The Mount Pizzuto earth flow: deformational pattern and recent thrusting evolution

The Mount Pizzuto earth flow has been periodically active in recent decades. Early in 2006, it surged and created a dam across the Ginestra torrent. Episodic floods induced by the earth-flow dam periodically damaged a section of a local road and power and telephone service lines. This paper presents a map showing deformational structures along the flow and a geometric reconstruction of thrust faults at the earth-flow toe from 2006 to 2014. The map, produced on the basis of field observations, shows the spatial distribution of back-tilted surfaces, flank ridges and normal, thrust, and strike-slip faults. Springs, creeks, and ponds are also shown on the map. The map indicates that the earth flow is composed of five kinematic zones. Cartographic data and the spatial–temporal reconstruction of the thrusting evolution offer the basis for interpreting the (mid-term) kinematics of the flow and its controlling factors, and for assessing the influence of earth-flow movement on torrent channel capacity. © 2016 Luigi Guerriero.