Abstract
Approximately 20 km north-east of Rome, along the modern trace of the Tiburtina road, recent archaeological diggings have brought to light a system of aqueduct galleries constructed by Roman engineers. This site falls inside the Acque Albule Basin, a travertine plateau Upper Pleistocene in age, that has been interpreted as a rhombshaped pull-apart basin created by strike-slip faulting within a N-S shear zone. This study provides evidence that two narrow water channels of this aqueduct system were significantly deformed by tectonic movement that occurred subsequent to their construction (II-III century A.D.). The geometry of the deformation pattern is compatible with that expected for a shear zone bounded by N-S oriented, right-lateral faults. The palaeomagnetic study of the volcanic formation («Pozzolane Rosse» Formation, 457 ± 4 kyr) containing the Roman aqueduct system evidences significant clockwise rotation around sub-vertical axis, consistent with the above-mentioned tectonic style.
Highlights
Along the modern trace of the Tiburtina road, approximately 20 km north-east of the city of Rome, recent archaeological diggings have brought to light a system of aqueduct galleries constructed by Roman engineers during the II-III century A.D
AAB has been interpreted as a rhombshaped pull-apart basin (7 km long, 4 km wide) created by strike-slip faulting within a N-S shear zone, whose evolution is attributed to Middle-Upper Pleistocene times (Faccenna et al, 1994)
Clockwise rotation around sub-vertical axis, as predicted in the theoretical model suggested in Marra et al (2004), may explain the observed deformation on the archaeological structure as well as the geometry and kinematics of the surveyed tectonic elements
Summary
Along the modern trace of the Tiburtina road, approximately 20 km north-east of the city of Rome (fig. 1), recent archaeological diggings have brought to light a system of aqueduct galleries constructed by Roman engineers during the II-III century A.D. 1), recent archaeological diggings have brought to light a system of aqueduct galleries constructed by Roman engineers during the II-III century A.D. Geological and structural data collected and presented by Marra et al (2004) along two narrow water channels of this aqueduct system The archaeological site falls at the western edge of the Acque Albule Basin Subsidence levels in the range of one metre cannot alone explain the distortion manifested through horizontal displacement, resulting in an estimated total offset at the southern end of the principal aqueduct, of approximately 8 m and a consequent clockwise rotation of approximately 10°. A detailed survey (Marra et al, 2004) of the principal channel indicates a segmented course of the entire structure, with orientations ranging between N10°E and N10°W, and with one section oriented at N35°W. Elaboration by way of a circular diagram reveals a preferential orientation on N30°-40°E and a dip ranging between 70° and 90° towards the SE (in most instances) rather than towards the NW (see fig. 7 in Marra et al, 2004)
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