Surface Faulting of the 6 April 2009 Mw 6.3 L'Aquila Earthquake in Central Italy

Vittori, E.; Manna, Pio Di; Blumetti, Anna Maria; Comerci, Valerio; Guerrieri, Luca; Esposito, E.; Michetti, Alessandro Maria; Porfido, Sabina; Piccardi, Luigi; Roberts, Gerald; Berlusconi, Andrea; Livio, Franz; Sileo, Giancanio; Wilkinson, M.; McCaffrey, Ken; Phillips, R. J.; Cowie, P. A.

doi:10.1785/0120100140

Cited by 66 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…3c). It is also coherent with the trends and location of the surface faulting on the central part of the Paganica fault as described in Vittori et al (2011). The dip angle that best fits all the datasets together is 45°.…”

Section: Mainshock Inversion Proceduressupporting

confidence: 79%

“…Several faults have been identified in the source area, and the aftershock sequence developed in different directions, in particular toward the northwest (Chiaraluce et al, 2011;Valoroso et al, 2013). This suggests the possible activation of more than one fault segment, as proposed in the study of Falcucci et al (2009), EMERGEO Working Group (2010), and Vittori et al (2011). To address this important issue, we tested models with different degrees of complexity grounded on known faults, and we analyzed the extent to which these compound models allowed an improvement of the data modeling with respect to the simplest model in which the rupture was restricted to the Paganica fault.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 83%

“…The 45°dip is almost similar to that found by Atzori et al (2009) from the inversion of InSAR and by Guerrieri et al (2010) from joint inversion of InSAR and body waves. Such a value is not expected for a normal fault, but the Abruzzo extensional context was preceded by northeast verging thrust tectonics (Patacca et al, 1990;Vittori et al, 2011). The geometry of the Paganica fault could be inherited from an old thrust.…”

Section: Mainshock Inversion Proceduresmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Reassessing the Rupture Process of the 2009 L’Aquila Earthquake (M_w 6.3) on the Paganica Fault and Investigating the Possibility of Coseismic Motion on Secondary Faults

Balestra¹,

Delouis²

2015

Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America

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The kinematic rupture of the L'Aquila earthquake on the Paganica fault is reassessed with a highly comprehensive set of data. This very complete dataset is also used to explore the possibility that secondary faults may be involved in the coseismic process. The main characteristics of the slip distribution of the Paganica normal fault found by previous studies are confirmed: an initial propagation around and up-dip of the hypocenter, associated with a high velocity rupture (> 3:5 km=s); a main asperity centered about 6-7 km southeast of the hypocenter, rupturing in the subsequent stage, with a maximum slip of nearly 1.5 m; a total rupture measuring about 15 km along strike and 12 km along dip; and an overall low average velocity rupture (< 2 km=s). The statement that the main features of the slip distribution are confirmed by different studies (based on distinct inversion schemes) is by itself an achievement, knowing that many past studies provided strongly discrepant slip maps for common events. Moreover, we focus specifically on the existence of slip at shallow depth and its relations with the other known active faults in the vicinity of the Paganica fault. We find that (1) as found in previous studies, shallow slip near the ground surface up-dip of the hypocenter is incompatible with the available Synthetic Aperture Radar interferograms and (2) the only secondary fault that is likely to have been activated during the mainshock is the San Gregorio synthetic fault located 2-3 km southwest of the Paganica fault.Online Material: Figures of waveform fitting using different velocity models, time versus distance distribution of slip from the single-fault model, variations in the geometry of the Paganica fault, geometry of complex faults models and geodetic data modeling, uncertainty on the slip value and the rupture time, effect of noise on resolution tests, quantification of the improvement on the GPS data fitting with the preferred two faults model with respect to the single-fault model, and a posteriori modeling of leveling data.

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Section: Mainshock Inversion Proceduressupporting

confidence: 79%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 83%

Section: Mainshock Inversion Proceduresmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Reassessing the Rupture Process of the 2009 L’Aquila Earthquake (M_w 6.3) on the Paganica Fault and Investigating the Possibility of Coseismic Motion on Secondary Faults

Balestra¹,

Delouis²

2015

Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America

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“…Although there is a general agreement on the recognition of thẽ 3 km-long primary coseismic ruptures, depending on whether or not all the discontinuous ruptures are interpreted as evidence of coseismic slip on the causative fault at depth, the estimated surface faulting total length ranges between 3 and 19 km (Boncio et al, 2010;EMERGEO Working Group, 2010;Falcucci et al, 2009;Galli et al, 2010;Gori et al, 2012;Vittori et al, 2011).…”

