Performance of the Italian strong motion network during the 2009, L��Aquila seismic sequence (central Italy)

On April 6, 2009, the town of L’Aquila in the Abruzzo region (central Italy) was struck by a seismic event at 01:32 (UTC), of magnitude M_W = 6.3. The mainshock was followed by a long period of intense seismic activity and within seven days after the mainshock there were seven events of magnitude M_W ≥ 5 that occurred from April 6 to April 13. This long seismic sequence was characterized by a complex rupture mechanism that involved two major normal faults of the central Apennines: the Paganica and the Gorzano faults. The strong-motions of the mainshock were recorded by 64 stations of the Italian Strong-motion Network (RAN) operated by the National Civil Protection Department (DPC). Six stations of a local strong-motion array were working in NW L’Aquila suburb area. One of them, located at about 6 km from the Paganica fault surface tip-line, set up in trigger mode, recorded continuously for more than 20 min the mainshock and the aftershocks. Besides the mainshock, the RAN stations recorded in total 78 foreshocks and aftershocks of M_L ≥ 3.5, during the period from January to December 2009. The corresponding waveforms provide the most extensive digital strong ground motion data set ever recorded in Italy. Moreover, the 48 three-component observations of events of magnitude M_W ≥ 5, recorded at a distance less than 15 km from each of the major involved faults, provide a significant increasing of near-field records available for the Italian territory. Six days after the mainshock, the strong-motion dataset, referred to preliminary locations of the events with M_L ≥ 4.0, was made available on the DPC web site () and at the same time it was delivered to the ITACA database (). This dataset has been used by many authors in scientific papers and by engineers, geophysicists and geologists for professional technical works. In this paper, the present-day available strong-motion signals from the L’Aquila sequence and the performance of the Italian strong-motion network in terms of the number and quality of recorded data, the geometry and data transmission system are described. In addition the role of the temporary network that represents an extension of the permanent Italian strong-motion network, supporting the emergency response by civil protection authorities and improving the network coverage has been evaluated.     

A note on the L’Aquila earthquake of 6 April 2009: Permanent ground displacements obtained from strong-motion accelerograms

On 6 April 2009, 01:32 GMT, an M_w 6.3 earthquake hit the Abruzzi region of central Italy causing widespread damage in the City of L’Aquila and its nearby villages. The mainshock of this earthquake was recorded by 57 digital strong-motion instruments, four of which are located on the hanging wall of the Paganica Fault near L’Aquila. These stations are no more than 6 km from the epicentre. We use accelerometric data from these four stations to estimate permanent ground displacements caused by the mainshock. Our numerical results reveal south-east and downwards directed permanent co-seismic displacements which are in fair agreement with the outcomes of GPS and InSAR measurements reported in preliminary Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV) reports.     

Italian strong motion database relative to the period 1972–2004: motivations and aims

The Italian Accelerometic Archive (ITACA) was created in 2007 during a joint project between the Italian Institute for Geophysics and Vulcanology (Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, INGV) and the Italian Civil Protection (Dipartimento della Protezione Civile, DPC). The project, started in 2006, had the aim of filling the data gap of existing strong motion databases and facilitating strong motion data users in obtaining good quality waveforms, through the collection, homogenization and distribution of strong motion data acquired during the period 1972–2004 in Italy by different institutions (Ente Nazionale per l’Energia Elettrica, ENEL, Italian electricity company; Ente per le Nuove tecnologie, l’Energia e l’Ambiente, ENEA, Italian energy and environment organization DPC). The compiled database contains 2,182 three-component waveforms generated by 1,008 earthquakes with a maximum moment magnitude of 6.9 (1980 Irpinia earthquake) and can be accessed on-line at the portal denominated ITACA at the site , where a wide range of search tools enables the user to interactively retrieve events, recording stations and waveforms with particular characteristics, whose parameters can be specified, as needed, through user friendly interfaces. A range of display options allows users to view data in different contexts, extract and download time series and spectral data. This article describes the state of the art up to 2006 and the activities which led to the completion of the project.     

