Faults activity, landslides and fluvial catchments triggered by the 28 december 1908 Messina Strait earthquake (Italy)

The 28 December 1908 Messina Strait earthquake ranks among the most disastrous historicalevents in the Mediterranean, causing more than 100,000 fatalities and the nearly totaldevastation of the cities of Messina and Reggio Calabria.In recent years, one of the most debated issues in this context has been the definition ofthe source of the 1908 earthquake. Numerous studies have dealt with the subject, and giventhe lack of evidence of surface faulting, the most plausible hypotheses propose a source modelwith a blind fault fitting the concepts of rupturing and with the inversion of the historicallevelling data.This work presents a synthesis of geological field work associated withgeomorphological analysis that define a tectonically active fault system, to which can beattributed fluvial catchments and landslides.The novel aspect of this work comes from the comparison made between the presenttopography and 19th century topographic map. The analysis reveals that the modifications ofthe drainage network and the landslide activity, located in correspondence of some activefaults, have occurred after the 1877, probably triggered by the 1908 earthquake.