GIS analysis.

Landslide hazard assessment, effected by means of geostatistical methods, is based on the analysis of the relationships between landslides and the spatial distributions of some instability factors. Frequently such analyses are based on landslide inventories in which each record represents the entire unstable area and is managed as a single instability landform. In this research, landslide susceptibility is evaluated through the study of a variety of instability landforms: landslides, scarps and areas uphill from crown . The instability factors selected were: bedrock lithology, steepness, topographic wetness index and stream power index. The instability landform densities computed for all the factors, which were arranged in Unique Condition Unit, allowed us to derive a total of three prediction images for each landslide typology. The role of the instability factors and the effects generated by the use of different landforms were analyzed by means of: a) bivariate analysis of the relationships between factors and landslide density; b) predictive power validations of the prediction images, based on a random partition strategy. The test area was the Iato River Basin (North-Western Sicily), whose slopes are moderately involved in flow and rotational slide landslides (219 and 28, respectively). The area is mainly made up of the following complexes: Numidian Flysch clays (19%, 1%), Terravecchia sandy clays (5%, 1%), Terravecchia clayey sands (3%, 0.3%) and San Cipirello marly clays (9%, 0%). The steepness parameter shows the highest landslide density in the [11–19°] class for both the typologies (8%, 1%), even if the density distributions for rotational slides are right-asymmetric and right-shifted. We obtained significant differences in shape when we used different instability landforms. Unlike scarps and areas uphill from crowns, landslide areas produce left-asymmetric and left-shifted density distributions for both the typologies. As far as the topographic wetness index is concerned, much more pronounced differences were detected among the instability landforms of rotational slides. In contrast, the flow landslides produce normal-like density distributions. The latter and the rotational slide landslide areas produce the highest density values in the class [5.5–6.7], despite an abrupt decreasing trend starting from the first class [3.2–4.4], which is generated by the density values of the rotational slide scarps and areas uphill from crowns. The stream power index at the foot of the slopes, which was automatically derived using a GIS-procedure, shows a positive correlation with the landslide densities marked by the maximum classes: [4.8–6.0] for flows, and [6.0–7.2] for rotational slides. The validation procedure results confirmed that the choice of instability landform influences the results of the susceptibility analysis. Furthermore, the validation procedure indicates that: a) the predictive models are generally satisfactory; b) scarps and zones uphill from crown areas are the most diagnostically unstable landforms, for flow and rotational slide landslides respectively.

A certain number of studies have been carried out in recent years that aim at developing and applying a model capable of assessing water erosion of soil. Some of these have tried to quantitatively evaluate the volumes of soil loss, while others have focused their efforts on the recognition of the areas most prone to water erosion processes. This article presents the results of a research whose objective was that of evaluating water erosion susceptibility in a Sicilian watershed: the Naro river basin. A geomorphological study was carried out to recognize the water erosion landforms and define a set of parameters expressing both the intensity of hydraulic forces and the resistance of rocks/soils. The landforms were mapped and classified according to the dominant process in landsurfaces affected by diffuse or linear water erosion. A GIS layer was obtained by combining six determining factors (bedrock lithology, land use, soil texture, plan curvature, stream power index and slope-length factor) in unique conditions units. A geostatistical multivariate approach was applied by analysing the relationships between the spatial distributions of the erosion landforms and the unique condition units. Particularly, the density of eroded area for each combination of determining factors has been calculated: such function corresponds, in fact, to the conditional probability of erosion landforms to develop, under the same geoenvironmental conditions. In light of the obtained results, a general geomorphologic model for water erosion in the Naro river basin can be depicted: cultivated areas in clayey slopes, having fine-medium soil texture, are the most prone to be eroded; linear or diffuse water erosion processes dominate where the topography is favourable to a convergent or divergent runoff, respectively. For each of the two erosion process types, a susceptibility map was produced and submitted to a validation procedure based on a spatial random partition strategy. Both the success of the validation procedure of the susceptibility models and the geomorphological coherence of the relationships between factors and process that such models suggest, confirm the reliability of the method and the goodness of the predictions.