Horizontal and vertical ground motion prediction equations derived from the Italian Accelerometric Archive (ITACA)

A set of Ground Motion Prediction Equations (GMPEs) for the Italian territory is proposed, exploiting a new strong-motion data set become available since July 2007 through the Italian Accelerometric Archive (ITACA). The data set is composed by 561 three-component waveforms from 107 earthquakes with moment magnitude in the range 4.0–6.9, occurred in Italy from 1972 to 2007 and recorded by 206 stations at distances up to 100 km. The functional form used to derive GMPEs in Italy (Sabetta and Pugliese in Bull Seismol Soc Am 86(2):337–352, 1996) has been modified introducing a quadratic term for magnitude and a magnitude-dependent geometrical spreading. The coefficients for the prediction of horizontal and vertical peak ground acceleration, peak ground velocity and 5% damped acceleration response spectra are evaluated. This paper illustrates the new data set, the regression analysis and the comparisons with recently derived GMPEs in Europe and in the Next Generation Attenuation of Ground Motions (NGA) Project.     

Italian accelerometric archive: geological, geophysical and geotechnical investigations at strong-motion stations

Geological, geophysical and geotechnical investigations, for the characterization of the strong-motion recording sites managed by the Italian Civil Protection, have been carried out in the framework of the project “Italian strong-motion database in the period 1972–2004”. The project aimed at creating an updated database of strong-motion data acquired in Italy by different institutions in the time span 1972–2004, and at improving the quality of disseminated data. This article illustrates the state of the recording site characterization before the beginning of the project, explains the criteria adopted to select the sites where geophysical/geotechnical investigation have been performed and describes the results of the promoted field surveys.     

The ITalian ACcelerometric Archive (ITACA): processing of strong-motion data

The Italian strong-motion database was created during a joint project between Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV, Italian Institute for Geophysics and Vulcanology) and Dipartimento della Protezione Civile (DPC, Italian Civil Protection). The aim of the project was the collection, homogenization and distribution of strong motion data acquired in Italy in the period 1972–2004 by different institutions, namely Ente Nazionale per l’Energia Elettrica (ENEL, Italian electricity company), Ente per le Nuove tecnologie, l’Energia e l’Ambiente (ENEA, Italian energy and environment organization) and DPC. Recently the strong-motion data relative to the 23th December 2009, Parma (Mw = 5.4 and Mw = 4.9) and to the April 2009 L’Aquila sequences (13 earthquakes with 4.1 ≤ Mw ≤ 6.3) were included in the Italian Accelerometric Archive (ITACA) database (beta release). The database contains 7,038 waveforms from analog and digital instruments, generated by 1.019 earthquakes with magnitude up to 6.9 and can be accessed on-line at the web site . The strong motion data are provided in the unprocessed and processed versions. This article describes the steps followed to process the acceleration time series recorded by analogue and digital instruments. The procedures implemented involve: baseline removal, instrumental correction, band pass filtering with acausal filters, integration of the corrected acceleration in order to obtain velocity and displacement waveforms, computation of acceleration response spectra and strong motion parameters. This procedure is applied to each accelerogram and it is realised to preserve the low frequency content of the records.     

Reference database for seismic ground-motion in Europe (RESORCE)

This paper presents the overall procedure followed in order to assemble the most recent pan-European strong-motion databank: Reference Database for Seismic Ground-Motion in Europe (RESORCE). RESORCE is one of the products of the SeIsmic Ground Motion Assessment (SIGMA; projet-sigma.com) project. RESORCE is intended to be a single integrated accelerometric databank for Europe and surrounding areas for use in the development and testing of ground-motion models and for other engineering seismology and earthquake engineering applications. RESORCE aims to contribute to the improvement of earthquake risk studies in Europe and surrounding areas. RESORCE principally updates and extends the previous pan-European strong-motion databank (Ambraseys et al. in Bollettino di Geofisica Teorica ed Applicata 45:113–129, 2004a) with recently compiled Greek, Italian, Swiss and Turkish accelerometric archives. The updates also include earthquake-specific studies published in recent years. The current content of RESORCE includes 5,882 multi-component and uniformly processed accelerograms from 1,814 events and 1,540 strong-motion stations. The moment magnitude range covered by RESORCE is $2.8 \le \hbox {M}_{\mathrm{w}} \le 7.8$ . The source-to-site distance interval extends to 587 km and distance information is given by the common point- and extended-source distance measures. The paper presents the current features of RESORCE through simple statistics that also quantify the differences in metadata and strong-motion processing with respect to the previous version of the pan-European strong-motion databank.     

