ALBERT

Beschreibung: Starting from late May 2012, the Emilia region (Northern Italy) was severely shaken by an intense seismic sequence, originated from a ML 5.9 earthquake on May 20th, at a hypocentral depth of 6.3 km, with thrusttype focal mechanism. In the following days, the seismic rate remained high, counting 50 ML ≥ 2.0 earthquakes a day, on average. Seismicity spreads along a 30 km east–west elongated area, in the Po river alluvial plain, in the nearby of the cities Ferrara and Modena. Nine days after the first shock, another destructive thrust-type earthquake (ML 5.8) hit the area to the west, causing further damage and fatalities. Aftershocks following this second destructive event extended along the same east-westerly trend for further 20 km to the west, thus illuminating an area of about 50 km in length, on thewhole. After the first shock struck, on May 20th, a dense network of temporary seismic stations, in addition to the permanent ones, was deployed in the meizoseismal area, leading to a sensible improvement of the earthquake monitoring capability there. A combined dataset, including threecomponent seismic waveforms recorded by both permanent and temporary stations, has been analyzed in order to obtain an appropriate 1-D velocity model for earthquake location in the study area. Here we describe the main seismological characteristics of this seismic sequence and, relying on refined earthquakes location, we make inferences on the geometry of the thrust system responsible for the two strongest shocks.

Beschreibung: Published

Beschreibung: 44-55

Beschreibung: 2T. Tettonica attiva

Beschreibung: JCR Journal

Beschreibung: open

Beschreibung: Ida et al. (2005) document significant changes in the multi-fractal parameters of the ULF geomagnetic field H component starting about one month before the 1993 Guam earthquake. According to the authors, these multi-fractal signatures can be considered as precursory signals of the Guam earthquake. As a consequence, they conclude that the multifractal analysis may have an important role in the development of short-term earthquake prediction capabilities. Since this and other similar reports have motivated the idea that earthquake prediction based on electromagnetic precursory signals may one day become a routine technique, the presumed precursors need to be validated through independent datasets. In this review the seismogenic origin of the multifractal magnetic signatures documented by Ida et al. (2005) before the 8 August 1993 Guam earthquake is seriously put into question. By means of the geomagnetic ΣKp index, it is demonstrated that these multi-fractal parameter changes are normal signals induced by the variation of the global geomagnetic activity level.

Beschreibung: Published

Beschreibung: 187-191

Beschreibung: 2.6. TTC - Laboratorio di gravimetria, magnetismo ed elettromagnetismo in aree attive

Beschreibung: JCR Journal

Beschreibung: open

Beschreibung: Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution February 2013

Beschreibung: In this thesis we present results from inversion of data using dense arrays of collocated seismic and magnetotelluric stations located in the Cascadia subduction zone region of central Washington. In the migrated seismic section, we clearly image the top of the slab and oceanic Moho, as well as a velocity increase corresponding to the eclogitization of the hydrated upper crust. A deeper velocity increase is interpreted as the eclogitization of metastable gabbros, assisted by fluids released from the dehydration of upper mantle chlorite. A low velocity feature interpreted as a fluid/melt phase is present above this transition. The serpentinized wedge and continental Moho are also imaged. The magnetotelluric image further constrains the fluid/melt features, showing a rising conductive feature that forms a column up to a conductor indicative of a magma chamber feeding Mt. Rainier. This feature also explains the disruption of the continental Moho found in the migrated image. Exploration of the assumption of smoothness implicit in the standard MT inversion provides tools that enable us to generate a more accurate MT model. This final MT model clearly demonstrates the link between slab derived fluids/melting and the Mt. Rainier magma chamber.

Beschreibung: Funding for this work was made possible by the American Society for Engineering education through a National Defense Science and Engineering Fellowship, and by the National Science Foundation through two grants for the CAFE and CAFE MT projects.

