Proceedings of the 12th International INQUA meeting on paleoseismology, active tectonic and archaeoseismology

preventing the recognition of direct evidence for the fault. The work has a significant motivation on the fact that the seismotectonics of the Ionian sector of the Calabrian peninsula is still not well defined, both in terms of active tectonics and of seismic activity. We have to consider that the Sibari plain area, although with low strain rates, may have experienced strong earthquakes with recurrence times exceeding the temporal coverage of historical and instrumental seismic catalogs. Indeed, several studies based on different research approaches suggest that the area should have experienced damaging earthquakes in the past (Figure 1; e.g., Ferranti et al. 2019; Kagan et al., 2017; Galli et al., 2010; Cinti et al., 2002, 2015a and references therein). All that translates to a potential seismic hazard of this region and to a related high seismic risk, especially along the coastal strip hosting residential areas and critical infrastructures (e.g., refineries, power plants, harbors). Fig. 1: Seismotectonic map of northeastern Calabria and location of the Sibari fault zone (SFZ, gray line) (modified from Cinti et al., 2024). Abbreviations for main faults: AF - Amendolara Fault, CF - Castrovillari Fault, CRF - Crati Fault, FF - Firmo Fault, NCF - North Crati Fault, PF - Pollino Fault, RF - Rossano Fault, TF - Timparelle Fault. Abbreviations for towns: CV - Castrovillari, SI - Sibari, TS - Terranova da Sibari, CO - Corigliano Calabro. The dashed rectangle indicates the area shown in Fig. 2.