A 1D P-wave velocity model of the Gargano promontory (south-eastern Italy)

We investigate the elastic properties of the crust in the Gargano promontory, located in the northern part of the Apulia region (Southeastern Italy). Starting on April, 2013, a local-scale seismic network, composed of 12 short-period (1 Hz) seismic stations, was deployed on the Gargano promontory. Starting on October, 2013, the network was integrated with the recordings of nine seismic stations managed by the Italian Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV). The network recorded more than 1200 seismic events in about 15 months of data acquisition, with more than 700 small magnitude events localized in the Gargano promontory and surrounding areas. A Wadati-modified method allowed us to infer V_P/V_S = 1.73 for the area. A subset of about 400 events having a relatively smaller azimuthal gap (<200°) was selected to calibrate a 1D P-wave velocity model of the area, using the VELEST inversion code. The preferred model was obtained from the average of ten velocity models, each of them representing the inversion result from given initial velocity models, calibrated on previous geological and geophysical studies in the area. The results obtained under the assumption that V_P could decrease with depth are unstable, with very different depths of the top of low-velocity layers. Therefore, the velocity model was obtained from the average of the results obtained under the assumption that V_P cannot decrease with depth. A strong reduction of both RMS (about 58%) and errors on the location of the events was obtained with respect to the starting model. The final velocity model shows a strong velocity gradient in the upper 5 km of the crust and a small increase (from 6.7 to 7 km) at 30 km of depth. The epicenters of relocated events do not show clear correlations with the surface projection of known seismic faults. A cluster of the epicenters of the relocated events intersects almost perpendicularly the Candelaro fault trace at the surface.     

ICEARRAY: the first small-aperture, strong-motion array in Iceland

A small-aperture, strong-motion array, the ICEARRAY, has been deployed in South Iceland, a region with a history of destructive earthquakes, some exceeding magnitude 7. The array’s purpose is: (1) monitoring future significant events in the region, (2) quantifying spatial variability of strong-motion over short distances and (3) shedding light on earthquake source processes. The number of array stations and their arrangement were based on an optimisation of the shape of the corresponding array transfer function (ATF). The optimal ICEARRAY configuration comprises 14 stations, has an aperture of ~1.9 km and a minimum interelement distance of ~50 m and possesses a near-azimuthally independent ATF with a sharp main lobe, negligible sidelobes and a wavenumber range of 1.5–24 rad/km. Accordingly, the ICEARRAY has the intended capabilities of capturing seismic waves in the frequency range of 1–20 Hz, which is of main interest to earthquake engineering and engineering seismology applications.     

Approximate coseismic displacements and near-field fling pulse from the Mw 6.5 30 October 2016 Central Italy earthquake

A study of the coseismic displacement and fling pulse recorded during the Mw 6.5 30 October 2016 Central Italy earthquake is presented. The near-field has been well documented, owing to the deployment of additional strong-motion stations following the earlier events of the 2016 Central Italy seismic sequence. As a result, there are numerous stations with evidence of coseismic displacement and fling pulse. In this study, 25 records with strike distance of less than 25 km and rupture distance under 28 km are considered. Approximate coseismic displacements have been recovered by a bilinear model to remove the low frequency noise in the records. The bilinear noise model uses two linear regression segments on the velocity trace to remove baseline offsets. After obtaining the coseismic displacement time series, the fling pulse period is examined. Existing methods of obtaining the fling pulse period are reviewed and a proposed algorithm is considered for automatic fling pulse detection. Both horizontal and vertical fling periods are obtained, unlike many studies which neglect the vertical fling. It is shown that the fling pulse period is highly variable (~?2–16 s) in the near-field region but exhibits some trends with various site-to-source distances.     

