Southern Italy's marine-terrace uplift is revised five to ten times higher

A University of Oregon-led team sampled marine terraces up to about 1,000 metres above sea level in southern Calabria and used luminescence dating to challenge the long-held assumption that the landforms were roughly one million years old and beyond the method's range. The new results indicate that the terraces are younger than most geologists inferred and may be rising five to ten times faster. The team argues this supports an Ionian slab tearing beneath Calabria rather than only older explanations. The Siculo-Calabrian rift belt spans more than 160 kilometres and has a history of strong earthquakes; the model can improve hazard assessment but cannot predict the date or magnitude of a specific event.