Liquefaction of soil in the Emilia-Romagna region after the 2012 Northern Italy earthquake sequence

At the end of May 2012, the Po plain region in northern Italy was shaken by a long sequence of seismic events. The 2012 Northern Italy earthquake sequence counted two mainshocks, about 1,600 aftershocks and lasted for several weeks. Although the mainshocks, which occurred on May 20 and May 29, 2012, registered a moment magnitude of 5.9 and 5.8, respectively, these two events caused widespread soil liquefaction and substantial damages to the built environment. This paper reports lessons learnt from a field investigation conducted in the areas affected by the earthquake sequence. Based on the field observations, it was concluded that despite the relatively low magnitudes of the shocks, most of the damages occurred as a consequence of liquefaction phenomena and/or absence of retrofitting of historical structures. The latter comprise churches, tower bells, towers, castles and fortresses. It was found that the occurrence of liquefaction was mainly associated with the presence of saturated alluvial soil deposits which were characterised by high liquefaction susceptibility. It was noted that these highly liquefiable soils were mainly located in proximity of ancient river courses that were artificially diverted in the eighteenth century to mitigate flooding and other hydrological risks.     

Diffuse CO<Subscript>2</Subscript> degassing at Vesuvio,Italy

At Vesuvio, a significant fraction of the rising hydrothermal–volcanic fluids is subjected to a condensation and separation process producing a CO₂–rich gas phase, mainly expulsed through soil diffuse degassing from well defined areas called diffuse degassing structures (DDS), and a liquid phase that flows towards the outer part of the volcanic cone. A large amount of thermal energy is associated with the steam condensation process and subsequent cooling of the liquid phase. The total amount of volcanic–hydrothermal CO₂ discharged through diffuse degassing has been computed through a sequential Gaussian simulation (sGs) approach based on several hundred accumulation chamber measurements and, at the time of the survey, amounted to 151 t d^–1. The steam associated with the CO₂ output, computed assuming that the original H₂O/CO₂ ratio of hydrothermal fluids is preserved in fumarolic effluents, is 553 t d^–1, and the energy produced by the steam condensation and cooling of the liquid phase is 1.47×10¹² J d^–1 (17 MW). The location of the CO₂ and temperature anomalies show that most of the gas is discharged from the inner part of the crater and suggests that crater morphology and local stratigraphy exert strong control on CO₂ degassing and subsurface steam condensation. The amounts of gas and energy released by Vesuvio are comparable to those released by other volcanic degassing areas of the world and their estimates, through periodic surveys of soil CO₂ flux, can constitute a useful tool to monitor volcanic activity.Editorial responsibility: H. Shinohara     

Topographical controls on small‐volume pyroclastic flows

Emplacement of small‐volume (<0·1 km³) pyroclastic flows is significantly influenced by topography. The Arico ignimbrite on Tenerife (Canary Islands) is a characteristic small‐volume pyroclastic flow deposit emplaced on high relief topography. The pyroclastic flow flowed down pre‐existing valleys on the southern slopes of the island. In proximal areas deep (up to 100 m) valleys acted as efficient conduits for the pyroclastic flow, which was mostly channelled; in this particular area the ignimbrite corresponds to a homogeneous, moderately welded deposit, consisting of flattened pumices in an abundant ashy matrix with a relatively low lithic fragment content. In intermediate zones significant changes occur in the steepness of the slope and, although still channelled, here the pyroclastic flow was influenced by hydraulic jumps. In this area, two different units can be clearly distinguished in the ignimbrite: the lower unit is composed of a lithic‐rich ground‐layer deposit that formed at the turbulent, highly concentrated head of the flow; the upper unit consists of a well welded pumice‐rich deposit that occasionally reveals a basal layer formed by shearing with the lower part. This division into two units is maintained as far as distal areas near the present‐day coastline, where the slope is very gentle or null and the ignimbrite is not channelled. The ground layer is not found in distal areas. The ignimbrite here only consists of the upper unit, which is occasionally repeated due to a surging process provoked by the lower flow speed, as the pyroclastic flow spread out of the channelled zone. A theoretical model on how topography controlled the deposition of the Arico ignimbrite is derived by interpreting the observed lithological and sedimentological variations in terms of changes in topography and bedrock morphology. This new model is of general applicability and will help to explain other deposits of similar characteristics.     

