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Source mechanisms and induced seismicity in the Val d'Agri Basin (Italy)
No full textThis article has been accepted for publication in Geophysical Journal International ©:The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy.
All rights reserved.We present the results from a fully unconstrained moment tensor inversion of induced seismic
events in a complex and high seismic hazard region (Val d’Agri basin, Southern Italy).
The study area hosts two well-documented cases of induced microseismicity linked to (i) a
wastewater injection well of a giant oilfield (the largest in onshore Europe), and (ii) severe
seasonal level changes of an artificial lake. In order to gather information on the non-doublecouple
components of the source and to better understand the rupture mechanisms, we analyse
seismic events recorded during daily injection tests in the disposal well. The computed moment
tensors have significant non-double-couple components that correlate with the well-head
injection pressure. The injection parameters strongly influence the rupture mechanism that
can be interpreted as due to the opening/closing of a fracture network inside a fault zone of a
pre-existing thrust fault. For the case of the reservoir-induced seismicity, no direct correlations
are observed with the loading/unloading of the reservoir.Published1617–1627OST3 Vicino alla fagliaJCR Journa
Geoethics to Face Natural Risks by Improving Societal Resilience
No full textRisks determined by natural phenomena cannot be cancelled entirely but can be reduced by minimizing their destructive effects. At present, scientists can predict, though with a certain degree of uncertainty, the onset and the evolution over time of most natural events. Scientific progress provides societies with advanced tools and methods to defend people, such as predictive models, monitoring instruments, early warning systems, and safe building standards. Nevertheless, the defence against natural risks should consider the ethical and social aspects involved in a risk scenario: this is fundamental to help the human community recover after a disaster and support science to identify possible solutions for an acceptable living with natural phenomena. Geoethics promotes the reflection on values that should guide human interaction with the territory and the associated and interlinked individual and collective responsibilities. Geoethics discusses issues and practices in natural risk management and fosters geoeducation and risk communication as a means to improve societal resilience.Published3-8Terceira Island, Azores (Portugal)1TM. Formazione3TM. Comunicazion
Seismic Risk Communication in Europe: Lessons Learned and Future Perspectives
No full textSince the 1980s various international directives and frameworks have acknowledged the potential of risk communication to foster community empowerment. However, to achieve empowerment, communication has to be effective. When it comes to natural disasters, such as earthquakes, science communication requires the involvement of communities as a whole, promoting bottom-up strategies and proactive engagement. In this light, we conducted a scoping review of scientific publications on seismic risk communication in Europe published between 2000 and 2022. We focused on how seismic risk communication has changed in that time span, looking for targeted approaches, tools, recipients and channels. Here we provide an overview of the results obtained from the analysis of 109 selected publications, also highlighting the importance of scientific communication as a transnational problem, due to the mobility of modern society. Our study reveals that seismic risk communication in Europe is becoming increasingly proactive, focusing on a bottom-up strategy that relies on youth to build the resilience of future generations. The potential for the community empowerment has been primarily addressed with seismic risk communication during the pre-crisis phase of the disaster, when risk awareness can be effectively raised. Social media are increasingly used to provide timely and actionable information in times of crisis, to engage citizens within a two-way risk communication model, in the pre-crisis time, and to provide scientific data for post-disaster processing.
