Lucilla C. Benedetti

• PhD
• Managing Director at Centre de Recherche et d’Enseignement des Géosciences de l’Environnement

Chlorine 36 (36Cl) is a radionuclide of natural and anthropogenic origin, mainly used as a tracer in geochemical studies. Owing to analytical constraints and its low environmental levels, knowledge of 36Cl behavior in the environment is still very limited. In this study, we use environmental measurements to report for the first time the wet deposit...

Plain Language Summary Surface rupture occurs when a large earthquake caused by movement along a fault, breaks through the Earth's surface. The ³⁶Cl cosmogenic dating is used to recover past earthquakes that generate surface rupture. Using this method to constrain the fault activity over multiple earthquake cycles and across fault systems provides...

Located in the easternmost portion of the Central Apennines, the Mt. Morrone normal fault system is one of the highest seismic hazards in Italy. Previous geological and geomorphological observations revealed the presence of a ∼22 km‐long NW‐SE right‐lateral en echelon fault system made of two parallel faults affecting Quaternary deposits. Our analy...

The NE‐dipping Anghiari normal fault, bounding to the west the Sansepolcro basin in the Upper Tiber Valley (northern Apennines), is thought to be a synthetic splay of the Altotiberina low‐angle normal fault (LANF), an active ENE‐dipping extensional detachment whose seismogenic behavior is debated. In order to assess the Anghiari fault capability to...

Soil organic carbon is one of the largest surface pools of carbon that humans can manage in order to partially mitigate annual anthropogenic CO2 emissions. A significant element to assess soil sequestration potential is the carbon age, which is evaluated by modelling or experimentally using carbon isotopes. Results, however, are not consistent. The...

Once released into the atmosphere, radionuclide dry deposition represents a major transfer process. It can be accurately characterized by its deposition velocity. However, this parameter is poorly constrained for most radionuclides, including chlorine 36. Chlorine 36 is a radionuclide of cosmogenic and anthropogenic origin. It may be discharged int...

Despite numerous studies on Himalayan erosion, it is not known how the very high Himalayan peaks erode. Although valley floors are efficiently eroded by glaciers, the intensity of periglacial processes, which erode the headwalls extending from glacial cirques to crest lines, seems to decrease sharply with altitude1,2. This contrast suggests that er...

Chlorine 36 (36 Cl, T 1/2 = 301,000 years) is a radionuclide with natural and anthropogenic origin that can be rejected during decommissioning of nuclear power plants or chronically during recycling of used nuclear fuels. Once emitted into the atmosphere, chlorine 36 (gas and particles) can be transferred to the soil and vegetation cover by dry and...

For environmental monitoring and radioecological studies, organic and inorganic 129I is often trapped in active charcoal. The analysis of this radionuclide can be difficult because of the low-level activities involved and its physico-chemical properties (e.g., volatility and multiple oxidation degrees). This study proposes a new method for 129I ana...

Plain Language Summary The magnitude 6.4 Petrinja earthquake that stroke Croatia on 29 December 2020, is one of the largest earthquakes registered for decades in continental Europe. Large damage and surface ruptures were observed, suggesting that the earthquake occurred at a very shallow depth. The slip pattern for such moderate magnitude earthquak...

Chlorine 36 (36 Cl, T1/2 = 301,000 years) is a radionuclide with natural and anthropogenic origin that can be rejected accidentally during decommissioning of nuclear power plants or chronically during recycling of nuclear waste (Orano La Hague). Once released into the atmosphere, 36 Cl (gas and particles) can be transferred to the ground by dry and...

Chlorine 36 (36 Cl, T 1/2 = 301,000 years) is a radionuclide with natural and anthropogenic origin that can be rejected accidentally during decommissioning of nuclear power plants or chronically during recycling of nuclear waste. Once emitted into the atmosphere, 36 Cl (gas and particles) can be transferred to the soil and vegetal cover by dry and...

