Articles | Volume 23, issue 11
https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-23-3407-2023
https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-23-3407-2023
Research article
 | 
09 Nov 2023
Research article |  | 09 Nov 2023

The footprint of a historical paleoearthquake: the sixth-century-CE event in the European western Southern Alps

Franz Livio, Maria Francesca Ferrario, Elisa Martinelli, Sahra Talamo, Silvia Cercatillo, and Alessandro Maria Michetti

Related authors

Unveiling Etna volcano flank dynamics from new paleoseismological findings along the Fiandaca Fault
Giorgio Tringali, Domenico Bella, Franz Livio, Anna Maria Blumetti, Gianluca Groppelli, Luca Guerrieri, Marco Neri, Vincenzo Adorno, Rosario Pettinato, Sara Trotta, and Alessandro M. Michetti
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-4078,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-4078, 2025
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Solid Earth (SE).
Short summary
Transpressional tectonics during the Variscan-Alpine cycle transition: supporting a multi-rifting model, evidence from the European western Southern Alps
Emanuele Scaramuzzo, Franz A. Livio, Maria Giuditta Fellin, and Colin Maden
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-1135,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-1135, 2024
Short summary
Conditional probability of distributed surface rupturing during normal-faulting earthquakes
Maria Francesca Ferrario and Franz Livio
Solid Earth, 12, 1197–1209, https://doi.org/10.5194/se-12-1197-2021,https://doi.org/10.5194/se-12-1197-2021, 2021
Short summary

Related subject area

Earthquake Hazards
Towards a harmonized operational earthquake forecasting model for Europe
Marta Han, Leila Mizrahi, and Stefan Wiemer
Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 25, 991–1012, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-25-991-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-25-991-2025, 2025
Short summary
Modeling seismic hazard and landslide occurrence probabilities in northwestern Yunnan, China: exploring complex fault systems with multi-segment rupturing in a block rotational tectonic zone
Jia Cheng, Chong Xu, Xiwei Xu, Shimin Zhang, and Pengyu Zhu
Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 25, 857–877, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-25-857-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-25-857-2025, 2025
Short summary
Development of a regional probabilistic seismic hazard model for Central Asia
Valerio Poggi, Stefano Parolai, Natalya Silacheva, Anatoly Ischuk, Kanatbek Abdrakhmatov, Zainalobudin Kobuliev, Vakhitkhan Ismailov, Roman Ibragimov, Japar Karaev, Paola Ceresa, Marco Santulin, and Paolo Bazzurro
Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 25, 817–842, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-25-817-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-25-817-2025, 2025
Short summary
Computing the time-dependent activity rate using non-declustered and declustered catalogues – a first step towards time-dependent seismic hazard calculations for operational earthquake forecasting
David Montiel-López, Sergio Molina, Juan José Galiana-Merino, Igor Gómez, Alireza Kharazian, Juan Luis Soler-Llorens, José Antonio Huesca-Tortosa, Arianna Guardiola-Villora, and Gonzalo Ortuño-Sáez
Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 25, 515–539, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-25-515-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-25-515-2025, 2025
Short summary
Analysis of borehole strain anomalies before the 2017 Jiuzhaigou Ms 7.0 earthquake based on a graph neural network
Chenyang Li, Changfeng Qin, Jie Zhang, Yu Duan, and Chengquan Chi
Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 25, 231–245, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-25-231-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-25-231-2025, 2025
Short summary

Cited articles

Bakun, W. U. and Wentworth, C. M.: Estimating earthquake location and magnitude from seismic intensity data, Bull. Seismol. Soc. Am., 87, 1502–1521, 1997. 
Beck, C.: Late Quaternary lacustrine paleo-seismic archives in north-western Alps: Examples of earthquake-origin assessment of sedimentary disturbances, Earth-Sci. Rev., 96, 327–344, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2009.07.005, 2009. 
Bellwald, B., Nigg, V., Fabbri, S. C., Becker, L. W. M., Gilli, A., and Anselmetti, F. S. Holocene seismic activity in south-eastern Switzerland: Evidence from the sedimentary record of Lake Silvaplana, Sedimentology, https://doi.org/10.1111/sed.13131, in press, 2023. 
Bernoulli, D., Bertotti, G., and Zingg, A.: Northward thrusting of the Gonfolite Lombarda (“South-Alpine Molasse”) onto the Mesozoic sequence of the Lombardian Alps; implications for the deformation history of the Southern Alps, Eclog. Geolog. Helv., 82, 841–856, 1989. 
Blass, A., Anselmetti, F. S., Grosjean, M., and Sturm, M.: The last 1300 years of environmental history recorded in the sediments of Lake Sils (Engadine, Switzerland), Eclog. Geol. Helv., 98, 319–332, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00015-005-1166-5, 2005. 
Download
Short summary
Here we document the occurrence of an historical earthquake that occurred in the European western Southern Alps in the sixth century CE. Analysis of the effects due to earthquake shaking in the city of Como (N Italy) and a comparison with dated offshore landslides in the Alpine lakes allowed us to make an inference about the possible magnitude and the location of the seismic source for this event.
Share
Altmetrics
Final-revised paper
Preprint