Holocene coastal uplift in the Taormina area, northeastern Sicily: implications for the southern prolongation of the Calabrian seismogenic belt

Stewart, I.S., Cundy, A., Kershaw, S. and Firth, C. (1997) Holocene coastal uplift in the Taormina area, northeastern Sicily: implications for the southern prolongation of the Calabrian seismogenic belt. Journal of Geodynamics, 24 (1-4), 37-50. (doi:10.1016/S0264-3707(97)00012-4).

Abstract

Elevated erosional notches and emergent marine deposits developed on limestone headlands along the Taormina coastline of northeastern Sicily testify to recent shoreline uplift. Although located at the southern prolongation of the Calabrian seismogenic belt, a zone of active extensional tectonics and rapid late Quaternary uplift, the study area lacks historical and instrumental evidence for significant earthquakes. A prominent notch level at an elevation of +4.5 and +5.0 m at Mazzaro and Capo Sant'Alessio, respectively, is dated by 14C assay of associated marine boring molluscs (Lithophaga) to be coincident with the 5000 yr BP deceleration of global eustatic rise, the mid-Holocene quasi-stillstand. These first radiometric dates of Holocene emergence along the northeastern Sicily coast indicate time-averaged uplift rates of 1.1 – 1.8 mm/yr. Well-defined erosional notches postdating the mid-Holocene quasistillstand, however, imply coastal uplift was not gradual but instead involved occasional abrupt crustal movements, probably the result of large paleoseismic earthquakes along the coastal-bounding normal faults. The results support a need for a re-evaluation of the earthquake potential of the Sicilian sector of the Apenninic seismogenic belt.

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Contributors

Author: A. Cundy

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