We provide a database of the coseismic geological surface effects following the Mw 6.5 Norcia earthquake that hit central Italy on 30 October 2016. This was one of the strongest seismic events to occur in Europe in the past thirty years, causing complex surface ruptures over an area of >400 km2. The database originated from the collaboration of several European teams (Open EMERGEO Working Group; about 130 researchers) coordinated by the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia. The observations were collected by performing detailed field surveys in the epicentral region in order to describe the geometry and kinematics of surface faulting, and subsequently of landslides and other secondary coseismic effects. The resulting database consists of homogeneous georeferenced records identifying 7323 observation points, each of which contains 18 numeric and string fields of relevant information. This database will impact future earthquake studies focused on modelling of the seismic processes in active extensional settings, updating probabilistic estimates of slip distribution, and assessing the hazard of surface faulting.

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Earthquake-triggered landslides significantly contribute to worsening the impact of seismic events; thus, comprehensive landslide inventories are essential for improving seismic hazard assessment. During complex seismic sequences, landslides are triggered by more than one event and the final inventory reflects the spatial and temporal evolution of the sequence. Here, I analyze the landslides triggered by the 2018 Lombok (Indonesia) seismic sequence. I use high-resolution satellite imagery to map 4823 landslides triggered after the 05/08/2018 event (M w 6.9) and 9319 landslides after the 19/08/2018 event (M w 6.9). I analyze the distribution and evolution over time of landslide density and landslide area percentage. Despite the significant increase in number and cumulative area of the landslides, the 05/08 and 19/08 events share the maximum dimension of individual landslides; this suggests that the maximum intensity is equal for the two events, i.e., X on the Environmental Scale Intensity scale. I compare the distribution of landslides with macroseismic information provided by eyewitnesses through online questionnaires. Finally, I investigate the role of earthquake environmental effects within seismic sequences, showing that effects on the natural environment provide complementary information with respect to traditional intensity and felt reports.

On 21 August 2017 at 20:57 (local time) a very shallow (H = 1.2 km), moderate (Md = 4.0), earthquake hit the volcanic island of Ischia (Southern Italy), causing the death of two people. The study of the damage to the buildings with the European Macroseismic Scale 98 (EMS-98), carried out immediately after the earthquake, highlighted that hilly area of Casamicciola Terme, on the northern side of the Mt. Epomeo, was the most damaged part of the island with locally quite relevant damage (I = VIII EMS). This seismic event is the first damaging earthquake in Ischia during the instrumental era. In fact, this provides, for the first time, the opportunity to integrate historical seismicity, macroseismic observations, instrumental information, and detailed mapping of the geological coseismic effects. In this work we evaluate the effects induced by the 2017 Casamicciola earthquake on the environment using the Environmental Seismic Intensity 2007 (ESI-07) macroseismic scale. This macroseismic analysis, together with the superficial coseismic faulting characteristics and the available geophysical information, allows us to reconsider the source model for the 2017 earthquake and the previous damaging historical earthquakes in the Casamicciola Terme area. The application of the ESI scale to the Casamicciola Terme earthquake of 21 August 2017 and the assignment of seismic intensity offers better spatial resolution, as well as an increase of the time window for the assessment of the seismic hazard, allowing to reduce the implicit uncertainty in the intensity attenuation laws in this peculiar volcano-tectonic setting. Since intensity is linked to the direct measure of damage, and it is commonly used in hazard assessment, we argue that building damage at Casamicciola Terme is strongly influenced by earthquake surface faulting and near field effects, and therefore controlled by the geometry of the seismic source.

Moderate to strong earthquakes (i.e., Mw >~6.0) commonly produce a complex network of ground ruptures, which are responsible for significant damage. Distributed faulting can affect wide areas (tenths of square kilometers), and expected displacement can be estimated through a probabilistic approach, considering distance from the primary fault and earthquake magnitude. Other factors may have a role in driving the occurrence of distributed faulting; nevertheless, they are not adequately addressed in the current modeling, due to a sensible lack of information. We study the 30 October 2016, Central Italy earthquake (Mw 6.5), to analyze the spatial pattern and geometric characteristics of distributed faulting. We found that distance from the primary structure, fault geometry, and lithology are key factors controlling the distributed faulting occurrence; the local structural setting (i.e., synthetic versus antithetic normal faults systems and relay zones) drives the spatial distribution of faults and the partitioning of the deformation. We also examine other four events occurred in the Italian Apennines since 1980, confirming that traditional models can underestimate the probability of distributed faulting. We suggest that a purely distance-based probabilistic approach should be integrated using additional parameters derived from earthquake deformation fields or considering the reactivation of preexisting faults.Plain Language Summary Surface faulting caused by moderate to strong earthquakes may occur along the major fault plane (primary fault) or along other structures in its proximity (distributed faulting). Distributed faulting can affect wide areas (tenths of square kilometers) and is responsible for significant damage. We assess the spatial pattern and geometric characteristics of distributed faulting of the 30 October 2016 Central Italy earthquake. We found that distance from the primary structure, fault geometry, and lithology are key factors controlling the distributed faulting occurrence. We also analyze four events that hit the Italian Apennines since 1980 and compare the results with the models currently adopted for estimating the possible amount of surface faulting caused by earthquakes. We found that current models, which are based on traditional field mapping methods, underestimate the probability of distributed faulting. We argue that the Central Italy 2016 event can act as a reference case study for fault displacement hazard assessment and that an increasing number of case histories will improve future mitigation strategies.PFDHA is the suggested approach for locating and designing critical or distributive infrastructures and utility lines, such as nuclear power plants (ANSI/ANS-2.30, 2015) and water pipelines. This method computes the probability of faulting occurrence as a function of distance from the primary fault and of earthquake FERRARIO AND LIVIO 1256