Deep geophysical investigations (DERT and Seismic Reflection) to unravel the Ferrara urban area geology

Exploring the ‘fragile crust of our planet’ is crucial for human sur- vival holding an immense social and economic significance. Therefore, innovative approaches become of utmost importance for obtaining precise subsoil models in urban areas making the latter more resilient to natural disasters. Due to logistic issues and a high level of anthropogenic disturbance and related back- ground noise, urban areas are usually intrinsically more problem- atic for applying geophysical prospecting methods. This work presents the results obtained by Deep Electrical Resistivity Tomography and P wave Seismic Reflection surveys performed along the Ferrara, north Italy, city walls documenting the adapt- ability of the geophysical surveys and how it is possible to obtain high-quality electrical resistivity and seismic data even in complex urban settings. The joint interpretation of geoelectrical and seis- mic data fully integrated with tectonic, geological and hydrogeo- logical information allowed to reconstruct the stratigraphic evolution down to a depth of about 1.5 km. These results highlight the occurrence of a syndepositional Quaternary tectonic tilting associated with the growth of a fault-propagation fold.