We focus on the coseismic surface faulting exposed along the Mt. Vettore-Mt. Bove fault system (VBF, central Italy), that activated during the 24 August 2016, Amatrice earthquake (M w 6.0) and soon after reactivated during the 26 October Visso (M w 5.9) and 30 October Norcia events (M w 6.5 mainshock). We systematically recognized the coseismic surface ruptures of the aforesaid earthquakes, which document the repeated surface faulting on the same seismogenic structure in close temporal succession. We surveyed 1,747 evidence of coseismic ruptures, 325 fault plane attitudes along the Vettoretto-Redentore segment, and over 4,000 data along the entire VBF that were organized in a GIS-database. This data set allowed us to estimate the coseismic surface rupture length (SRL), maximum (MD) and average (AD) displacement associated with the M w 6.0 and M w 6.5 events. We found that the SRL and MD associated with the former are respectively 5.8 km and 28.5 cm and AD reaches 12.7 cm. For the mainshock, the values of SRL ≥ 22 km and MD = 222 cm were measured. The cumulative, post-30 October parameters are SRL = 30 km, MD = 240 cm, AD = 36 cm. Despite that the MD of the M w 6.0 event differs by~1 order of magnitude respect to the mainshock MD, the two slip profiles display a similar multiscale sinuosity showing a significant control of the long-term fault segmentation on the coseismic rupturing. Comparing the obtained coseismic parameters with literature global earthquakes data highlights some peculiarities of the 2016 central Italy surface rupture pattern, which suggest caution in applying empirical relationships to highly segmented seismogenic faults.
We use a multidisciplinary approach to gather preliminary evidence for a Quaternary east-dipping extensional detachment in Central Italy. This structure crops out in the Sabini-Eastern Simbruini (SES) and would be hidden at mid-crustal depths beneath the L'Aquila 2009 (M w 6.3) epicentral area. The SES geometry is reconstructed through geological mapping, structural analysis and seismic line interpretation. The geometry of the mid-crustal segment, referred to as the Ocre Segment (OS), is interpreted through seismological analyses of the largest aftershock (M w 5.4) of the L'Aquila 2009 sequence. The kinematic compatibility between the SES and the OS under a common SW-NE tensional field is tested through stress inversion of both geological and seismological data. The reliability of OS activation is tested through slip tendency analysis. Like other Italian cases, the SES and the OS are preliminarily interpreted as expressions at different depths of the same unknown east-dipping extensional detachment, characterized by a ramp-flat-ramp geometry.
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