The Geomorphological Field Camp 2014 in the Castel di Sangro-Scontrone area is the result of geological and geomorphological teaching field work activities carried out in Central Italy by a group of 23 students attending the Structural Geomorphology and Applied Geomorphology courses (Master's Degree in Geological Science and Technology of the Università degli Studi 'G. d'Annunzio' Chieti-Pescara, Italy, Department of Engineering and Geology). The Field Camp 2014 was organized in May 2014, following regular classes held during the fall term. General activities for the field camp were developed over four main stages: (1) preliminary analysis of the regional geological and geomorphological setting of the area; (2) preliminary activities for the analysis of the local area (orography, hydrography and photogeology investigations, and geographical information system processing); (3) field work, focused on the analysis of a specific issue concerning structural geomorphology or applied geomorphology (e.g. landscape evolution, river channel change, landslide distribution, and flood hazard); and (4) post-field work production of the map. Finally, the fundamental role of field work in the analysis of landscape and in land management was outlined: indeed, the overall field camp enhanced the crucial role of field-based learning for young geomorphologists in order to acquire a strong sensitivity to geomorphological processes and landscape evolution. ARTICLE HISTORY

<p>We present SEISC-3D, an ArcGIS geodatabase for 3D SEIsmic Source Characterization. It integrates multi-scale and multi-depth geological and seismological information in a compressional environment to build a detailed regional-scale, geometric and kinematic, 3D curvilinear fault model suitable for seismic hazard modelers and seismotectonic purposes and geodynamic modeling. This first release focuses on the late Pliocene-to-Quaternary arcuate and eastward convex fold-and-thrust belt still active along the Outer front of the Italian Apennines in eastern Central Italy. The near-surfaces, onshore, and offshore thrust faults represent the hanging-wall structures of a potentially seismogenic regional shear zone, known as Adriatic Basal Thrust, which develops from near-surface to MOHO depths (about 35 km).</p> <p>Three hierarchic levels of structural maps are provided with decreasing details moving from fold-and-thrusts traces, enveloping thrust, and regional thrust alignments.</p> <p>Different datasets (points, lines, surfaces) are unified, compiled, and held in a common ArcGIS<strong> </strong>file system folder and linked on the basis of relational models.</p> <p>SEISC is composed of:</p> <ul> <li>one dataset consisting of fold hinges traces (syncline and anticlines)</li> <li>one dataset consisting of individual fold-related thrust</li> <li>one dataset consisting of enveloping thrusts organized in hierarchic orders</li> <li>one dataset consisting of interconnected curvilinear fault surfaces built along the down-dip projection of the enveloping thrusts, segmented along-strike and along-dip</li> <li>one structural data set containing geometric and kinematic point data (attitude, dip-angle, slip-vector, rake, sense of movement) for the node of each triangulated mesh of each fault surface.</li> </ul> <p>A crucial point when dealing with compressional structures is the difficulty in adopting segmentation criteria suitable for a realistic earthquake-fault association. In our methodological approach, the along-strike segmentation is strongly driven by the en-echelon distribution of the fold-related thrusts and by sharp variation in strikes and bending of the enveloping thrusts. On the other hand, the down-dip segmentation is controlled by the mechanical crustal layering derived from earthquake distributions and the rheological investigation.</p>

<p><span>The frequency-magnitude relation of earthquakes, with particular attention to the <em>b</em>-value of Gutenberg-Richter law, is computed in Southern California. A three-dimensional grid is employed to sample relocated focal mechanisms and determine both the magnitude of completeness and the <em>b</em>-value for each node. Sampling radius and grid size are appropriately chosen accordingly to seismogenic source dimensions. The SCEC Community Fault Model is used for comparison of the main fault systems along with the calculated 3D distributions. </span></p><p><span>The <em>b-</em>values are compared to <em>A<sub>λ</sub></em>, a streamlined kinematic fault quantification, which does not use inversion processes since directly depends on individual rakes of focal mechanisms. Potential relationships between the two quantities are then computed through multiple regressions at increasing depth ranges: they may help to evaluate seismic hazard assessment in relating the frequency and size of earthquakes to kinematic features. The rheological transition from elastic to plastic conditions is computed, assuming different physical constraints, and its influence on <em>b-</em>value and <em>A<sub>λ</sub></em> is also analyzed. Among proposed linear, polynomial, and harmonic equations, the linear model is statistically valued as the most probable one to relate the two parameters at different depth ranges. <em>b</em>-values against <em>A<sub>λ</sub></em> results are implemented into a 3D figure, where point data are interpolated by “Lowess Smoothing” surfaces to visually check the constancy depending on depth.</span></p>

The systematic study of faults that have released strong earthquakes in the past is a challenge for seismic hazard assessment. In carbonate landscapes, the use of rare earth element (REE) concentrations on slickensides may aid the reconstruction of fault slip history. We applied this methodology to the Caggiano normal fault (Southern Apennines, Italy), cropping out southeast of the Irpinia 1980 CE earthquake fault (Mw 6.9), which was responsible for both the 1561 CE and partly the 1857 CE Basilicata earthquakes (Mw 6.7 and 7.1). We integrated the REE analysis approach with a high-resolution topographic analysis along 98 serial topographic profiles to measure vertical separations attributable to faulting since the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). The asymmetric scarp height profiles suggest fault-lateral propagation and along-strike variations in the fault evolution. Our results indicate the occurrence of 7 to 11 earthquakes with variable slip between ~40 cm and ~70 cm within post-LGM times. We estimated the magnitudes of the respective earthquakes, between 5.5 and 7.0, and most commonly between 6.3 and 6.5. The results suggest a recurrence time between 1.6 k.y. and 2.3 k.y. and a slip rate ranging between 0.6 mm/yr and 0.9 mm/yr. This approach may be useful for application to carbonate fault planes in similar tectonic contexts worldwide.