No abstract

[1] During three moderate-magnitude earthquakes occurred in September-October 1997 in the central Apennines, Italy, accelerations larger than 0.5 g were recorded in the town of Nocera Umbra, 10 to 15 km N-NW of the epicenters. The accelerograph is sited in a fault zone, close to a N30°E tectonic contact. Six temporary seismological stations installed across the fault recorded 82 aftershocks occurred in two seismogenic zones: the Colfiorito-Sellano area, S-SE of the array, and the Gualdo Tadino area, to the north. The array data reveal large variations in terms of both peak ground motions and spectral amplitudes. Within the fault zone, amplifications show a strong dependence on the source azimuth. At the accelerograph site, the effects are particularly large for events from S-SE: peak ground motions are a factor of 14 larger than those of a reference site and conventional spectral ratios attain amplitudes as large as 50 at 7 Hz along the N30°E direction of motion, parallel to the strike of the fault. Nineteen strong motion accelerograms were then used to compare ground motion properties between weak and strong events up to M 0 = 1.2 Â 10 25 dyn cm. A particle motion analysis shows that the directional effect is also present in the strongest motions, even though the amplification of peak ground motion decreases when M 0 increases. Results from stochastic simulations indicate that such a behavior is not due to nonlinearity: applying the empirical weak motion transfer functions in a purely linear model the observed peak ground motions of the largest events are fit satisfactorily.

SUMMARY We have analysed the seismic sequence that occurred in October 1996 near the town of Reggio Emilia on the southern edge of the Po Plain. The onset of the sequence was marked by a 5.4 moment magnitude main shock, located at 15 km depth. The main‐shock focal mechanism is a reverse solution with a strike‐slip component and the scalar moment is 1.46 × 1017 N m. We used broad‐band digital recordings from a borehole station, located at about 70 km from the epicentre, for a spectral analysis in order to estimate attenuation and source parameters for the main shock. In addition, the empirical Green's function method has been applied to evaluate the source time function in terms of both moment rate and stress rate. We infer an asperity‐like rupture process for the main shock, as suggested by the short duration of the stress release with respect to the overall duration of the moment rate function. This analysis also allows us to estimate the average dynamic stress drop of the main shock (600 bar). We analysed the digital recordings of the temporary local seismic network deployed after the main shock and of a permanent local network maintained by the Italian Petroleum Agency (AGIP). During 15 days of field experiments, we recorded more than 800 aftershocks, which delineate a 9 km long, NE‐elongated distribution, confined between 12 and 15 km depth, suggesting that the basement is involved in the deformation processes. 102 focal mechanism of aftershocks have been computed from P‐wave polarities, showing mainly pure reverse solutions. We calculate the principal stress axes from a selected population of earthquakes providing a constraint on the stress regime of this part of the Po Plain. The focal mechanisms are consistent with a N–S subhorizontal σ1. All the seismological data we have analysed confirm that this region is undergoing active compressional tectonics, as already inferred from recent earthquakes, geomorphological data and other stress indicators. Moreover, the elongation of the Reggio Emilia aftershock sequence is consistent with the regional direction of the thrust fronts cropping out in the area, suggesting that they are still active.

[1] In winter 1998 a small-aperture ($200 m), four-station array was operating in the middle of the Colfiorito plain. Waveforms of seven small magnitude (2.1 < M < 3.7) local earthquakes are analyzed in this study. The peculiarity of the array seismograms is a $2-min long duration of the horizontal ground motion. The predominant frequency in the plain is around 1 Hz. In this frequency band, earthquake-induced ground shaking is synchronous for a few seconds during direct S waves; after this time window, wave trains show an increasingly chaotic behavior within the array. The energy variation of the horizontal ground shaking between the array and a nearby rock outcrop exceeds a factor of 500 at 1 Hz. In order to help understanding of observations and construct models for future numerical simulations, the buried structure of the Colfiorito plain has been investigated through seismic refraction profiles and geoelectric measurements. A three-dimensional reconstruction of the basin structure reveals an extremely complex bedrock topography, which is probably a recurrent feature for intermontane basins in tectonically active regions. Apparent velocities and backazimuths in the frequency band 0.5-1.5 Hz indicate that a 180-m deep depression NW of the array is responsible for the generation of edge-diffracted surface (Love) waves. Their arrival to the array breaks the synchronism of vertically reverberating waves which predominate in the first seconds of the S-wave window.