The future agenda of seismic risk communication in Europe should focus on building trust with the public, moving towards a three-way model of seismic risk communication and, even more importantly, taking action to curb the spread of fake news and their negative impact on disaster management. Last but not least, more efforts should be made to link practice and theory and explicitly build seismic risk communication on theoretical models.PublishedSan Francisco, California, USAOS: Terza mission
The Unlocking Process Leading to the 2016 Central Italy Seismic Sequence
No full textApproximately 23,000 well-located earthquakes from 2009 to 2016 are used as templates to recover seismic activity preceding the 2016 Central Italy seismic sequence. The resulting spatiotemporal pattern is analyzed by additional ∼91,000 newly detected events. In the 8 years before the sequence onset, seismicity (ML ≤ 3.7) develops at the hangingwall of the 2016 normal faults and along a sub-horizontal shear zone, bounding the active extensional system at depth. This activity, mainly organized in foreshock-mainshock and swarm-like clusters, migrates toward the nucleation area of the first Mw 6.0 mainshock of the sequence (24th of August in Amatrice). We propose an unlocking process based on variable temporal clustering of the seismicity, including repeaters, identifying fault portions with different degrees of coupling. Such a progressive localization of the seismic activity at the fault edges induces a weakening of the locked patch of the Amatrice mainshock.Publishede2022GL101838OST3 Vicino alla fagliaJCR Journa
An Integrated Geophysical and Unmanned Aerial Systems Surveys for Multi-Sensory, Multi-Scale and Multi-Resolution Cave Detection: The Gravaglione Site (Canale di Pirro Polje, Apulia)
No full textGravaglione represents one of the main swallow holes of the Canale di Pirro, low Murge,
Apulia region, Italy. Here, after an intense rainstorm, a huge volume of rainwater accumulates at the surface. The drainage dynamics suggest that the Gravaglione could be part of a large, and potentially unknown, karst system. To verify this hypothesis and to acquire useful information on the possible karst environment features, an integrated aerial and geophysical multiscale and multimethod approach was applied. In particular, aerial photogrammetry, ground penetrating radar measurements and electrical resistivity tomography surveys were hence conducted and integrated to potentially detect the caves, define the subsurface volume possibly affected by karst systems and to verify the existence of links between the surficial morphology and the subsoil structure. The results
provided interesting insights regarding the presence of a complex karst system extending up to 200 m b.g.l. and with a marked 3D nature. Overall, the Gravaglione case study demonstrates the geophysical approach validity and poses the basis for the development of an expeditive and low-cost high-resolution strategy for detecting and characterizing karst caves.Published3820OSA1: Variazioni del campo magnetico terrestre, imaging crostale e sicurezza del territorioJCR Journa
Evaluation of the earthquake monitoring network in Taiwan
No full textIn this work, we perform an evaluation of the coverage of the earthquake monitoring network of Taiwan. The capability of a general network is a function of an adequate number of optimally distributed nodes. For this case study, the evaluation is performed with a statistical approach which includes descriptive spatial statistics in combination with point pattern techniques. The spatial distribution of the nodes of the earthquake monitoring network is analyzed in comparison with the distribution of seismicity, completeness magnitude, active seismogenic sources, seismic hazard, and population distribution. All these data can be put in relationship with the objectives of an earthquake monitoring network; therefore, they can be used, in turn, to retrieve information about the consistency of the network itself. In particular, we investigate the “Real-time Seismic Monitoring Network” and the “Strong-Motion Earthquake Observation Network,” each one characterized by its own objectives, and therefore respectively compared with external information related to their purposes such as seismicity, seismogenic sources, seismic hazard, and population distribution. This simple and reliable approach reveals the high quality of the networks established in Taiwan. In general, it is able to provide quantitative information on the coverage of any type of network, identifying possible critical areas and addressing their future development.Published643–657OST5 Verso un nuovo MonitoraggioJCR Journa
Indagini nel settore meridionale dell’insula I 16 di Pompei
No full textThe paper deals with the preliminary results of the investigations conducted in the south sector of insula I 16 of Pompeii, in the scope of the Franco-Italian research project “Modes d’habiter à Pompéi à l’époque républicaine: la maison à atrium tes- tudinatum”. This project is dedicated to the atrium testudinatum house, a type of dwelling very common in Pompeii in III and II c. B.C. Among the contexts analyzed, are two atrium testudinantum houses (5 and 6), situated in the south sector of insu- la I 16. In the first part of the paper the discovery and the first investigations conducted in these houses are discussed; in the second, the results of excavations carried out in summer 2022.Published1-291V. Storia eruttiva6SR VULCANI – Servizi e ricerca per la società2TM. Divulgazione ScientificaN/A or not JC
Reconstructing Late Quaternary Paleovalley Systems of Italy Through mHVSR: A Tool for Seismic Hazard Assessment in Modern Coastal Lowlands
No full textEffective site characterization in highly urbanized coastal lowlands requires accurate stratigraphic
and geophysical investigations. In these regions, which typically host shallowly buried paleovalley systems
formed in response to Quaternary glacio-eustatic fluctuations, the marked lithologic contrast between soft
sediment paleovalley fills and the adjacent, stiff substrate has the potential to modify earthquake motions,
