Rotation of the Italian peninsula from aeromagnetic evidence

Palaeomagnetic data have been used extensively in order to study the geodynamical history of a region. Similar information can be obtained by analysing the shape of aeromagnetic anomalies and the direction of the total magnetization vector of the anomaly sources. We can suppose that the direction of the Earth's magnetic induction vector is almost constant with time along a N-S direction. If a significant directional difference between total magnetization and induction vector is observed, we can argue that the anomaly sources were affected by conspicuous rotational movements. In the central Southern Tyrrhenian area, the anomaly shape is generally normal i.e., N-S, except for several anomalies which have a maximum-minimum direction parallel to the Italian coast, that is, NW-SE rather than N-S. This feature, and the location of these anomalies on the border of the bathyal plain, seems to be in agreement with the anticlockwise rotation movements suggested in some geodynamical models of the region.