Evidences of surface faulting and surface rupture in the Fore-Alps of Veneto and Trentino (NE Italy)

The Fore-Alps of western Veneto and Trentino regions belong to the central Southern Alps ŽNE Italy., in which there is little evidence of very fresh surface ruptures or surface faulting. This does not seem to match historical data about earthquakes, some of which have been very intense. The strong influence of the inherited structures makes it difficult to detect a direct link between morphotectonic features and present-day stress fields. In the present study, four areas ŽOrsara, Scandole, Naole and Soran. with surface faulting and surface rupture features were examined, and models of morphotectonic evolution are discussed. In the Lessini Mountains, the Orsara graben and Scandole ridge show examples of surface faulting and surface rupture, respectively, reactivating Paleogene normal faults and fractures. Within the Orsara graben, rocky bluffs displace the previous morphological features. The bluffs are some decimetres to some metres high and are practically devoid of evidence of either physical or chemical weathering; on the slopes above them are steep areas which may be interpreted as the remnants of previous strongly weathered bluffs. The Scandole ridge has many trenches, some with rocky walls, which may be the result of several episodes of morphotectonic rupture. In the Giudicarie Belt, the Naole and Mt. Soran surface faulting landforms are details within large frontal culmination walls of Neogene thrusts. The Naole ridge corresponds to the southeastern sector of Monte Baldo. Here, inside a fault angle valley, a sinuous scarp originating from surface faulting marks the base of the fault scarp slope. Ridge splitting is the expression of the backward migration of separation niches due to slope tectonics, also evidenced on the slope by several terrace-like features and by a lower belt of very thick slope breccias. On Mt. Soran, in the Gruppo di Brenta massif, the surface faulting scarp faces uphill, giving rise to a trench-like feature. Downvalley of the scarp, there is the niche of a large landslide dated to 3 kyears B.P. All these landforms are consistent with slope tectonic movements caused by intense earthquakes. Whereas the morphostructures in the Lessini Mountains are the result of responses by sensitive structures, the Naole and Mt. Soran features express the evolution of frontal culmination walls of thrusts, with clear evidence of present-day tectonic activity. On the basis of the weathering of the scarps and associated features, the relative seismotectonic episodes probably occurred between the Bronze and Middle Ages.