Italian strong motion records in ITACA: overview and record processing

The published version 1.0 of the new Italian strong-motion database ITACA (Italian ACcelerometric Archive, ) includes to date (December 2010) about 4,000 three-component waveforms up to M 6.9, from more than 1,800 earthquakes up to 6.9, recorded by about 400 stations in the period 1972–2009. The uncorrected and corrected strong motion data are archived and can be retrieved with their metadata, concerning events, stations and waveforms. The aim of this paper is to present the procedures for processing the records included in ITACA, accounting for the heterogeneity of this data set, both in terms of quality and amplitude of records as well as illustrating the main features of the ITACA strong-motion dataset. Later, we focus on the “exceptional” ground-motion records, that we, conventionally, denote as those having peak acceleration and peak velocity larger than 300 cm/s² and 15 cm/s, respectively. These records are less than 2% of the whole ITACA dataset but they are the most relevant for the seismic hazard and engineering implications. Such large peak values, recorded at distances up to 30 km, are related not only to the strongest Italian earthquakes, but also to events with magnitude down to 4. Furthermore, we investigate the dependence of the largest peak values on horizontal and vertical directions and on source-to-site distance.     

2020年7月12日唐山古冶5.1级地震影响信息与启示

2020年7月12日发生了唐山古冶5.1级地震,其强震动影响波及京津唐地区,特别是北京城区也出现了强烈的震感。中国强震动观测台网、国家地震烈度速报台网及典型建筑结构地震反应观测台阵获得大量的强震动记录。这次地震震级不大,但为地震科学研究提供了较为丰富的信息。基于获得的地震影响信息,可开展以下方面的研究:①利用地震附近及区域范围内地震烈度速报台网的密集观测记录,开展地震影响烈度快速计算分析及台网功能可靠性检测;②利用北京和天津地区的强震动观测记录,探讨深厚覆盖土层和盆地场地地震动影响;③利用京津唐地区震中距至300 km的强震动观测记录,研究京津唐地区的地震动衰减特性;④利用北京城区的建筑结构地震反应观测台阵记录,分析典型工程结构地震反应特征;⑤其他,如场地土层参数和工程结构参数反演研究等。本文针对以上关注的问题,介绍了相关初步研究工作并开展了进一步探讨性分析研究,展示了唐山古冶5.1级地震影响的丰富信息和对相关研究的潜在推进作用。      

Overview of the Italian strong motion database ITACA 1.0

The Italian Strong Motion Database, ITACA, was developed within projects S6 and S4, funded in the framework of the agreements between the Italian Department of Civil Protection (Dipartimento della Protezione Civile, DPC) and the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV), starting from 2005. The alpha version of the database was released in 2007 and subsequently upgraded to version 1.0 after: (i) including the most recent strong motion data (from 2005 to 2007) recorded in Italy, in addition to the 2008 Parma earthquake, M 5.4, and the M ≥  4.0, 2009 Abruzzo seismic events; (ii) processing the raw strong motion data using an updated procedure; (iii) increasing the number of stations with a measured shear wave velocity profile; (iv) improving the utilities to retrieve time series and ground motion parameters; (v) implementing a tool for selecting time series in agreement with design-response spectra; (vi) compiling detailed station reports containing miscellaneous information such as photo, maps and site parameters; (vii) developing procedures for the automatic generation of station reports and for the updating of the header files. After such improvements, ITACA 1.0 was published at the web site , in 2010. It presently contains 3,955 three-component waveforms, comprising the most complete catalogue of the Italian accelerometric records in the period 1972–2007 (3,562 records) and the strongest events in the period 2008–2009. Records were mainly acquired by DPC through its Accelerometric National Network (RAN) and, in few cases, by local networks and temporary stations or networks. This paper introduces the published version of the Italian Strong Motion database (ITACA version 1.0) together with main improvements and new functionalities.     

