Fractal properties of a neogene fault system in northwestern Sicily, Italy

A Neogene transcurrent fault system affecting the Apenninic-Maghrebian thrust belt, located in northwestern Sicily, has been investigated using fractal analysis. The present-day structural setting of the sector between the Palermo and Madonie Mountains is the result of the superimposition, in space and time, of two distinct deformational events, a Miocene southeast-verging thrusting followed by Messinian to Pliocene strike-slip faulting, which cuts obliquely through the compressive fronts. The spatial distribution properties of the fault array were investigated by means of a fractal analysis. Fractal dimension was computed by adopting the correlation integral method. Fractal ranges have been evidenced between 350 and 3000 m. The fractal dimension obtained for the whole array is D = 1.66. The scaling spatial distribution property of the fault array has been analyzed by calculating the fractal dimension with a moving window.