Comment on the paper by Barreca et al.: "The Strait of Messina: Seismotectonics and the source of the 1908 earthquake" [Earth-Science Reviews 218, 2021, 103685]

Barreca et al. (2021) have presented a new model for the tectonics of the Strait of Messina that helps to account for the disastrous 1908 earthquake. Their new proposal is based mostly on a set of recent reflection seismic profiles, which are described as of unprecedented resolution. The resolution is indeed high, but the penetration to depth of the seismic data is limited, which brings into question some of their interpretation of the geometry of the fault system. However, the most critical issue is that the fault traced by the authors is not observed across all the seismic data. On some of the seismic profiles the interpreted fault doesn't seem to affect the seafloor. On the contrary to what stated by the authors, the fault into question may belong to a fault system that is no longer active. Finally, in two of the profiles presented the fault is interpreted as dipping in the opposite direction to that described by the authors. In summary, the significant uncertainties of the supporting interpretation undermine the seismotectonic model and geodynamic evolution proposed by the authors.