Adriatic flexure and seismotectonics in southern Italy

The morphological features of the Mesozoic platform in the Apulo-Garganic region and beneath the Southern Apennines, have been tentatively interpreted as consequences of the flexure of the Adriatic lithosphere. To make a rough quantitative check of this hypothesis and to provide a possible interpretation to the main seismotectonic features in this area, the flexural pattern of a 'thin' elastic lithospheric plate loaded at one edge by a bending moment has been determined. The satisfactory fit between the theoretical results and observations, mainly relating to the morphology of the mesozoic platform, the distribution of vertical movements and the concentration of strongest earthquakes within a narrow band in the Apennines, leads us to think that the tectonic premise is feasible.