The footwall of the surface rupturing Paganica normal fault, the source of the 2009 L’Aquila earthquake (Mw 6.1) in the Central Apennines (Italy), was investigated using integrated geological and geomorphological approaches. The aim was to constrain the active tectonics by studying the Raiale River that orthogonally crosscuts the fault trace, where...

Although the topographic evolution and erosion dynamics of the Himalayan range have been extensively documented, it is not known how the very high Himalayan peaks erode. Some conceptual models assume that intense periglacial processes involve regressive erosion of high peak headwall at rates dictated by valley-floor downcutting of glaciers. However...

While the cyclic nature of tectonic strain build-up and release is at least conceptually well understood (known as the earthquake cycle), it is not clear how variable the corresponding earthquake sizes and the time intervals between them are. Additional observations from past earthquakes are required to better constrain these aspects. In this conte...

Long-term landscape evolution is controlled by tectonic and climatic forcing acting through surface processes. Rivers are the main drivers of continental denudation because they set the base level of most hillslopes. The mechanisms of fluvial incision are thus a key focus in geomorphological research and require accurate representation and models....

The hydrological conditions during the Last Glacial Maximum in the Eastern Mediterranean have long been debated. In particular, very little is known about the development of high-altitude glaciers in this region. In the present study, morphological and sedimentological evidence, such as U-shape valleys, glacial cirques, and morainic ridges, are use...

On this topic, we are working on the comparison of normal fault slip to triangular facets and gullies incision to understand the links between short-term tectonic activity and long-term landscape evolution. We use morphometric analysis (relief, slope, channel steepness) from high resolution DEM and geochronological data from 36Cl cosmogenic nuclide...

In this study, a new measurement method to quantify ¹²⁹I at low level by ICP-MS/MS (Agilent 8900) was developed. This new method is based on a new measurement medium and mass-shift mode. The developed measurement medium is composed of 0.1% NH4OH, 10 g L⁻¹ ascorbic acid and 3% Tween® 20 which considerably decrease the memory effect and increase the...

Chlorine-36 (36Cl) is currently the only in situ cosmogenic nuclide applicable in carbonates, Ca- and K-rich feldspars and aphyric silicate rocks. Because the production reactions of 36Cl are more numerous and complex than those of other cosmogenic nuclides (e.g. 10Be, 3He), comprehensive and user-friendly calculators are essential for routine appl...

The Central Apennines are among the most seismically active regions in Italy. This region is affected by an extension accommodated by active normal faults. Those faults with high seismogenic potential hosted Mw > 6 shallow damaging earthquakes, such as the Mw 6.5 event of Oct. 30, 2016. Although fault slip rates are crucial to seismic hazard assess...

On 29 December 2020, a shallow earthquake of magnitude Mw 6.4 struck northern Croatia, near the town of Petrinja, more than 24 hours after a strong foreshock (Ml 5). We formed a reconnaissance team of European geologists and engineers, from Croatia, Slovenia, France, Italy and Greece, rapidly deployed in the field to map the evidence of coseismic e...

Correction for ‘Mass-shift mode to quantify low level ¹²⁹ I in environmental samples by ICP-MS/MS’ by Coralie Carrier et al. , J. Anal. At. Spectrom. , 2022, 37 , 1309–1317, https://doi.org/10.1039/D2JA00128D.

Long-term landscape evolution is controlled by tectonic and climatic forcing acting through surfaces processes. Rivers are the main drivers of continental denudation because they set the base level of most hillslopes and the mechanisms of fluvial incision are a key focus in geomorphological research and require accurate representation and models. R...

An emerged coral reef terrace sequence flanks the northern coast of Sumba Island in Indonesia. The sequence was created by the joint effects of uplift and Quaternary sea level oscillations. Since its emergence, it undergoes chemical erosion, which is facilitated by its carbonate lithology. The morphology is dissected by multiple catchments drained...

The emerged coral reef terrace sequence at Cape Laundi, on the north coast of Sumba Island (Indonesia), with at least 18 successive strandlines, remains poorly dated in spite of numerous previous data. The age discrepancies within these coral reef terraces (CRTs) were previously explained by their polycyclic nature, triggered by marine erosion and...