The present paper describes a multidisciplinary approach to the evaluation of a seismically triggered landslide that occurred in the Cerda area (Italy) on September 6, 2002, about 1 h after an earthquake took place in the south Tyrrhenian Sea. The study was focused on an analysis of the role of the seismic input in triggering the landslide, in view of the evidence that no other mass movement was recorded in the adjacent areas despite geological and geomorphological spatial homogeneity. The studied area is located on a slope of the western flank of the Fiume Imera Settentrionale (Northern Sicily), which is made up of clayey–arenitic rocks. The slope inclines gently but is not uniform due to fluvial, gravitative, and rainwash processes. Field data dealing with global positioning system (GPS), geology, geomorphology, geophysics (vertical electrical sounding, or VES), and geochemistry (soil gas fluxes and composition) were acquired and analysed in order to investigate the cause–effect relationships between the earthquake and the mass movement. The GPS survey allowed us to map the ground failures that have also been classified on the basis of their kinematical meaning (i.e., compressive, distensive, or transcurrent structures). The geological analysis revealed outcropping rocks and tectonic structures. The geomorphologic survey highlighted the presence of preexisting landslide bodies. The geophysical survey detected a buried surface located at a depth of about 100 m . Finally, the geochemical survey showed that the gas released from the displaced mass came from a shallow depth and was not related to any active fault system. The abovementioned information allowed us to interpret the landslide event as a partial reactivation of a preexisting landslide body that was triggered by the earthquake.

The rich Pleistocene fossil record of Sicily allowed the construction of a fairly detailed bio-chronological frame that is dated by correlation of vertebrate bearing deposits with marine deposits by geochemical and radiometric dating too. Actually, an important category of deposits is representative of transitional and neritic environments, frequently associated with a lagoon or swamp. Limnic deposits related to small freshwater basins also occur, often in relation to coastal and fully marine deposits. Numerous relationships have been found between the vertebrate bearing deposits and marine deposits, which can be correlated with the δ18O isotopic record and the main palaeogeographic events in Sicily. At present five Faunal Complexes (F. C.), characterised by the occurrence of different taxa, have been recognised. The two older Faunal Complexes (Monte Pellegrino F.C., Elephas falconeri F. C.) include taxa with differently marked endemic features. Where correlated with marine sediments, the assemblages of the Elephas falconeri F. C. are associated with deposits dated early Middle Pleistocene (Comiso, Spinagallo cave, San Vito Lo Capo peninsula). In the younger F.C'xes (Elephas mnaidriensis F.C., S. Teodoro cave-Pianetti F.C., and Castello F. C.) faunal composition is becoming more similar to that of the southern Italian peninsula and denotes that temporary connections with southern Italy occurred. Where correlated with sediment of marine environments, the assemblages of the E. mnaidriensis Faunal Complex are associated with deposits dated as late Middle Pleistocene and/or Late Pleistocene (S.Ciro cave, Maddalena peninsula, Contrada Cacaladritta, Cape Peloro, Contrada Fusco, Coste di Gigia, Scodonì, San Vito Lo Capo peninsula). The most likely time interval for the two Faunal Complex seems to be, respectively, from stage 22 to younger not defined oscillations of the oxygen isotope curve (Elephas falconeri F.C.) and from early stage 6 to early stage 4 of δ18O isotopic record (Elephas mnaidriensis F. C.).

