New insights on the Messina 1908 seismic source from post-seismic sea level change

Abstract

The identification of a source model for the catastrophic 1908 December 28 Messina earthquake (M w = 7.2) has been the subject of many papers in the last decades. Several authors proposed different models on the basis of seismological, macroseismic and geodetic data sets; among these models, remarkable differences exist with regard to almost all parameters. We selected a subset of six models among those most cited in literature and used them to model the post-seismic sea level variation recorded at the tide gauge station of Messina (until 1923), to attempt an independent discrimination among them. For each model, we assumed a simple rheological structure and carried out a direct-search inversion of upper crust thickness and lower crust viscosity to fit the post-seismic sea level signal. This approach enabled us to identify a class of fault geometries which is consistent with the post-seismic signal at the Messina tide gauge and with the known structural and rheological features of the Messina strait.