We make a thorough review of geological and seismological data on the long-lived Schio-Vicenza Fault System (SVFS) in northern Italy and present for it a geodynamic and seismotectonic interpretation.The SVFS is a major and high-angle structure transverse to the mean trend of the eastern Southern Alps fold-and-thrust belt, and the knowledge of this structure is deeply rooted in the geological literature and spans more than a century and a half. The main fault of the SVFS is the Schio-Vicenza Fault (SVF), which has a significant imprint in the landscape across the eastern Southern Alps and the Veneto-Friuli foreland. The SVF can be divided into a northern segment, extending into the chain north of Schio and mapped up to the Adige Valley, and a southern one, coinciding with the SVF proper. The latter segment borders to the east the Lessini Mountains, Berici Mountains and Euganei Hills block, separating this foreland structural high from the Veneto-Friuli foreland, and continues southeastward beneath the recent sediments of the plain via the blind Conselve–Pomposa fault. The structures forming the SVFS have been active with different tectonic phases and different styles of faulting at least since the Mesozoic, with a long-term dip-slip component of faulting well defined and, on the contrary, the horizontal component of the movement not being well constrained. The SVFS interrupts the continuity of the eastern Southern Alps thrust fronts in the Veneto sector, suggesting that it played a passive role in controlling the geometry of the active thrust belt and possibly the current distribution of seismic release. As a whole, apart from moderate seismicity along the northern segment and few geological observations along the southern one, there is little evidence to constrain the recent activity of the SVFS. In this context, the SVFS, and specifically its SVF strand, has accommodated a different amount of shortening of adjacent domains of the Adriatic (Dolomites) indenter by internal deformation produced by lateral variation in strength, related to Permian–Mesozoic tectonic structures and paleogeographic domains.The review of the historical and instrumental seismicity along the SVFS shows that it does not appear to have generated large earthquakes during the last few hundred years. The moderate seismicity points to a dextral strike-slip activity, which is also corroborated by the field analysis of antithetic Riedel structures of the fault cropping out along the northern segment. Conversely, the southern segment shows geological evidence of sinistral strike-slip activity. The apparently conflicting geological and seismological data can be reconciled considering the faulting style of the southern segment as driven by the indentation of the Adriatic plate, while the opposite style along the northern segment can be explained in a sinistral opening “zipper” model, where intersecting pairs of simultaneously active faults with a different sense of shear merge into a single fault system.

中文翻译：

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长寿命横向结构的地球动力学和地震构造模型：Schio-Vicenza 断层系统（意大利东北部）

我们对意大利北部长期存在的 Schio-Vicenza 断层系统 (SVFS) 的地质和地震数据进行了彻底审查，并为其提供了地球动力学和地震构造解释。南阿尔卑斯山脉东部褶皱冲断带的走向，对这种构造的认识在地质文献中根深蒂固，跨越了一个半世纪。SVFS 的主要断层是 Schio-Vicenza 断层 (SVF)，它在横跨南阿尔卑斯山脉东部和威尼托-弗留利前陆的景观中具有重要的影响。SVF 可以分为北段，延伸到 Schio 以北的链并绘制到阿迪杰山谷，以及南段，与 SVF 本身重合。后一段与莱西尼山脉东部接壤，Berici Mountains 和 Euganei Hills 将这片前陆构造高处与威尼托-弗留利前陆隔开，并通过康塞尔维-蓬波萨盲断层在平原最近的沉积物下方继续向东南移动。至少自中生代以来，形成 SVFS 的构造一直活跃，具有不同的构造阶段和不同的断层类型，断层的长期倾滑分量很明确，相反，运动的水平分量没有约束得很好。SVFS 中断了威尼托地区南阿尔卑斯山脉东部逆冲锋的连续性，表明它在控制活动逆冲带的几何形状和可能的地震释放当前分布方面发挥了被动作用。总的来说，除了北段的中等地震活动和南段的少量地质观测外，几乎没有证据限制 SVFS 的近期活动。在这种情况下，SVFS，特别是它的 SVF 链，通过强度横向变化产生的内部变形适应了亚得里亚海（白云岩）压头相邻区域的不同程度的缩短，与二叠纪-中生代构造结构和古地理区域有关. SVFS 沿线的历史和仪器地震活动的回顾表明，在过去的几百年里它似乎没有产生过大地震。中等地震活动指向右旋走滑活动，对沿北段突出的断层的对立 Riedel 结构的现场分析也证实了这一点。相反，南段显示出左旋走滑活动的地质证据。考虑到由亚得里亚海板块的压痕驱动的南段断层样式，可以调和明显矛盾的地质和地震数据，而北段的相反样式可以用左旋开口“拉链”模型来解释，其中相交具有不同剪切意义的成对同时活动的断层合并成一个单一的断层系统。