In a comment on our manuscript published three years ago (Moulin & Benedetti [2018] https://doi.org/10.1029/2018TC004958), the authors raise concern about so‐called “mis‐interpreted alluvial and tectonic structures,” and conclude that these issues “invalidate all the consequent interpretations on the deformation rates.” Two points raised by the com...

The interaction between sedimentation/erosion and faulting represents one of the most intriguing topics in landscape and tectonics evolution. Only few studies have been able to document the feedback between faulting and sedimentary loading from field observations. Here, we focus on how sediment loading/unloading influences the dynamics of fault sys...

Geodetic benchmark displacement measurements following the 2020 Petrinjaearthquakein Croatia.

The 29 December 2020, Mw 6.4 Petrinja earthquake nucleated at a depth of~10 km in the Sisak-Moslavina County in northern Croatia,~6 km WSW of the Petrinja town. Focal mechanisms, aftershocks distribution, and preliminary Sentinel-1 InSAR interferogram suggest that the NW-SE right-lateral strike-slip Pokupsko-Petrinja fault was the source of this ev...

We present a database of field data for active faults in the central Apennines, Italy, including trace, fault and main fault locations with activity and location certainties, and slip-rate, slip-vector and surface geometry data. As advances occur in our capability to create more detailed fault-based hazard models, depending on the availability of p...

River terraces are geomorphological markers recording deformation. Here, we use four strath and fill river terraces along the Kızılırmak River in Turkey to unravel the deformation along the convex arc formed by the central North Anatolian Fault (NAF), a continental transform fault. ¹⁰Be, ²⁶Al, ³⁶Cl cosmogenic exposure ages of T3 and T2 strath terra...

The aim of the Fault2SHA European Seismological Commission Working Group Central Apennines laboratory is to enhance the use of geological data in fault-based seismic hazard and risk assessment and to promote synergies between data providers (earthquake geologists), end-users and decision-makers. Here we use the Fault2SHA Central Apennines Database...

Drawing upon a socio-constructivist perspective, this paper aims to gain insight into how two communities in the Italian Apennines region - differentially exposed to severe earthquakes in the past - remember, understand and plan for seismic phenomena. Avezzano was completely devastated in 1915, while the last significant event in Sulmona dates to 1...

The Mw 6.5 Norcia earthquake occurred on 30 October 2016, along the Mt Vettore fault (Central Apennines, Italy), it was the largest earthquake of the 2016–2017 seismic sequence that started 2 months earlier with the Mw 6.0 Amatrice earthquake (24 August). To detect potential slow slip during the sequence, we produced Interferometric Synthetic Apert...

Facets are major topographic features built over several 100 k.y. above active normal faults. Their development integrates cumulative displacements over a longer time frame than many other geomorphological markers, and they are widespread in diverse extensional settings. We have determined the 36Cl cosmogenic nuclide concentration on limestone face...

In 2016, the Mt. Vettore‐Mt. Bove normal fault system (VBFS) broke during three earthquakes (Mw 6.0, Mw 5.9, and Mw 6.5), associated with clear coseismic ruptures. Based on high‐resolution topography and geological field data, we determined the displacements of the VBFS. The distributions of the coseismic and postglacial displacements exhibit simil...

In this study, we focused on a normal fault scarp exhumed within an ancient harbor city, Knidos, located Aegean coast of SW Turkey. This part of Aegean Sea is an extensional region at the back-arc region of the Hellenic Trench. We have made the inversion of the 36Cl profile to determine the age and the slip of the events that have exhumed the fault...

Landscape evolution from the Early 1st millennium BCE to the mid-1st millennium CE is poorly documented around major archaeological sites in Crete. In a previous publication, the general landscape configuration in the vicinity of ancient Phaistos was reconstructed using a palaeoenvironmental approach, from the Proto-Palatial period (ca. 2000BCE) to...

An Mw 6.1, devastating earthquake, on April 6, 2009, struck the Middle Aterno Valley (Abruzzi Apennines, Italy) due to the activation of a poorly known normal fault system. Structural analysis of the fault population and investigation of the relationships with the Quaternary continental deposits through integrated field and laboratory techniques we...