The available data about Quaternary pedostratigraphic of North-Western Sicily are mainly obtained when fossil vertebrate assemblages are studied. These are often found in caves or in other morphological "traps", where the products of the erosion of soils developed outside these features are redeposited. Soils that may have originated these deposits were found on the marine terraces that are typical of the coast areas of Sicily. Two sequences, called "K22" and "Isolidda", that crop out in the North-Western side of the San Vito lo Capo peninsula -to the West of Palermo -are examined in this work. The first one is a karstic cave infilling, situated near the eastern rim of the old falaise that borders the Piana di Sopra plateau. Two phases were identified in this site. a) transitional environment deposits, with terrigenous input due to the occurrence of Alfisols and/or Ultisols in the neighbouring area. b) continental deposits, mainly made up of reworked terra rossa, that point to fluctuations of the erosive regime. The aeolian input can be observed throughout the sequence and is apparently stronger in the uppermost levels. This deposition ends at the end of the Pleistocene. The second one is a thick sedimentary body that occupies a tectonic depression, near Torre Isolidda. This sequence is made up of alternating colluvia, éboulis ordonnés and palaeosols dating back to the Late Pleistocene. The aim of this study is to ascertain which environmental condition affected the deposition of the lithological units of these two sequences and to correlate them to the climatic phases of the Middle-Late Pleistocene. The study of the macroscopic characteristics of the sequences has been carried out in detail with the help of soil micromorphological observations.

A multidisciplinary study has been carried out on the littoral deposits located along the western Sicily coastal belt, central Mediterranean region, with the aim of unravelling their origin and evolution through analysis of their lithology, texture, sedimentary structures, and geomorphological features. The deposits crop out between the towns of Trapani and Marsala and are distributed from the present-day coastline up to 120 m above sea level, forming four major discrete ridges in the landscape, each of separated by topographic depressions with flat or slightly concave upwards surfaces. The ridges ranging between 5 to 30 m in height, display a NNE-SSW trend almost parallel to the present-day coastline, and are 1–2 km apart from each other. The littoral deposits rest above an extensive unconformity surface separating them from the Lower Pleistocene calcarenite unit (Marsala synthem) or older (Oligocene-Miocene) mostly marly-shaley and arenaceous units. Along the ridges, the following four lithofacies have been encountered, from the bottom to the top: i) transgressive lag composed of rounded pebbles, sandstones, and breccias of Tertiary limestone in a silty matrix containing small fragments of Mollusca shells; ii) medium to coarse, well sorted sands with plane-parallel lamination, passing upwards to medium-to-coarse sand containing polygenic well rounded pebbles interpreted as longshore current and wave-reworked river mouth deposits; iii) tabular or lens shaped, well stratified calcarenites with low- and high-angle lamination, interpreted as upper shoreface and foreshore deposits; iv) medium-to-coarse, cemented, mostly carbonate-rich sands with subordinate percentage of quartz granules, containing sparse reworked foraminifera and terrestrial gastropods, showing evident large-scale tabular and concave cross-lamination (each lamina is 0.5–2 cm thick). The deposits consisting of this lithofacies form convex elongated sedimentary bodies with thickness ranging between 2 and 15 m where up to three sub-units, separated from each other by upward concave erosional surfaces marked by paleosoils, can be recognized. This lithofacies is interpreted to be associated with an aeolian dune sedimentary complex developed on a coastal environment. In addition, in the topographic depressions separating the ridges, coastal fine-grained sandstone containing sparse marine fauna with fragments of shells of bivalves and gastropods and matrix-supported well-rounded quartz-arenitic pebbles suggests a deposition in a fluvial-influenced coastal lagoon environment. The overall geomorphological setting, stratigraphy and sedimentary features observed in the study area suggest the development of a complex coastal barrier environment associated with shoreface, beach-barrier coastal dunes and back barrier lagoon and fluvial-coastal system. This resulted from the complex interplay between coastal, aeolian and fluvial processes in an area intensely which during the Middle-Late Pleistocene has been affected by sea-level fluctuations and tectonic uplift inducing the progressive westward migration of the coastline to the present-day position.

