Active stress map of Italy

Abstract

We present a new map of the present‐day stress field in Italy obtained from all the available data. The map reports 200 horizontal stress directions inferred from 109 borehole breakout data, 44 centroid moment tensor solutions, 34 other focal mechanisms, most of which are from polarity distributions, seven stress inversions of microearthquake data, two averages of T and P axes of earthquake focal mechanisms in zones of diffuse seismic activity, and four fault slip data. The integration of breakout data, which yield horizontal stress directions, with fault plane solutions, which reflect the stress regime, allows us to obtain an improved map of the present‐day stress in Italy. This stress field map can be used for a better comprehension of active tectonic processes, for seismic hazard assessment, and to foresee the behavior of faults recognized with other methods. Stress directions obtained from different data, although relative to different depth intervals (e.g., 0–7 km for breakouts and 0–20 km for most of the earthquakes) and to different tectonic units, are consistent. Since many regions in Italy are characterized by an extensional stress regime, we report the minimum horizontal stress (Shmin) orientations. The map shows that an extensional regime affects most of the Apenninic belt. Conversely, a compressional (or transpressional) regime characterizes the eastern Alps, the eastern side of the northern Apennines, and the southern Tyrrhenian to northern Sicily zone. An abrupt change in stress directions marks the transition between northern and southern Apennines, suggesting that the two arcs are characterized by a different tectonic setting and recent evolution. In this paper we report all the data analyzed to date, with their geographic coordinates and average stress directions, and we describe the main stress provinces in Italy in the framework of the tectonic evolution of the region.