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The Vrancea region, located at the southeastern edge of the Carpathians arc bend, is a region of intense seismicity, whose major earthquakes produce hazard in southeastern Europe. Despite the consequent focus of the geophysical and geological community on providing accurate structural and dynamical models of Vrancea, these are still subject to numerous controversies and debates. In the present study, we use intermediate-depth seismicity recorded by the broadband stations of the Romanian Seismic Network between 2009 and 2011 to measure S-wave peak delay times and late-time coda quality factors. After mapping these two quantities in space, a cluster analysis provides a quantitative structural interpretation of the region in terms of different attenuation mechanisms affecting the seismic wave field, i.e. seismic scattering and seismic absorption. The results show that scattering is higher west and northwest of Vrancea, while absorption dominates in the Focsani Basin, located in the forearc region. In general, we obtain higher absorption in stable regions, with patterns emphasized at high-frequency affected by the presence of hydrocarbons and natural gas reservoirs in the upper crustal layers. Regions characterized by active seismicity and structural heterogeneity show higher scattering, spatially correlated with the highest velocity contrasts and the lowest density. The high-frequency scattering/absorption contrasts obtained using the cluster analysis depict a southwest-to-northeast lithospheric contrast, following the epicentral trend of Vrancea earthquakes, and characteristic of either lithospheric subduction or delamination. Low-frequency cluster analysis results, sampling deeper Earth layers, mark a unique high-absorption trend perpendicular to the epicentral trend, feasibly linked to Neogene volcanism, and induced by the back-arc mantle upwelling. Its most recent expression is Ciomadul volcano, located at the northwestern limit of the absorption trend.

Abstract. After the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic in March 2020, Romania followed the example of many other countries and imposed a series of restrictive measures, including restricting people's mobility and closing social, cultural, and industrial activities to prevent the spread of the disease. In this study, we analyze continuous vertical component recordings from the stations of the Romanian Seismic Network – one of the largest networks in Europe, consisting of 148 stations – to explore the seismic noise variation associated with the reduced human mobility and activity due to the Romanian measures against COVID-19 in detail. We focused our investigation on four frequency bands – 2–8, 4–14, 15–25 and 25–40 Hz – and found that the largest reductions in seismic noise associated with the lockdown correspond to the high-frequency range of 15–40 Hz. We found that all the stations with large reductions in seismic noise (>∼  40 %) are located inside and near schools or in buildings, indicating that at these frequencies the drop is related to the drastic reduction of human activity in these edifices. In the lower-frequency range (2–8 and 4–14 Hz) the variability of the noise reduction among the stations is lower than in the high-frequency range, corresponding to about 35 % on average. This drop is due to reduced traffic during the lockdown, as most of the stations showing such changes in seismic noise in these bands are located within cities and near main or side streets. In addition to the noise reduction observed at stations located in populated areas, we also found seismic noise lockdown-related changes at several stations located far from urban areas, with movement of people in the vicinity of the station explaining the noise reductions.

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