Effect of Local Geology on Ground Motion in the City of Palermo, Italy, as Inferred from Aftershocks of the 6 September 2002 Mw 5.9 Earthquake
On 6 September 2002 a M w 5.9 earthquake occurred in the southern Tyrrhenian sea, 40 km off the coast of Palermo (Italy). In the days after the mainshock, eight temporary stations were installed in the city to record aftershocks on different geological formations. Seismograms of about 30 earthquakes with magnitude ≥2.8 are analyzed. The data analysis confirms the role of near-surface geology in causing locally significant variations of the ground-shaking level as already inferred by Guidoboni et al. (2003) from historical damage scenario studies. The largest spectral variations estimated through aftershock recordings result in a factor of 10 difference between stiff and soft sites, in frequ…
Evaluation of the local site effects in the upper and middle Aterno valley
In the months following the April 6th, 2009, L’Aquila earthquake, several Italian and foreign research institutions installed dozens of seismic stations to monitor more than 100 localities with the aim of studying the local site effects in the epicentral area (upper and middle Aterno valley). The stations (accelerometers and velocimeters) have been deployed inside or very close to the inhabited areas. Among the investigated sites there are Onna, where almost the totality of the buildings collapsed, and the historic centre of L’Aquila, both towns suffering many casualties. The preliminary results for the examined sites show an extreme variability of ground motion and significant amplificatio…
Microtremor Measurements in the City of Palermo, Italy: Analysis of the Correlation between Local Geology and Damage
Abstract This study presents the results of 90 seismic ambient noise measurements in Palermo, the main city of Sicily (Italy). The dataset has been processed using the horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratio (HVNSR) technique and interpreted in terms of local geology, which is characterized by the presence of alluvial sediments of two riverbeds masked by urbanization since the seventeenth century. HVNSRs show significant variations in the study area: when the transition stiff to soft is crossed, a typical spectral peak appears in the HVNSRs, mostly in the frequency band 1–2 Hz, and exceeding a factor of 3 in amplitude. Using available information on subsurface geological structure, we compute…