Beschreibung: In the frame of the Italian research project INGV-DPC S2 (http://nuovoprogettoesse2.stru.polimi.it/), funded by the Dipartimento della Protezione Civile (DPC; National Civil Protection Department) within the agreement 2007-2009, a tool for probabilistic seismic hazard assessment (PSHA) was developed. The main goal of the project was to provide a flexible computational tool for PSHA; the requirements considered essential for the success of the project included: •ability to handle both stationary and non-stationary earthquake time-occurrence models; •ability to use ground-motion prediction models that are not parametric equations but probabilistic "footprints" of the intensities generated by earthquakes of known magnitude and focal characteristics. Usually, these footprints are results of ground motion simulations. Some commonly used programs (e.g., FRISK, by McGuire, 1978; SEISRISK III, by Bender and Perkins, 1987) and more recent and state-of-the-art tools (e.g. OpenSHA, by Field et al., 2003, http://www.opensha.org; OpenQuake, http://openquake.org) for PSHA were analyzed. It was decided to focus on CRISIS2007, which was already a mature and well known application (e.g., Kalyan Kumar and Dodagoudar, 2011; Teraphan et al., 2011; D’Amico et al., 2012; see also http://ecapra.org/CRISIS-2007), but also suitable for additional development and evolution since its source code is freely available on request. The computational tool resulted in an extensive redesign and renovation of the previous CRISIS2007 version. CRISIS is a computer program for PSHA, originally developed in the late 1980's using Fortran as programming language (Ordaz, 1991). In this format, still without a graphical user interface (GUI), it was distributed as part of SEISAN tools (Ottemöller et al., 2011). Ten years later, a GUI was constructed, generating what was called CRISIS99 (Ordaz, 1999). In this version, all the graphic features were written in Visual Basic, but the computation engine remained a Fortran dynamic link library. The reason for the use of mixed-language programming was that computations in Visual Basic were extremely slow. Around 2007 the program was upgraded, in view of the advantages offered by the object-oriented technologies. An object-oriented programming language was required and the natural choice was Visual Basic.Net. In the new version (called CRISIS2007), both the GUI and the computation engine were written in the same language. Finally, in the frame of the mentioned S2 project, starting from 2008, the program was split into two logical layers: core (CRISIS Core Library) and presentation (CRISIS2008). In addition, a new presentation layer was developed for accessing the same functionalities via Web (CRISISWeb). It is worth noting that CRISIS has been mainly written by people that are, at the same time, PSHA practitioners. Therefore, the development loop has been relatively short, and most of the modifications and improvements have been made to satisfy the needs of the developers themselves.

Beschreibung: Italian Presidenza del Consiglio dei Ministri, Dipartimento della Protezione Civile (DPC).

Beschreibung: Published

Beschreibung: 495-504

Beschreibung: 4.2. TTC - Modelli per la stima della pericolosità sismica a scala nazionale

Beschreibung: JCR Journal

Beschreibung: restricted

Beschreibung: Prattes et al. (2011) report ULF magnetic anomalous signals claiming them to be possibly precursor of the 6 April 2009 MW6.3 L’Aquila earthquake. This comment casts doubts on the possibility that the observed magnetic signatures could have a seismogenic origin by showing that these pre-earthquake signals are actually part of normal global geomagnetic activity.

Beschreibung: Published

Beschreibung: 1717–1719

Beschreibung: 2.6. TTC - Laboratorio di gravimetria, magnetismo ed elettromagnetismo in aree attive

Beschreibung: JCR Journal

Beschreibung: open

Beschreibung: n/a

Beschreibung: Published

Beschreibung: 125-127

Beschreibung: 3.3. Geodinamica e struttura dell'interno della Terra

Beschreibung: restricted

Beschreibung: Hirano and Hattori (2011), hereafter cited as H&H, report the observation of anomalous increases in the ULF geomagnetic field spectral density ratio which the authors claim to be possible precursors of the 2008 Iwate–Miyagi Nairiku earthquake. Here the results of H&H are reviewed taking into account the global geomagnetic activity level by means ofPKp index. This paper cast serious doubts on the seismogenic origin of the magnetic signatures documented by H&H showing that the anomalous signals are normal ULF magnetic variations induced by solar–terrestrial interaction. In summary, H&H’s claims that magnetic field disturbances about a month before the Mw 6.9 Iwate–Miyagi Nairiku earthquake on June 13, 2008 are precursors to the earthquake are unlikely to be correct.

Beschreibung: Published

Beschreibung: 258-262

Beschreibung: 2.6. TTC - Laboratorio di gravimetria, magnetismo ed elettromagnetismo in aree attive