After 24 August and 30 October 2016 central Italy earthquakes (Mw 6.0 and 6.5, respectively), photogrammetry and geodetic survey were performed at various sites along a 6-km-long portion of the rupturing Monte Vettore fault system, providing very high-resolution georeferenced 3-D point clouds and imagery of the 24 August rupture and a data set of b...

Late-glacial and Holocene history of northeast Mediterranean mountain glaciers and their relations to external and internal forcing

Central Italy is characterized by a network of active faults that interact in a complex manner. Coseismic Coulomb stress changes have been invoked by several authors to explain the concentration of moderate-to-strong earthquakes in this region, but none has considered the time-dependent viscoelastic relaxation of the lower crust and upper mantle as...

The eastern Southern Alps are located at the northern tip of the Adria microplate, which imposes 2.0–2.5 mm/year of N-S-convergence relative to stable Eurasia. We map surface evidence of recent folding/faulting in this area from a 5-m Digital Elevation Model (DEM). In the eastern part of the belt, observations reveal a 30-km-wide zone of active fol...

In this study, we present a new glacial chronology based on 20 in situ-produced 36Cl-based cosmic ray exposure datings from moraine boulders and bedrock from the Throne of Zeus (TZ) and Megala Kazania (MK) cirques on Mount Olympus. The 36Cl derived ages of glacial landforms range from 15.6 ± 2.0 to 0.64 ± 0.08 ka, spanning the Late-glacial and the...

Tl in the lorandite (TiAsS2) mine of Allchar (Majdan, FYR Macedonia) is transformed to ²⁰⁵Pb by cosmic ray reactions with muons and neutrinos. At depths of more than 300 m, muogenic production would be sufficiently low for the 4.3Ma old lorandite deposit to be used as a natural neutrino detector. Unfortunately, the Allchar deposit currently sits at...

The dynamics of carbonate-dominated landscapes is still debated, and first-order questions pertaining to the respective importance of chemical and mechanical weathering processes or the influence of climatic variability on denudation rates are largely open. To address these issues, we investigate the denudation pattern across a climatic gradient in...

We provide a database of the coseismic geological surface effects following the Mw 6.5 Norcia earthquake that hit central Italy on 30 October 2016. This was one of the strongest seismic events to occur in Europe in the past thirty years, causing complex surface ruptures over an area of >400 km2. The database originated from the collaboration of sev...

In the broader context of rapid environmental and climatic changes in the Mediterranean region, a new 36 Cl nuclide glacial chronology from two small (0.5km 2) cirques on Mount Olympus in Greece (Throne of Zeus and Megala Kazania) is presented, spanning the Lateglacial and the Holocene. The new chronology contemplates few existing Surface Exposure...

We present a 1:25,000 scale map of the coseismic surface ruptures following the 30 October 2016 M w 6.5 Norcia normal-faulting earthquake, central Italy. Detailed rupture mapping is based on almost 11,000 oblique photographs taken from helicopter flights, that has been verified and integrated with field data (>7000 measurements). Thanks to the comm...

The number of studies using cosmogenic nuclides has increased multi-fold during the last two decades and several new dedicated target preparation laboratories and Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) facilities have been established. Each facility uses sample preparation and AMS measurement techniques particular to their needs. It is thus desirable...

The influence of the morphological setting on the denudation of carbonate landscapes and the respective contributions of mechanical and chemical weathering processes are still debated. We have addressed these questions by measuring 36Cl concentrations in 40 samples from the Luberon mountain, SE France, in order to constrain the denudation of variou...

We perform aftershock probabilistic seismic hazard analysis (APSHA) of the ongoing aftershock sequence following the Amatrice August 24th, 2016 Central Italy earthquake. APSHA is a time-dependent PSHA calculation where earthquake occurrence rates decrease after the occurrence of a mainshock following an Omori-type decay. In this paper we propose a...

