Analysis of a 150 m sediment core from the co-seismic subsidence depocenter of the 2009 Mw = 6.1 L'Aquila earthquake (Italy): Implications for Holocene-Pleistocene tectonic subsidence rates and for the age of the seismogenic Paganica fault system

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LAQUI-CORE was drilled in the co-seismic subsidence depocenter shown by DinSAR images in the Bazzano sub-basin after the 2009 Mw=6.1 L'Aquila earthquake. LAQUI-CORE aimed at gathering high-resolution integrated stratigraphy and defining its relationships with the Paganica and other active faults that yielded co-seismic subsidence. Lithostratigraphy and micropaleontological analyses indicate a Late Pleistocene-Holocene fluvial-alluvial sequence, and below 41m palustrine sediments sandwiching at 84–115m a thick gravel package. Four 14C ages gathered from 5 to 15m yield calibrated ages between 6 and 41ka BP. Paleomagnetism reveals a normal polarity above 84m, while below the gravel package (115m) it shows frequent polarity changes. The occurrence of intervals of clear reverse polarity testifies below 115m the deposition during the Matuyama Chron. We conclude that the normal polarity package, down to 84m along with the underlying gravels, were deposited at high sedimentation rate (0.46mm/yr for the upper 15m) during the Brunhes Chron (<0.78Ma), and lie over a much older Early Pleistocene palustrine sequence that we correlate with the well-known Madonna della Strada Synthem (1.2–1.7Ma). We assume that the subsidence driving the deposition of the upper normal polarity sequence was due to the activity of the Paganica and neighbour faults during the Middle-Late Pleistocene. The lack of thick volcanostratigraphic markers, widespread in colluvial sediments from the L'Aquila plain older than 460ka, suggests a normal-polarity sedimentation onset, thus a Paganica fault activity onset, around 400ka. The 0.25 to 0.50mm/yr subsidence at Bazzano extrapolated by DinSAR data and paleoseismological trenching at the Paganica fault is roughly consistent with the sedimentation rate (0.46mm/yr) yielded by radiocarbon dating in the upper LAQUI-CORE. This implies that co-seismic subsidence in the Bazzano sub-basin during Late Pleistocene-Holocene times was mainly controlled by the Paganica fault activity.