Liquefaction features: a comparison between the Emilia epicentral area (Italy) and the Cerberus Fossae region (Mars)

Francesca Cannarsa(1), Gian Gabriele Ori(1 2), Vittorio Scisciani (3)

(1) IRSPS - G. dAnnunzio, Pescara (Italy), Address: Viale Pindaro 42, 65127 Pescara, Italy, Phone office: +39-085-4537889 Fax: +39.085-454-9755, Email: cannarsa@irsps.unich.it (2) Ibn Battuta Centre, Unversite Cady Ayyad, Marrakech, (Morocco) (3) Universit G. dAnnunzio - Dipartimento di Ingegneria e Geologia, Chieti-Pescara (Italy), Campus Universitario Madonna delle Piane, via dei Vestini, 31, 66013 - Chieti Scalo, Italy

A wide variety of syndepositional deformations and morphological features are related to liquefaction, and seismic shocks are one of the main causes of these deformations. The liquefaction is a natural process in which the strength and stiffness of a saturated soil is reduced by repeated earthquake-triggered shaking or other rapid monotonic/cyclic loading. In terrestrial sedimentary records analogous synsedimentary features have also been attributed to liquefaction caused by meteoritic impact KOMATSU et al. (2007) cum biblio. Moreover, the latter process has been retained as the main deformation mechanism of the surficial water-saturated unlithified sediments close to the impact craters on Mars. A series of coseismic ground effects (mainly) produced by liquefaction have been observed in the area affected by the 2012 Emilia earthquakes sequence. Some of these seismic-induced features show close analogies with surficial morphological structures imaged on the Cerberus Fossae region on Mars. The aim of this study is to describe the results of terrestrial field and Martian remote observations and to discuss the geological and hydrogeological implications on the recent history of Mars.

1. THE EARTH STUDY AREA On May 2012, two strong compressional earthquakes struck the Emilia region in the central sector of the Po plain (Northern Italy). The two main-shocks and the noticeable aftershock, (about 2400) affected an area interposed between Ferrara,

Modena and Mantova (Fig. 1). This area is a flat alluvial plain occupied by both urbanized and agricultural areas Fig. 1 - Tectonic setting of the buried Northern Apennine where WNW-ESE trending active thrust earthquakes (5<M<5.9) of the Emilia seismic sequence faults remains blind at depth underneath a thick Miocene-Quaternary cover PIZZI & SCISCIANI (2012). The first and strongest event on 20th May of Ml 5.9 (Eq1 in Fig. 1) occurred at depth of 6.3 km and was followed by a second strong event on 29th May of Ml 5.8 (Eq2) with the epicentre at 10.2 km of depth. Two survey campaigns conducted after the Eq1 and during/soon after Eq2 events allowed to carry out a detailed analysis and field
foldand-thust belt in the Po-Plain. Stars indicates the main