Beschreibung: JCR Journal

Beschreibung: restricted

Beschreibung: This paper reports the analyses of ULF (Ultra-Low-Frequency) geomagnetic field observations coming from the Geomagnetic Observatory of L'Aquila during the period 2008–2009. This period includes the L'Aquila 2009 seismic sequence, where the main shock of 6 April heavily damaged the medieval centre of the town and its surrounding area, causing 308 deaths, more than 1000 injuries and about 60,000 displaced people. Recently, several publications have documented the observation of precursory signals which occurred before the 6 April earthquake (e.g. Eftaxias et al., 2009, 2010), while others do not find any pre-earthquake anomaly (e.g. Villante et al., 2010; Di Lorenzo et al., 2011). In light of this, the goal of this study is to carry out further retrospective investigations. ULF magnetic field data are investigated by means of conventional analyses of magnetic polarization ratio, improved magnetic polarization ratio, and fractal analysis. In addition, total geomagnetic field data coming from the INGV Central Italy tectonomagnetic network have also been investigated, using the simple inter-station differentiation method. Within the limits of these methods, no magnetic anomalous signal which may be reasonably characterized as a precursor of the L'Aquila earthquakes has been found.

Beschreibung: Published

Beschreibung: 310–317

Beschreibung: 2.6. TTC - Laboratorio di gravimetria, magnetismo ed elettromagnetismo in aree attive

Beschreibung: JCR Journal

Beschreibung: restricted

Beschreibung: USEMS and GLASS are two projects financed by the European Research Council (ERC) as part of the ERC starting grants scheme within the FP7 framework. The rationale behind the funding scheme is to support some of the most promising scientific endeavours in Europe that are being led by young researchers, and to emphasize the excellence of individual ideas rather than specific research areas; in other words, to promote bottom-up frontier research. The general benefits of this rationale are evident in the two ongoing projects that deal with earthquake physics, as these projects are increasingly recognized in their scientific community. We can say that putting excellence at the heart of European Research strongly contributes to the construction of a European knowledge-based society. From a researcher point-of-view one of the most challenging aspects of these projects is to approach and convey the results of the projects to a general public, contributing actually to the construction of knowledge-based society. Luckily, media interest and the availability of a number of new communication tools facilitate the outreach of scientific achievements. The largest earthquakes during the last ten years (e.g. Sumatra 2004 and Japan 2011) have received widespread attention in the media world (TV, W.W.W., Newspaper and so on) for months, and successful research projects such as those above also become media protagonists, gaining their space in the media bullring. The USEMS principal investigator and his team have participated in several dissemination events in the Mass Media, such as interviews wit Italian and French TV national broadcasts (RAI Due TG2, RAI Uno Unomattina, Rai Tre Geo & Geo, FRANCE 2); interviews in scientific journals: SCIENCE (Sept. 2010), newspapers and web (Corriere della Sera, Il Gazzettino, Il Messagero, La Stampa, Libero, Il Mattino, Yahoo, ANSA, AdnKronos and AGI); radio (RadioRai Uno, RadioRai Tre Scienza); documentary “Die Eroberung der Alpen” produced by Tangram Film (Munchen, Germany). The USEMS project started in June 2008, and the GLASS project in October 2010. For both projects we developed a number of web pages through the official web site of the host institution, the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) in Rome. In these pages we describe the projects, publish pictures and short-movies of the experimental activities and keep the project results up to date. In addition the research teams collaborate within various INGV outreach schemes (school and student visits in the laboratory, writing short news reports for the INGV press office, and interviews with journalists) as well as using WWW channels (Facebook, Youtube) to make the project results available to the general public. Finally, it is notable that the ERC funding agency itself is fully involved in the outreach activities using its own communication channels and its highly skilled resources which promote through brochures, web pages, publications and documentaries the best projects. We are going to improve our effort in this direction up to the end of the projects.

Beschreibung: Unpublished

Beschreibung: San Francisco

Beschreibung: 5.9. Formazione e informazione

Beschreibung: open

Beschreibung: Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution February 1994