Located at the northeastern corner of the Adria microplate, the Alps-Dinarides junction represents a key region for understanding how the Adria microplate interacts with stable Europe. However little is known on how the present-day deformation imposed by the rotation of the Adria microplate is absorbed across the Dinarides. Using morpho-tectonic an...

Understanding topographic evolution requires integrating elementary processes acting at the hillslope scale into the long-wavelength framework of landscape dynamics. Recent progress has been made in the quantification of denudation of eroding landscapes and its links with topography. Despite these advances, data is still sparse in carbonate terrain...

The existence of narrow axial volcanic zones of mid-oceanic ridges testifies of the underlying concentration of both melt distribution and tectonic strain. As a result of repeated diking and faulting, axial volcanic zones therefore represent a spectacular topographic expression of plate divergence. However, the submarine location of oceanic ridges...

A normal fault scarp is an interface where active tectonics and surface processes are interacting. It may erode and lose its original shape as a result of these processes. Modeling of cosmic isotope concentration of fault scarps may help us to understand interaction of tectonics and surface processes. In situ surface exposure dating is based on pro...

Morphological and geological observations reveal that most Apenninic faults are highly segmented and that the majority of the fault segments are less than 10 km long. Although these faults have undergone numerous paleoseismological investigations, quantitative data remain crucially lacking for a large number of fault segments. Because such data are...

The Doruneh Fault System (DFS) is one of the major active strike-slip faults in the Arabia-Eurasia collision zone. Despite its geological activity, no large (M≥6.5) historical or instrumental earthquakes have been recorded along it. To date, the rate and distribution of slip, as well as the seismic behavior of the DFS have been unknown. We reconstr...

This study investigates the possibility of Holocene glaciation on Mount Olympus (Greece) with a respective local temperature–precipitation equilibrium line altitude (TP-ELA) at c. 2200 m a.s.l., based on geomorphologic and paleoclimatic evidence. At present, the local TP-ELA is situated above the mountain’s summit (c. 2918 m a.s.l.), but permanent...

The Provence region located in SouthEastern France has registered significant earthquakes in the last 1000 years, some reaching intensities up to IX. It is currently undergoing a very slow tectonic deformation with little seismicity and long recurrence intervals for major earthquakes (such as the 1909 magnitude 6 Lambesc earthquake). Several West-t...

Denudation of carbonate terrains is dominated by chemical weathering and can therefore be treated as a rain gauge proxy where the mass lost by dissolution over time is proportional to the time-integrated precipitation. Hence, the denudation history of carbonate landscapes may provide paleo-precipitation data and can shed light on the interactions b...

Denudation of carbonate terrains dominated by chemical weathering can be treated as a rain gauge proxy, because the mass lost by dissolution over time is proportional to the time-integrated precipitation. Therefore, the denudation history of carbonate landscapes may provide paleoprecipitation data and shed light on the interactions between climate,...

Understanding landscape evolution, under the combined influence of denudation and tectonic uplift, require the derivation of quantitative models and descriptions of the processes at work, which is one of the main objectives of quantitative geomorphology. The use of cosmogenic nuclides as chronometers pegged to surface processes has fostered tremend...

Unravelling the volcanic history of the Dabbahu/Manda Hararo rift segment in the Afar depression (Ethiopia) using a combination of cosmogenic (36Cl and 3He) surface exposure dating of basaltic lava-flows, field observations, geological mapping and geochemistry, we show in this paper that magmatic activity in this rift segment alternates between two...

When the recurrence intervals of large earthquakes span several thousands of years, the dating of fault movements over long time intervals is essential for estimating the next event. Constraining the age of faulting, earthquake recurrence, or toppled rocks is especially important for determining if a fault is likely to break again soon. In recent y...

The late-Cenozoic kinematic and late-Pleistocene paleoearthquake history of the Spili Fault is examined using slip-vector measurements and insitu cosmogenic (36Cl) dating, respectively. The Spili Fault appears to have undergone at least three successive but distinct phases of extension since Messinian (∼7 Ma), with the most recent faulting resultin...