2016年10月30日意大利MW6.6地震破裂方向性效应对地震动参数的影响

2016年10月30日意大利中部发生了M_W6.6地震,这是继8月24日M_W6.2地震后的又一次浅源破坏性地震,意大利国家强震台网在此次地震中获得了丰富的强震动三分向加速度记录。本文从工程强震动数据中心下载了三分向加速度记录,经基线校正和滤波等常规数据处理后发现,强震动体现出明显的方向性效应。根据震源机制解将强震动台站分为破裂前方区域的NW组和破裂后方区域的SE组,采用最小二乘法回归了不同分组的地震动峰值加速度、反应谱和持时的衰减规律,得出断层破裂方向性对地震动参数的幅值影响较大,在断层距相同的情况下,破裂前方区域的加速度和加速度反应谱幅值均高于破裂后方区域,而破裂前方区域的地震动持时远小于破裂后方区域,破裂方向性显著。      

Mainshocks and aftershocks of the 2002 molise seismic sequence, southern Italy

In October and November 2002, the Molise region (southern Italy) was struck by two moderate magnitude earthquakes within 24 hours followed by an one month long aftershocks sequence. Soon after the first mainshock (October 31st, 10.32 UTC, M_w 5.7), we deployed a temporary network of 35 three-component seismic stations. At the time of occurrence of the second main event (November 1st, 15.08 UTC, M_w 5.7) the eight local stations already installed allowed us to well constrain the hypocentral parameters. We present the location of the two mainshocks and 1929 aftershocks with 2 < M_L < 4.2. Earthquake distribution reveals a E-trending 15 km long fault system composed by two main segments ruptured by the two mainshocks. Aftershocks define two sub-vertical dextral strike-slip fault segments in agreement with the mainshock fault plane solutions. P- and T-axes retrieved from 170 aftershocks focal mechanisms show a coherent kinematics: with a sub-horizontal NW and NE-trending P and T-axes, respectively. For a small percentage of focal mechanisms (∼ 10%) a rotation of T axes is observed, resulting in thrust solutions. The Apenninic active normal fault belt is located about 80 km westward of the 2002 epicentral area and significant seismicity occurs only 20-50 km to the east, in the Gargano promontory. Seismic hazard was thought to be small for this region because neither historical earthquake are reported in the Italian seismic catalogue or active faults were previously identified. In this context, the 2002 seismic sequence highlights the existence of trans-pressional active tectonics in between the extensional Apenninic belt and the Apulian foreland.     

Towards a new reference ground motion prediction equation for Italy: update of the Sabetta–Pugliese (1996)

A revised Italian strong motion archive has become available since July 2007, including all the records of the strongest events occurred from 1972 to 2004. It contains the uncorrected and corrected accelerograms and the metadata relevant to seismic events, recording stations and instruments added after a careful revision. The availability of this archive allowed us to perform a first step towards an update of the reference ground motion prediction equations for Italy, which were evaluated by Sabetta and Pugliese in (Bull Seismol Soc Am 77:1491–1513, 1987), for peak ground acceleration and velocity, and subsequently extended to the 5% damped pseudovelocity response spectra in 1996. A subset with the 27 major earthquakes occurred in Italy from 1972 to 2002, in the magnitude range 4.6–6.9, was extracted and 235 good quality waveforms were selected, recorded at distances up to 183 km. The goodness of fit of the Sabetta and Pugliese (Bull Seismol Soc Am 86:337–352, 1996) model was explored using two independent statistical approaches (Spudich et al. Bull Seismol Soc Am 89:1156–1170, 1999 and Scherbaum et al. Bull Seismol Soc Am 94:2164–2185, 2004). The results obtained show that the Sabetta and Pugliese (Bull Seismol Soc Am 77:1491–1513, 1987) does not adequately fit the new strong-motion data set, for its small standard deviation and its non-zero bias. In particular, the most noteworthy result is that the Sabetta and Pugliese (Bull Seismol Soc Am 77:1491–1513, 1987) over-predicts peak ground acceleration and velocity at rock sites. New coefficients for the prediction of horizontal peak ground acceleration, peak ground velocity and acceleration response spectra, adopting the same functional form in Sabetta and Pugliese (Bull Seismol Soc Am 77:1491–1513, 1987), were then evaluated in order to fit the new data set. This paper illustrates the steps made to update the existing ground motion prediction equations for Italy, discusses their limitations and provides the basis for future developments.     

