CAT/SCAN:
Calabria-Apennine-Tyrrhenian / Subduction-Collision-Accretion
Network
A Joint American-Italian Project to Monitor Earthquakes
on the Most Active Seismic Belt in Italy
The Italian peninsula across the
Mediterranean Sea is part of the tectonic plate boundary
- the accommodation zone -- between the Eurasian and
the African plates, which continue to move closer to
each other. This motion controls the long-term evolution
of the boundary, but recent geologic changes suggest
a more rapid tectonic event superimposed on the slow
motion of the big plates and localized to the Apennine
arc. This signature event of the Italian peninsula is
most dramatically manifested in the current deformation
along the Calabrian portion of the arc and is the main
focus of this project.
Researchers from the Lamont-Doherty
Earth Observatory, Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e
Vulcanologia, and the Universita Della Calabria are
working to deploy 40 portable digital broadband seismographs
throughout southern Italy. These instruments will record
both global and regional earthquakes for 18 months.
Researchers are also working to deploy an additional
10 digital broad-band ocean-bottom seismometers (OBS)
offshore for a period of 12 months. Researchers will
use signals from distant earthquakes to develop a catscan,
or a three dimensional image, of the Earth's crust and
mantle beneath the Italian Peninsula of the earth.