Regularized tomographic inversion with geological constraints

Reflection tomography is the industry standard tool for velocity model building, but it is also an ill‐posed inverse problem as its solution is not unique. The usual way to obtain an acceptable result is to regularize tomography by feeding the inversion with some a priori information. The simplest regularization forces the solution to be smooth, implicitly assuming that seismic velocity exhibits some degree of spatial correlation. However, velocity is a rock property; thus, the geometry and structure of rock formations should drive correlation in velocity depth models. This observation calls for constraints driven by geological models. In this work, we present a set of structural constraints that feed reflection tomography with geometrical information. These constraints impose the desired characteristics (flatness, shape, position, etc.) on imaged reflectors but act on the velocity update. Failure to respect the constraints indicates either velocity inaccuracies or wrong assumptions concerning the constraints. Reflection tomography with structural constraints is a flexible framework that can be specialized in order to achieve different goals: among others, to flatten the base of salt bodies or detachment surfaces, to recover the horizontalness of oil–water contacts, or to impose the co‐location of the same imaged horizon between PP and PS images. The straightforward application of structural constraints is that of regularizing tomography through geological information, particularly at the latest stages of the depth imaging workflow, when the depth migration structural setting reached a consistent geological interpretation. Structural constraints are also useful in minimizing the well‐to‐seismic mis‐ties. Moreover, they can be used as a tool to check the consistency of interpreters' hypothesis with seismic data. Indeed, inversion with structural constraints will preserve image focusing only if the interpreters' insights are consistent with the data. Results from synthetic and real data demonstrate the effectiveness of reflection tomography with structural constraints.     

Exploiting historical rainfall and landslide data in a spatial database for the derivation of critical rainfall thresholds

Critical rainfall thresholds for landslides are powerful tools for preventing landslide hazard. The thresholds are commonly estimated empirically starting from rainfall events that triggered landslides in the past. The creation of the appropriate rainfall–landslide database is one of the main efforts in this approach. In fact, an accurate agreement between the landslide and rainfall information, in terms of location and timing, is essential in order to correctly estimate the rainfall–landslide relationships. A further issue is taking into account the average moisture conditions prior the triggering event, which reasonably may be crucial in determining the sufficient amount of precipitation. In this context, the aim of this paper is exploiting historical landslide and rainfall data in a spatial database for the derivation of critical rainfall thresholds for landslide occurrence in Sicily, southern Italy. The hourly rainfall events that caused landslides occurred in the twentieth century were specifically identified and reconstructed. A procedure was proposed to automatically convert rain guages charts recorded on paper tape into digital format and then to provide the cumulative rainfall hyetograph in digital format. This procedure is based on a segmentation followed by signal recognition techniques which allow to digitalize and to recognize the hyetograph automatically. The role of rainfall prior to the landslide events was taken into account by including in the analysis the rainfall occurred 5, 15 and 30 days before each landslide. Finally, cumulated rainfall duration thresholds for different exceedance probability levels were determined. The obtained thresholds resulted in agreement with the regional curves proposed by other authors for the same area; antecedent rainfall turned out to be particularly important in triggering landslides.     

Recent developments of the Middle East catalog

This article summarizes a recent study in the framework of the Global Earth model (GEM) and the Earthquake Model of the Middle East (EMME) project to establish the new catalog of seismicity for the Middle East, using all historical (pre-1900), early and modern instrumental events up to 2006. According to different seismicity, which depends on geophysical, geological, tectonic, and seismicity data, this region is subdivided to nine subregions, consisting of Alborz–Azerbaijan, Afghanistan–Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Caucasus, Central Iran, Kopeh–Dagh, Makran, Zagros, and Turkey (Eastern Anatolia; after 30° E). After omitting the duplicate events, aftershocks, and foreshocks by using the Gruenthal method, and uniform all magnitude to Mw scale, 28,244 main events remain for the new catalog of Middle East from 1250 B.C. through 2006. The magnitude of completeness (Mc) was determined as 4.9 for five out of nine subregions, where the least values of Mc were found to be 4.2. The threshold of Mc is around 5.5, 5.0, 4.5, and 4.0, for the time after 1950, 1963, 1975, and 2000, respectively. The average of teleseismic depths in all regions is less than 15 km. Totally, majority of depth for Kopeh–Dagh and Central Iran, Zagros, and Alborz–Azerbaijan, approximately, is 15, 13, and 11 km and for Afghanistan–Pakistan, Caucasus, Makran, Turkey (after 30° E), and Saudi Arabia is about 9 km.     

