The 1783 Scilla rock-avalanche (Calabria, southern Italy)

Abstract

The coastal M. Paci rock-avalanche occurred on February 6 1783, near the village of Scilla (southern Calabria). This landslide produced a tsunami wave responsible for more than 1500 losses in the neighbour Marina Grande beach. On the basis of subaerial and submarine surveys a 5 . 10(6) m(3) subaerial landslide has been identified together with a 3 . 10(6) m(3) submarine scar area, while block deposits are present both in the subaerial and in the submerged region. A geomechanical characterization of both the intact rock and the rock mass widely outcropping in the landslide slope were performed and a map of the rock mass classes was obtained. Three different equivalent continuum approaches has been applied in order to evaluate the jointed rock mass stiffness in the landslide area. A 3D engineering-geology model of the subaerial part of the M. Paci landslide has been obtained by merging the collected geomechanical and geological data