Abruzzi region (central Italy) producing vast damage in the L'Aquila town and surroundings. In this paper we present the location and geometry of the fault system as obtained by the analysis of main shock and aftershocks recorded by permanent and temporary networks. The distribution of aftershocks, 712 selected events with M L ! 2.3 and 20 with M L ! 4.0, defines a complex, 40 km long, NW trending extensional structure. The main shock fault segment extends for 15-18 km and dips at 45°to the SW, between 10 and 2 km depth. The extent of aftershocks coincides with the surface trace of the Paganica fault, a poorly known normal fault that, after the event, has been quoted to accommodate the extension of the area. We observe a migration of seismicity to the north on an echelon fault that can rupture in future large earthquakes.

S U M M A R YThe NW-SE trending Val d'Agri extensional basin is one of the regions in Italy with the highest seismogenic potential. Field data do not univocally define which of the fault systems bordering the basin on the two opposite sides is accommodating the active deformation. In this study, we detect and locate, by using an automatic picking procedure, almost 2000 low-magnitude earthquakes (−0.2 < M L < 2.7) recorded by a dense network during a 13-months-long seismic experiment. Events are mostly located along the southwestern flank of the basin. To the south, intense swarm-type microseismicity defines a major cluster ∼5 km wide from 1 to 5 km depth. To the west, a clear alignment of events, characterized by normal faulting kinematics, defines a NE-dipping normal fault between 1 and 6 km depth. The upward continuation of this structure, ∼5 km long, matches a mapped active normal fault recognized by field and palaeoseismological surveys.A temporal correlation found between the intense swarm-type microseismicity and the water level changes in the nearby artificial Pertusillo lake suggests that this seismicity is reservoir-induced.

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