and assessment of critical parameters, such as shear wave velocities (VS) and resonance frequencies (f),
should be coupled with detailed stratigraphic architecture. To evaluate the potential of the microtremor
horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratio (mHVSR) for paleovalley recognition and mapping, we performed
mHVSR measurements along the Adriatic coastal plain of Italy, where two paleovalley systems (Pescara and
Manfredonia) have been recently identified. In both areas, we detected rapid lateral variations in resonance
frequencies and highlighted laterally continuous impedance contrasts. Relying on a robust stratigraphic
framework, we carefully evaluated the relation between geological and geophysical data and identified the
stratigraphic surfaces responsible for the observed resonances. We derived VS models for the sediment fill,
reconstructing the geometry of the two buried paleovalleys. We address the importance of evaluating the
geological context when designing microzonation studies, for a reliable interpretation of changes in resonance
frequencies.Publishede2023EA003112OST2 Deformazione e Hazard sismico e da maremotoJCR Journa
The role of the marine research infrastructures in the European marine observation landscape: present and future perspectives
No full textThe ocean regulates the exchange, storage of carbon dioxide, plays a key role in global control of Earth climate and life, absorbs most of the heat excess from greenhouse gas emissions and provides a remarkable number of resources for the human being. Most of the geo-hazards occur in oceanic areas. Thus, high-quality systematic observations are necessary tools for improving our understanding, and subsequent assimilation to provide early warning systems. A holistic scientific approach for the understanding of the ocean's interrelated processes requires coordinated and complementary monitoring and observation programmes. Research Infrastructures (RIs) are large-scale facilities that provide resources and services for the scientific communities to conduct high-level research and foster innovation. RIs benefit from strong governance and multi-annual funding from their member states with operational life spans in decades. RIs promote knowledge, outreach and education to public, private, and policy stakeholders, and they play a key role in enabling and developing research in all scientific domains and currently represent a growing share of coordinated investment in research, and also in providing essential observations to operational services such as Copernicus. They are strategically important for Europe to lead a global movement towards a data-driven, interconnected, open digital twin that brings together different disciplines, clean technologies, public and private sectors and a broad scientific/technological community, as well as education and training. In Europe several marine RIs have been established, which are maintained by national and European Union (EU) resources. The aims of these infrastructures are aligned with the key priorities of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development; and with the new European Research Area (ERA) Policy Agenda annexed to the Council conclusions on the ERA governance , which set out 20 concrete actions for 2022-2024 to contribute to the priority areas defined in the EU Pact for R&I . The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that the combined expertise and assets of Europe’s marine RIs can form a comprehensive and holistic framework for long-term, sustainable integrated marine observation. Through this integration process the marine RIs can become better and better a significant pillar of the European Ocean Observing System (EOOS). Such a framework must be built as part of interfaces of interaction and promote not only scientific excellence but also innovation at all levels.Euro-Argo RISE Funded by the EU Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement n°824131. Euro-Sea: Funded from the EU Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement n°862626. ENVRI-FAIR: Funded from the EU Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no824068. Additionally, the authors gratefully acknowledge the support of their home institutions.Published1047251OSA4: Ambiente marino, fascia costiera ed Oceanografia operativaJCR Journa
Estimates of Lightning Activity and Terrestrial Gamma-ray Flash Detectability at Mount Etna for the ESTHER Project
No full textThe Experiment to Study Thunderstorm High-Energy Radiation (ESTHER) project is a low-budget project funded by the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF), devoted to the study of gamma-ray emissions produced during thunderstorms. It consists of the design and installation of a portable instrument consisting of a gamma-ray detector and a VLF/LF radio receiver.The Experiment to Study Thunderstorm High-Energy Radiation (ESTHER) is a small project of the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF), devoted to the study of high-energy emissions from thunderstorms, such as Terrestrial Gamma-ray Flashes and gamma-ray glows, which will start in 2024. In order to reduce the absorption typically undergone by gamma-ray radiation in the lower layers of the atmosphere and make these events detectable on the ground, the ESTHER set-up will be installed at high altitudes on Mt. Etna (Italy). We carried out a detailed analysis of lightning occurrence in this geographic region in order to test how suitable such a location is for the installation of a detection system to investigate thunderstorms and related emissions. The analysis pointed out a strong clustering of lightning in the proximity of the mountain peak and over the main volcano craters, where the frequent presence of volcanic ashes could increase, under the conditions of humid air typical of thunderstorms, electrical conductivity. An estimate of the gamma-ray absorption in the air undergone by typical TGF radiation allowed us to evaluate the suitability of two possible installation sites suggested for the project. This study represents a preliminary work for ESTHER and serves as a launching pad for future analyses.PublishedJCR Journa