COMMENTS

Very little geological work is available on the region around this source, and no specific 
paper deals with the 7 February 1783 earthquake that is associated with it. The 
parameters of this source were derived from those of the adjacent Gioia Tauro Plain 
Source, that shares with the Upper Mesima Basin Source many similarities in the 
geology, geomorphology and landscape evolution. In particular, the Upper Mesima 
Valley appears as a broad slightly asymmetrical syncline bounded to the east by the 
abrupt escarpment of the Serre Mts. The source is well bounded to the south by the 
Nicotera-Gioiosa Ionica Line, while to the northern end should coincide with the head 
of the Mesima Valley a few km east of Vibo Valentia, on the southern side of the 
Stretta di Catanzaro. This is the locus of large important earthquakes, one of which 
belonging to the 1783 sequence (1 March), but the understanding of all these sources is 
unfortunately at a very primordial stage.


OPEN QUESTIONS

1) Is there any further geological evidence that can be used to constrain this presumably 
blind fault? 

2) What is the exact termination of this source to the north?

3) What are the relationships of this source with the 1659, 1 March 1783, 1791 and 1905 
earthquakes, all of which occurred near its northern end?



