<p>On May 20, 2012 (02:03:53 UTC), an Mw 5.86 (Ml 5.9) earthquake struck the Pianura Padana Emiliana region (northern Italy), causing five deaths and damage to several villages and to the towns of Ferrara and Modena. The mainshock was preceded, three hours earlier, by a Mw 3.98 (Ml 4.1) foreshock, which almost co-located with the main event. After the main event, the seismic sequence included six earthquakes with magnitudes &gt;5.0. The biggest aftershock was located about 12 km west of the first mainshock, and was a Mw 5.66 (Ml 5.8) earthquake that occurred on May 29, 2012 (07:00:03 UTC); this can be considered as a second mainshock. After this event, the official death toll of the seismic sequence was 17 people. Moreover, there had been severe damage to the economy of the region and there were 13,000 homeless. [...]</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p>

No abstract

The Italian Tsunami Alert Center based at the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (CAT-INGV) has been monitoring the Mediterranean seismicity in the past 8 yr to get fast and reliable information for seismically induced tsunami warnings. CAT-INGV is a tsunami service provider in charge of monitoring the seismicity of the Mediterranean Sea and of alerting Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC)/UNESCO subscriber Member States and the Italian Department of Civil Protection of a potentially impending tsunami, in the framework of the Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System in the North-eastern Atlantic, the Mediterranean and connected seas (NEAMTWS). CAT-INGV started operating in 2013 and became operational in October 2016. Here, after describing the NEAMTWS in the framework of the global effort coordinated by IOC/UNESCO, we focus on the tsunami hazard in the Mediterranean Sea. We then describe CAT-INGV mandate, functioning, and operational procedures. Furthermore, the article discusses the lessons learned from past events occurring in the Mediterranean Sea, such as the Kos-Bodrum in 2017 (Mw 6.6) and the Samos-Izmir in 2020 (Mw 7.0) earthquakes, which generated moderately damaging tsunamis. Based on these lessons, we discuss some potential improvements for the CAT-INGV and the NEAMTWS, including better seismic and sea level instrumental coverage. We emphasize the need for tsunami risk awareness raising, better preparation, and full implementation of the tsunami warning “last-mile” to foster the creation of a more integrated, interoperable, and sustainable risk reduction framework. If we aim to be better prepared for the next tsunami, these important challenges should be prioritized in the agenda of the IOC/UNESCO Member States and the European Commission.

Abstract. The Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV) is an Italian research institution, with focus on Earth Sciences. INGV runs the Italian National Seismic Network (Rete Sismica Nazionale, RSN) and other networks at national scale for monitoring earthquakes and tsunami as a part of the National Civil Protection System coordinated by the Italian Department of Civil Protection (Dipartimento di Protezione Civile, DPC). RSN is composed of about 400 stations, mainly broadband, installed in the Country and in the surrounding regions; about 110 stations feature also co-located strong motion instruments, and about 180 have GPS receivers and belong to the National GPS network (Rete Integrata Nazionale GPS, RING). The data acquisition system was designed to accomplish, in near-real-time, automatic earthquake detection, hypocenter and magnitude determination, moment tensors, shake maps and other products of interest for DPC. Database archiving of all parametric results are closely linked to the existing procedures of the INGV seismic monitoring environment and surveillance procedures. INGV is one of the primary nodes of ORFEUS (Observatories &amp; Research Facilities for European Seismology) EIDA (European Integrated Data Archive) for the archiving and distribution of continuous, quality checked seismic data. The strong motion network data are archived and distributed both in EIDA and in event based archives; GPS data, from the RING network are also archived, analyzed and distributed at INGV. Overall, the Italian earthquake surveillance service provides, in quasi real-time, hypocenter parameters to the DPC. These are then revised routinely by the analysts of the Italian Seismic Bulletin (Bollettino Sismico Italiano, BSI). The results are published on the web, these are available to both the scientific community and the general public. The INGV surveillance includes a pre-operational tsunami alert service since INGV is one of the Tsunami Service providers of the North-eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean Tsunami warning System (NEAMTWS).

<p>At 01:36 UTC (03:36 local time) on August 24th 2016, an earthquake Mw 6.0 struck an extensive sector of the central Apennines (coordinates: latitude 42.70° N, longitude 13.23° E, 8.0 km depth). The earthquake caused about 300 casualties and severe damage to the historical buildings and economic activity in an area located near the borders of the Umbria, Lazio, Abruzzo and Marche regions. The Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV) located in few minutes the hypocenter near Accumoli, a small town in the province of Rieti. In the hours after the quake, dozens of events were recorded by the National Seismic Network (Rete Sismica Nazionale, RSN) of the INGV, many of which had a ML &gt; 3.0. The density and coverage of the RSN in the epicentral area meant the epicenter and magnitude of the main event and subsequent shocks that followed it in the early hours of the seismic sequence were well constrained. However, in order to better constrain the localizations of the aftershock hypocenters, especially the depths, a denser seismic monitoring network was needed. Just after the mainshock, SISMIKO, the coordinating body of the emergency seismic network at INGV, was activated in order to install a temporary seismic network integrated with the existing permanent network in the epicentral area. From August the 24th to the 30th, SISMIKO deployed eighteen seismic stations, generally six components (equipped with both velocimeter and accelerometer), with thirteen of the seismic station transmitting in real-time to the INGV seismic monitoring room in Rome. The design and geometry of the temporary network was decided in consolation with other groups who were deploying seismic stations in the region, namely EMERSITO (a group studying site-effects), and the emergency Italian strong motion network (RAN) managed by the National Civil Protection Department (DPC). Further 25 BB temporary seismic stations were deployed by colleagues of the British Geological Survey (BGS) and the School of Geosciences, University of Edinburgh in collaboration with INGV. All data acquired from SISMIKO stations, are quickly available at the European Integrated Data Archive (EIDA). The data acquired by the SISMIKO stations were included in the preliminary analysis that was performed by the Bollettino Sismico Italiano (BSI), the Centro Nazionale Terremoti (CNT) staff working in Ancona, and the INGV-MI, described below.</p>