MAIERATO LANDSLIDE

Maierato is located in Vibo Valentia’s territory, few kilometers from the Mar Tirreno in central Calabria. The Maierato’s town rises on a slope without particularly accentuated inclinations, but it is deeply disturbed by an enormous and ancient gravitational deformation (Guerricchio et Al., 2010). Moreover, the territory is characterized by ancient and “Great Lands”, these probably born as a result of marine regressions during glacial periods. In addition, the predisposition to landslide events was strongly characterized by the disastrous earthquake occurred in 1973, which generated fractures and considerable masses dislocated over the whole slope. As a consequence, the seep rains feed a powerful aquifer localized in the permeable layers of deposits. Due to the almost verticality of the cracks, the outflow occurs with a high gradient (about 10%) which, in case of abundant infiltrations, can generate a real “underground torrent”. The landslide of February 15th 2010 was preceded by a long phase of deformation that later produced the collapsed of slope. The elevation speed of the phenomenon seems to suggest that the movement has developed on a completely fluidized substrate, allowing to the ancient landslide debris to mobilize with great energy. The water level has generated pressures in order to cancel the effective stress, inducing a real liquefaction. The conditions favored a collapse in according to a mechanism of multiple rotational sliding, followed by a deep “disarticulation” of the landslide. It could be considered as a “debris flow with rock blocks”. The landslide movement has a main scarp with a development of approximately 1.1 km and with a maximum depth about 50 m. The average depth of the landslide body was estimated at 25-30 m, with a volume that exceeds 8 million m3.