Seismogenic fault models and active deformation ones coupled with models of both earthquake rate and earthquake probability were recently used in a time-independent modelling. The integration of models allows to estimates the magnitude, location, and likelihood of potentially damaging earthquake ruptures in regions with high natural seismic hazard. Improvements of these models imply the recognition of the spatial geometry of the larger, active faults, deemed to be the source of the most damaging future earthquakes. However, identifying active faults and calculating their geologic slip rates for deriving earthquake rates are not easy tasks in regions inaccessible to direct field studies like active offshore areas. To improve the ability to define seismogenic fault models and active deformation models in offshore areas, we aim to develop a geophysical/geological method that allows to (a) identify the spatial geometry of active faults and fault systems in coastal areas, and (b) deduce the average long-term slip rates and recurrence interval, displacement per event, and elapsed time since the last event along the fault plane. The approach consists of innovative combination of geological and geophysical dataset, sampling methodology and GIS based on morphometric analysis. Preliminary results of this multidisciplinary approach applied to the coastal area of north Sicily document active deformation in an on-land sector of the Sicilian Maghrebian Chain and in its off-shore prolongation. Here we present results concerning the Palermo-Termini Imerese coastal sector based on a combination of: 1) structural data, 2) high-resolution reflection seismic data, 3) time series of GNSS data of the permanent stations of Palermo, Partinico, Prizzi, and Termini compared to the IGS station of Noto, 4) morphometric analysis of high-resolution digital elevation data for the hydrographic basins of the Oreto, Eleuterio, Milicia, San Leonardo, Torto and Imera Settentrionale rivers, and 5) seismological data. In the area of the Capo Zafferano promontory, Pleistocene conglomerates and grainstones are affected by recent tectonic deformation. In particular, at two sites near the village of Porticello we observed two sets of N-S to NNW-SSE and NE-SW striking deformation bands. Both sets have an almost vertical dip and show mutual cross-cutting relationships, suggesting their contemporaneous development. The N-S to NNW-SSE striking set shows left-lateral strike slip kinematic. At place, the deformation bands affect also Upper Pleistocene (Tyrrhenian) bio-calcarenites. In the off-shore, a number of seismic units, bounded by unconformities, were identified on seismic lines. The unit of inferred late Pleistocene age appears to be folded and faulted. Faults generally have an inclination of ca. 50°, small displacements up to 10 m and are sealed by the unit of inferred post-LGM age. Only a limited number of these faults are observed moving ca. 3 km offshore towards the NE. The average values of the velocity vectors obtained for the Palermo, Partinico, Prizzi, and Termini Imerese stations are 4.55, 2.97, 2.96, and 2.15 mm/yr, respectively. The direction of the velocity vectors for all stations is oriented towards the IGS reference station of Noto. The relative displacements of the Termini Imerese, Partinico and Prizzi stations respect to Palermo station are most equal to 0.5 mm/yr. Also, the directions of vectors suggest a clockwise rotation. The drainage network analysis highlights that the trunk streams of Eleuterio and San Leonardo drainage networks are asymmetric towards SE and the absolute asymmetry are ~ 3 and ~ 2 km, respectively. On the contrary, the trunk streams of the Milicia, Torto and Imera Settentrionale rivers are asymmetric towards W-NW with an asymmetry ranging from 3.5 up to 4 km. The Oreto stream does not show any evidence of lateral shift. Hypsometric analysis shows two types of statistical distributions of elevation classes. The latter have a bi-modal distribution for the Eleuterio, Oreto and Torto basins while uni-modal for the Milicia and San Leonardo basins. Values of the hypsometric integral are ~ 0.4 for the Milicia, San Leonardo and Torto basins, ~ 0.5 for the Eleuterio basin and 0.35 for the Oreto basin. The study area has been struck in the past centuries by several significant earthquakes of I0 ≥ 6. Mainly low-to-moderate magnitude seismicity, instead, occurred in this sector in the more recent times, showing highest earthquake concentration in the Tyrrhenian off-shore of the study area with respect to the onshore sector. To furnish a first constraint on seismogenic sources lying in this area, we performed hypocenter location and focal mechanism computation of the seismicity that occurred in the last thirty years. Then, we jointly evaluated data and information coming from historical seismicity with the results obtained by the geophysical, geological, and seismological analyses performed in order to better characterize the possible seismogenic sources present in the study region.