The paper presents the results of an ambient vibration monitoring campaign conducted on so-called "Clock Tower" (Torre delle Ore), one the best known and most visited monuments in the historic centre of Lucca. The vibrations of the tower were continuously monitored from November 2017 to March 2018 using high-sensitivity instrumentation. In particular, four seismic stations provided by the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia and two three-axial accelerometers developed by AGI S.r.l., spin-off of the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica, were installed on the tower. The measured vibration level was generally very low, since the structure lies in the middle of a limited traffic area. Nevertheless, the availability of two different types of highly sensitive and accurate instruments allowed the authors to follow the dynamic behaviour of the tower during the entire monitoring period and has moreover provided cross-validation of the results.

This study presents the results of 90 seismic ambient noise measurements in Palermo, the main city of Sicily (Italy). The dataset has been processed using the horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratio (HVNSR) technique and interpreted in terms of local geology, which is characterized by the presence of alluvial sediments of two riverbeds masked by urbanization since the seventeenth century. HVNSRs show significant variations in the study area: when the transition stiff to soft is crossed, a typical spectral peak appears in the HVNSRs, mostly in the frequency band 1-2 Hz, and exceeding a factor of 3 in amplitude. Using available information on subsurface geological structure, we compute theoretical 1D and 2D transfer functions. The resonance frequencies of soft soils obtained by HVNSR are well reproduced by the fundamental frequencies from numerical modeling.The distribution of frequency peaks of HVNSR and their amplitudes are also compared with the local damage caused by historical earthquakes. Previous studies demonstrated that damage variations in Palermo were controlled more by near-surface geology than building vulnerability. A uniform vulnerability is an ideal condition to test statistical methods and their capability in seeking correlation between HVNSR and potential damage due to local geological conditions. We apply two well-established multivariate statistical methodologies (factor analysis and canonical correlation) to the HVNSR dataset and macroseismic data (damage grades of the European macroseismic scale). Through these analyses we quantify the significance of the correlation between the HVNSR peak in the low-medium frequency range (0.5-3 Hz) and the occurrence of the highest damage grades. This approach allows us (1) to estimate the threshold value in the resulting linear combination of the HVNSR amplitudes, which separates zones of light damage from zones of significant damage, and therefore (2) to improve the spatial definition of potentially high hazard zones through a denser grid of microtremor measurements.

After the 2009 April 6th Mw 6.3 L'Aquila earthquake (Central Italy) the Italian Civil Defense Department promoted the microzoning study in the ten zones in the epicentral area that suffered major damage. In this paper we present the activities and the results concerning a temporary seismic network installed in the historical L'Aquila city center indicated as "macroarea 1" in the microzoning project. Seismic data were collected to investigate the amplification effects in the city and to support the microzoning activities in verifying both geological profiles and 1D numerical modeling of the seismic response of the city. The conventional spectral approaches using both microtremor and earthquake data allowed to determine the fundamental resonance frequencies and the amplification factors within the city respectively. The spatial variability of these quantities can be related to the geological and geomorphologic characteristics of the investigated area. A comparison between the network data and the data recorded by the two strong motion instruments installed in the city was also made. This allows verifying the relative response of the accelerometric stations that recorded in the city the major events of the sequence.

This paper aims at assessing the influence of environmental parameters on the modal characteristics of age-old masonry constructions. The results of a long-term ambient vibration monitoring of the San Frediano bell tower in Lucca (Italy) are reported. The tower, dating back to the 11th century, has been fitted along its height with four triaxial seismometric stations, which were left active for about one year. Data from the monitoring system have been processed via the Stochastic Subspace Identification Method in order to identify the tower's modal characteristics and their variations over the year. The dependence of the tower's frequencies on the ambient temperature was first studied and simulated via simple auto-regressive models. Then, some output-only models based on the principal component analysis (PCA) were applied, under the hypotheses of both linear and nonlinear (Kernel PCA) dependence of the natural frequencies on the unknown environmental parameters. The results indicate PCA to be an effective tool for detecting changes in the dynamic characteristics of masonry constructions.