Di Niro and Giano (1995)
They carry out a morphological and morphotectonic analysis of the eastern flank 
of the high Agri Valley. They recognise and map flat erosional surfaces and 
divide them into two groups: a first group includes paleosurfaces located at 
high elevations on top of the mountain range, whereas the second and younger 
group includes two orders of river terraces cut in pre-Quaternary bedrock and in 
Quaternary slope deposits. The authors also show that these geomorphic features 
and the Quaternary slope deposits are dislocated and deformed by high angle 
faults with different orientations. According to them, the N120-trending system 
is the master system during several tectonic phases and acted with different 
kinematics: left-lateral in a first stage and normal lately. By means of 
correlation with other erosional features found at the southern margin of the 
basin, the authors infer the timing of the tectonic and morphological evolution 
of the northern margin of the high Agri valley. They recognise at least four 
tectonic events, alternated with morphogenetic cycles, occurred between the 
Upper Pliocene-Lower Pleistocene and Lower Middle Pleistocene. The last tectonic 
phase, responsible for the dislocation of the river terraces of the second 
order, is sealed by the Middle-Upper Pleistocene fluvial deposits of the 
"Complesso Val d'Agri" (Di Niro et al., 1992).

Burrato (1995)
With the goal of characterising the geometry of the seismogenic fault 
responsible for the 1857 earthquake, the author applies a morphotectonic 
approach to study the high Agri Valley. Because of its sensitivity even to 
slight changes in vertical topographic gradient, he uses the drainage as a tool 
indicator of relative vertical movements induced by fault activity. According to 
the author the high Agri Valley can be divided into two sectors marked by 
different evolutive trends. The sector located between the villages of Marsico 
Nuovo and Grumento Nova is characterised by a flat alluvial plain and by the 
aggradational behavior of the drainages. The sector downstream Grumento Nova 
where the Agri river and its affluents exit the area of maximum subsidence and 
is characterised by widespread erosional behaviour of the drainages demonstrated 
by the presence of several orders of river terraces and by the fluvial incisions 
becoming deeper and deeper moving downstream. Repeated activity of the 1857 
earthquake causative fault would produce coseismic subsidence in the first 
sector, whereas no important influence would occur coseismically in the second 
sector that is controlled by the regional uplift. Assuming a rake of 270, the 
author calculates the geometrical parameters of the best direct fault model 
fitting the data, that are: strike N315, dip 60NE, length 16 km, width 14 km 
and depth 4 km.

Benedetti et al. (1998)
By using satellite images, aerial photographs and fieldwork, they study the NW-SE 
trending, SW dipping normal fault system bordering the north-eastern side of the 
the high Agri Valley. The fault system they infer is about 30 km long (between 
Marsico Nuovo and Montemurro), and it is composed by right-stepping, SW dipping, 
2 to 5 km long faults, striking NNE to WNW. On the basis of morphological 
observations the authors hypothesise that the difference in elevation (maximum 
at the northern end) between the planation surfaces, topping the mountain range 
flanking to the north-east the Agri valley, and the basin floor, represents the 
long-term vertical offset produced by the Val d'Agri fault system. Following 
this assumption, the steep triangular facets separated by hanging wine-glass 
canyons, which characterise the range front near Marsico Nuovo, mark a 250 m 
high Pleistocene escarpment. Near the base of these facets they recognize a 15 m 
high cumulative scarp with smaller wine-glass rill channels. Halfway up the 
cumulative scarp the authors identify a 2.5 m high scarplet, that they interpret 
as related to the 1857 earthquake. Comparing the morphology of the 15 m high 
cumulative scarp with other similar scarps in Italy and Greece the authors 
conclude that the scarp is younger than 14000 year and could have been produced 
by 5 or 6 events, each characterized by an offset of about 2.5 m. With these 
assumptions the slip rate for the Val d'Agri fault system would be about 1 
mm/yr, and the recurrence time would be about 2500 years. Using the amplitude of 
the surface slip observed (2.5 m), the length of the fault system (about 30 km), 
and assuming a down-dip width of the fault of 20 km or less and that the stress 
drop of the 1857 earthquake was 60 bars they infer for the 1857 earthquake a 
Ms=7.0.

Cello et al. (2000)
By means of remote sensing analyses, geological mapping and structural field 
work they identify and describe from a geometric and kinematic point of view the 
Val d'Agri Fault System (VAFS). According to the authors the VAFS is composed of 
N120-trending left-lateral strike-slip faults, of the their conjugate N30-
trending right-lateral/transtentional faults, and of other related N90-N110- and 
N130-N150-trending left-lateral/ transtensional and transpressional faults. On 
the basis of geological evidences they propose that the activity of the fault 
system persisted up to Middle Pleistocene or even later. They claim that the age 
of faulted paleosoils given by Giano et al. (2000) suggests that the VAFS is the 
surface expression of a seismogenic structure. Performing statistical analysis 
on the various tectonic structures composing the VAFS, they hypothesize that 
they are related to a main deep N120-trending left-lateral strike-slip fault, 
and represent a still immature fault system.

Giano et al. (2000)
Using radiocarbon dating they supply the age of faulted paleosols found along the 
north-eastern side of the high Agri Valley, and near Pergola along the western 
slope of the Maddalena Mts. The radiometric ages they obtained range between 40 and 
20 ka B.P. According to the authors the evolution of the basin was characterised 
by a first Lower Pleistocene stage, with N120-trending strike-slip faults, and 
by a Middle Pleistocene stage with a NE-SW oriented extensional regime, which 
reactivated with different kinematics pre-existing faults. According to the 
authors, such a two-step evolution is widely recognised in the southern 
Apennines.
