Geostatistical Analysis of Lineament Domains: The Study Case of the Apennine Seismic Province of Italy

Abstract

Regional-scale swarms of subparallel linear topographic features, known as lineament domains, are a common feature of planetary surfaces. Lineament domains are superficial manifestations of the crustal stress field trajectory. Notably, one of the effects of active tectonics is seismicity. Italy is one of the most seismically active regions in the Mediterranean, with many destructive earthquakes that have occurred in past centuries. Here, we assess the seismic meaning of the main lineament domain in the tectonically active region of Central Italy. We describe the use of an automated analysis of satellite imagery coupled with spatial grid analysis to identify three lineament domains of the Central Apennines. Spatial and azimuthal comparisons of the main lineament domain (i.e., the Apennine Domain), with the known locations of earthquakes (moment magnitude of Mw > 5.5) that occurred during the past century, revealed the most seismically active tectonic areas and their spatial distributions. Further, we present a conceptual seismo-geodynamic model for the Central Apennines, which is characterized by regional arching and explains the presence of an extensional tectonic regime in the upper crustal layer of the active Apennines fold-and-thrust belt.