Section: Contents Lists Available At Sciencedirectmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The location of this fault coincides with a complex fault system bounding to the east the Middle Aterno Valley (hereinafter referred to as 2009-earthquake fault system). Primary, continuous coseismic surface ruptures (0.15 m of throw and~0.1 m of opening) were observed for about 3 km (EMERGEO Working Group, 2010;Vittori et al, 2011) along the northern portion of this system (Paganica fault - Fig. 2), and occurred along pre-existing composite fault scarps, affecting mainly Quaternary deposits, with throws of tens of meters and lengths of several km .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Morphotectonic analysis of the long-term surface expression of the 2009 L'Aquila earthquake fault (Central Italy) using airborne LiDAR data

et al. 2015

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Horizontal surface velocity and strain patterns near thrust and normal faults during the earthquake cycle: The importance of viscoelastic relaxation in the lower crust and implications for interpreting geodetic data

Hampel

Hetzel

2015

Tectonics

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In recent years, more and more space-geodetic data on the surface deformation associated with earthquakes on intracontinental normal and thrust faults have become available. However, numerical models investigating the coseismic and postseismic deformation near such faults in a general way, i.e., not focused on a particular earthquake, are still sparse. Here we use three-dimensional finite element models that account for gravity, far-field ("regional") extension/shortening and postseismic relaxation in a viscoelastic lower crust to quantify the surface deformation caused by an M w~7 earthquake on a dip-slip fault. The coseismic deformation is characterized by horizontal shortening in the footwall of the normal fault and extension in the hanging wall of the thrust fault-consistent with elastic dislocation models, geological field observations, and GPS data from earthquakes in Italy and Taiwan. During the postseismic phase, domains of extensional and contractional strain exist next to each other near both fault types. The spatiotemporal evolution of these domains as well as the postseismic velocities and strain rates strongly depend on the viscosity of the lower crust. For viscosities of 10 18 -10 20 Pa s, the signal from postseismic relaxation is detectible for 20-50 years after the earthquake. If GPS data containing a postseismic relaxation signal are used to derive regional rates, the stations may show rates that are too high or too low or even an apparently wrong tectonic regime. By quantifying the postseismic deformation through space and time, our models help to interpret GPS data and to identify the most suitable locations for GPS stations.

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Surface Faulting of the 6 April 2009 Mw 6.3 L'Aquila Earthquake in Central Italy

Cited by 66 publications

References 55 publications

Reassessing the Rupture Process of the 2009 L’Aquila Earthquake (M_w 6.3) on the Paganica Fault and Investigating the Possibility of Coseismic Motion on Secondary Faults

Reassessing the Rupture Process of the 2009 L’Aquila Earthquake (M_w 6.3) on the Paganica Fault and Investigating the Possibility of Coseismic Motion on Secondary Faults

Morphotectonic analysis of the long-term surface expression of the 2009 L'Aquila earthquake fault (Central Italy) using airborne LiDAR data

Horizontal surface velocity and strain patterns near thrust and normal faults during the earthquake cycle: The importance of viscoelastic relaxation in the lower crust and implications for interpreting geodetic data

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Surface Faulting of the 6 April 2009 Mw 6.3 L'Aquila Earthquake in Central Italy

Cited by 66 publications

References 55 publications

Reassessing the Rupture Process of the 2009 L’Aquila Earthquake (Mw 6.3) on the Paganica Fault and Investigating the Possibility of Coseismic Motion on Secondary Faults

Reassessing the Rupture Process of the 2009 L’Aquila Earthquake (Mw 6.3) on the Paganica Fault and Investigating the Possibility of Coseismic Motion on Secondary Faults

Morphotectonic analysis of the long-term surface expression of the 2009 L'Aquila earthquake fault (Central Italy) using airborne LiDAR data

Horizontal surface velocity and strain patterns near thrust and normal faults during the earthquake cycle: The importance of viscoelastic relaxation in the lower crust and implications for interpreting geodetic data

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Product

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Reassessing the Rupture Process of the 2009 L’Aquila Earthquake (M_w 6.3) on the Paganica Fault and Investigating the Possibility of Coseismic Motion on Secondary Faults

Reassessing the Rupture Process of the 2009 L’Aquila Earthquake (M_w 6.3) on the Paganica Fault and Investigating the Possibility of Coseismic Motion on Secondary Faults