Seismic moment tensors and regional stress in the area of the December 2013–January 2014, Matese earthquake sequence (Italy)

The main goal of this study is to provide moment tensor solutions for small and moderate earthquakes of the Matese seismic sequence in southern Italy for the period of December 2013–January 2014. We estimate the focal mechanisms of 31 earthquakes with local magnitudes related to the Matese earthquake seismic sequence (December 2013–January 2014) in Southern-Central Italy which are recorded by the broadband stations of the Italian National Seismic Network and the Mediterranean Very Broadband Seismographic Network (MedNet) run by the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV). The solutions show that normal faulting is the prevailing style of seismic deformation in agreement with the local faults mapped out in the area. Comparisons with already published solutions and with seismological and geological information available allowed us to properly interpret the moment tensor solutions in the frame of the seismic sequence evolution and also to furnish additional information about less energetic seismic phases. Focal data were inverted to obtain the seismogenic stress in the study area. The results are compatible with the major tectonic domain of the area.     

Love wave tomography in Italy from seismic ambient noise

We estimate Love wave empirical Green's functions from cross-correlations of ambient seismic noise to study the crust and uppermost mantle structure in Italy.Transverse-component ambient noise data from October 2005 through March 2007 recorded at 114 seismic stations from the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV) national broadband network,the Mediterranean Very Broadband Seismographic Network (MedNet) and the Austrian Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics (ZAMG) yield more than 2 000 Love wave group velocity measurements using the multiple-filter analysis technique.In the short period band (5-20 s),the cross-correlations show clearly one-sided asymmetric feature due to non-uniform noise distribution and high local activities,and in the long period band (20 s) this feature becomes weak owing to more diffusive noise distribution.Based on these measurements,Love wave group velocity dispersion maps in the 8-34 s period band are constructed,then the SH wave velocity structures from the Love wave dispersions are inverted.The final results obtained from Love wave data are overall in good agreement with those from Rayleigh waves.Both Love and Rayleigh wave inversions all reveal that the Po plain basin is resolved with low velocity at shallow depth,and the Tyrrhenian sea is characterized with higher velocity below 8 km due to its thin oceanic crust.     

Treatment of ground-motion predictive relationships for the reference seismic hazard map of Italy

In the framework of the 2004 reference seismic hazard map of Italy the amplitude of the strong-motion (expressed in terms of Peak Horizontal Acceleration with 10% probability of non-exceedence in 50 years, referred to average hard ground conditions) was computed using different predictive relationships. Equations derived in Italy and in Europe from strong-motion data, as well as a set of weak and strong-motion based empirical predictive relationships were employed in a logic tree procedure, in order to capture the epistemic uncertainty affecting ground-motion attenuation. This article describes the adjustments and conversions required to eliminate the incompatibilities amongst the relations. Particularly significant are distance conversions and style-of-faulting adjustments, as well as the problems related to the use of regional relations, such as the selection of a reference depth, the quantification of random variability and the strong-motion prediction. Moreover, a regional attenuation relationship specific for volcanic areas was also employed, allowing a more realistic evaluation of seismic hazard, as confirmed by the attenuation of macroseismic intensities.     

工程强震观测仪器触发装置的抗干扰设计

工程强震观测是地震科学研究的重要课题之一,而触发式记录则是强地震与工程强震记录的主要方式.利用地震信号(位移,速度或加速度)本身作为触发信号而设计的各类强震观测仪器(PDR-1,2;DR-100,200;GQ-Ⅱ,Ⅲ;QZ-2A 等)所面临的主要困难是如何减小误触与漏触概率,即提高触发器的抗干扰能力,本文对利用地震信号的不同特征参量作为触发信号时的误触与漏触概率作了对比分析,提出了幅度特征--窗口比较器触发电路的设计,在GQ-Ⅱ及 QZ-2A 型仪器的现场使用和抗干扰实验中取得了预期结果.误触与漏触概率降低到1%以下,抗干扰能力明显提高.