Kinematics and structural properties of an active fault system: the Lakes Fault (northern Calabria, Italy)

In this paper we analyse the geometry, kinematics and dimen-sional characteristics of fault segments in the northern-central sec-tor of the Sila Massif (Calabria). The fault zone (named here LF) extends beyond the Ampollino Lake and the Arvo River, and is thought to be the seismogenic structure responsible for the 1638 earthquake. Our data show that LF is composed of two main right-stepping segments arranged en-échelon. The stepover zone corre-sponds to a relay zone between the two active segments, as proved by the occurrence, in the area, of faulted Holocene sediments. The presence of compressive and extensional jogs with associated push ups and sag ponds along the fault trace, as well as the overall archi-tecture of the fault zone, indicate that the LF is a NW-SE striking left-lateral feature. The structural and dimensional properties of the fault zone, also suggest that active deformation processes associated to LF include mechanical interaction between neighbouring fault segments indicating that those may be considered as part of a single seismogenic structure.