The performance of churches in the 2012 Emilia earthquakes

In this study the damage suffered by churches during the 2012 Emilia seismic sequence in Italy is analysed, based on surveys and inspections carried out in the area. Similarly to what was observed after other Italian earthquakes, the damage to churches was severe. However, the Emilia churches present some characteristic features such as the use of unreinforced clay brick masonry. In order to appropriately address the performance of this class of buildings, typical architectural layouts and construction techniques are described. Such techniques are interpreted also in the light of the local seismic catalogue. Fifty churches are then selected and their damage is studied, with reference to typical local-collapse mechanisms of different macro-elements. The study highlights that the damage is often concentrated at the top section of the façade, in the clerestory walls, in the vaults and in the bell towers. Structural analyses are performed to explain some of the observations. The overturning of the top section of the façade is analytically addressed, modelling the friction interlocking. With reference to the case study of San Francesco in Mirandola, non-linear static and dynamic analyses allow us to correlate the directionality of damage to the higher seismic demand along the NS direction, to point out the negligible role of the large vertical component of ground motion and to emphasise the relevance of the buttresses for the seismic response of the façade.     

The SHARE European Earthquake Catalogue (SHEEC) 1000–1899

In the frame of the European Commission project “Seismic Hazard Harmonization in Europe” (SHARE), aiming at harmonizing seismic hazard at a European scale, the compilation of a homogeneous, European parametric earthquake catalogue was planned. The goal was to be achieved by considering the most updated historical dataset and assessing homogenous magnitudes, with support from several institutions. This paper describes the SHARE European Earthquake Catalogue (SHEEC), which covers the time window 1000–1899. It strongly relies on the experience of the European Commission project “Network of Research Infrastructures for European Seismology” (NERIES), a module of which was dedicated to create the European “Archive of Historical Earthquake Data” (AHEAD) and to establish methodologies to homogenously derive earthquake parameters from macroseismic data. AHEAD has supplied the final earthquake list, obtained after sorting duplications out and eliminating many fake events; in addition, it supplied the most updated historical dataset. Macroseismic data points (MDPs) provided by AHEAD have been processed with updated, repeatable procedures, regionally calibrated against a set of recent, instrumental earthquakes, to obtain earthquake parameters. From the same data, a set of epicentral intensity-to-magnitude relations has been derived, with the aim of providing another set of homogeneous Mw estimates. Then, a strategy focussed on maximizing the homogeneity of the final epicentral location and Mw, has been adopted. Special care has been devoted also to supply location and Mw uncertainty. The paper focuses on the procedure adopted for the compilation of SHEEC and briefly comments on the achieved results.     

Motif Discovery on Seismic Amplitude Time Series: The Case Study of Mt Etna 2011 Eruptive Activity

Algorithms searching for similar patterns are widely used in seismology both when the waveforms of the events of interest are known and when there is no a priori-knowledge. Such methods usually make use of the cross-correlation coefficient as a measure of similarity; if there is no a-priori knowledge, they behave as brute-force searching algorithms. The disadvantage of these methods, preventing or limiting their application to very large datasets, is computational complexity. The Mueen–Keogh (MK) algorithm overcomes this limitation by means of two optimization techniques—the early abandoning concept and space indexing. Here, we apply the MK algorithm to amplitude time series retrieved from seismic signals recorded during episodic eruptive activity of Mt Etna in 2011. By adequately tuning the input to the MK algorithm we found eight motif groups characterized by distinct seismic amplitude trends, each related to a different phenomenon. In particular, we observed that earthquakes are accompanied by sharp increases and decreases in seismic amplitude whereas lava fountains are accompanied by slower changes. These results demonstrate that the MK algorithm, because of its particular features, may have wide applicability in seismology.