Beschreibung: Ambient noise in the sea has been observed for over 100 years. Previous studies conclude that the primary source of microseisms is nonlinear interaction of surface gravity waves at the sea surface. Though this source relationship is generally accepted, the actual processes by which the wave generated acoustic noise in the water column couples and propagates to and along the sea floor are not well understood. In this thesis, the sources and propagation of sea floor and sub-sea floor microseismic noise between 0.2 and 10 Hz are investigated. This thesis involves a combination of theoretical, observational and numerical analysis to probe the nature of the microseismic field in the Blake Bahama Basin. Surface waves are the primary mechanism for noise propagation in the crust and fall into two separate groups depending on the relative wavelength/water depth ratio. Asymptotic analysis of the Sommerfeld integral in the complex ray parameter plane shows results that agree with previous findings by Strick (1959) and reveal two fundamental interface wave modes for short wavelength noise propagation in the crust: the Stoneley and pseudo-Rayleigh wave. For ocean sediments, where the shear wave velocity is less than the acoustic wave velocity of water, only the Stoneley interface wave can exist. For well consolidated sediments and basalt, the shear velocity exceeds the acoustic wave velocity of water and the pseudo-Rayleigh wave can also exist. Both interface waves propagate with retrograde elliptic motion at the sea floor and attenuate with depth into the crust, however the pseudo-Rayleigh wave travels along the interface with dispersion and attenuation and "leaks" energy into the water column for a half-space ocean over elastic crust model. For finite depth ocean models, the pseudo-Rayleigh wave is no longer leaky and approaches the Rayleigh wave velocity of the crust. The analysis shows that longer wavelength noise propagates as Rayleigh and Stoneley modes of the ocean+crust waveguide. These long wavelength modes are the fundamental mechanism for long range noise propagation. During the Low Frequency Acoustic Seismic Experiment (LFASE) a four-node, 12- channel borehole array (SEABASS) was deployed in the Blake Bahama Basin off the coast of eastern Florida (DSDP Hole 534B). This experiment is unique and is the first use of a borehole array to measure microseismic noise below the sea floor. Ambient background noise from a one week period is compared between an Ocean Bottom Seismometer (OBS) and SEABASS at sub-bottom depths of 10, 40, 70 and 100 meters below the sea floor. The 0.3 H z microseism peak is found to be nearly invariant with depth and has a power level of 65 and 75 dB rel 1 (nm/ s2)2)/ H z for the vertical and horizontal components respectively. At 100 m depth, the mean microseismic noise levels above 0.7 Hz are 10 dB and 15-20 dB quieter for the vertical and horizontal components respectively. Most of this attenuation occurs in the upper 10 m above 1.0 Hz, however higher modes in the spectra show narrow bandwidth variability in the noise field that is not monotonic with depth. Dispersion calculations show normal mode Stoneley waves below 0.7 Hz and evidence of higher modes above 0.8 Hz. A strong correlation between noise levels in the borehole and local sea state conditions is observed along with clear observation of the nonlinear frequency doubling effect between ocean surface waves and microseisms. Particle motion analysis further verifies that noise propagates through the array as Rayleigh/Stoneley waves. Polarization direction indicates at least two sources; distant westerly swell during quiescent times and local surface waves due to a passing storm. Above 1.0 Hz the LFASE data shows little coherence and displays random polarization. Because of this, we believe scattered energy is a significant component of the noise field in the Blake Bahama Basin. A fully 3-D finite difference algorithm is used to model both surface and volume heterogeneities in the ocean crust. Numerical modeling of wave propagation for hard and soft bottom environments shows that heterogeneities on the order of a seismic wavelength radiate energy into the water column and convert acoustic waves in the water into small wavelength Stoneley waves observed at the borehole. Sea floor roughness is the most important elastic scattering feature of the ocean crust. Comparisons of 2D and 3D rough sea floor models show that out-of-plane effects necessitate the use of 3D methods. The out-of-plane energy that is present in the LFASE data comes from either heterogeneities in the source field (i.e. mixed gravity wave directions) or, equally likely, scattering of the source field from surface or volume heterogeneities in the sea floor.

Beschreibung: This research was supported by Office of Naval Research grants N00014-89-C-0018, N00014-89-J-1012, N00014-90-C-0098, N00014-90-J-1493 and N00014-93-1-1352.

Beschreibung: Following the paper by Fraser-Smith et al. (1990), many scientists have focused their research on the ULF geomagnetic field pulsations in the hope of finding possible anomalous signals caused by the seismic activity. Thereafter, many papers have reported ULF geomagnetic field polarization ratio increases which have been claimed to be related to the occurrence of moderate and strong earthquakes. Even if there is no firm evidence of correlation between the polarization ratio increase and seismic events, these publications maintain that these ‘‘anomalous’’ increases are without doubt precursors of pending earthquakes. Furthermore, several researchers suggest that these seismogenic signals may be considered a promising approach towards the possibility of developing short-term earthquake prediction capabilities based on electromagnetic precursory signatures. On the contrary, a part of the scientific community emphasizes the lack of validation of claimed seismogenic anomalies and doubt their association with the seismic activity. Since earthquake prediction is a very important topic of social importance, the authenticity of earthquake precursors needs to be carefully checked. The aim of this paper is to investigate the reliability of the ULF magnetic polarization ratio changes as an earthquakes’ precursor. Several polarization ratio increases of the geomagnetic field, which previous researchers have claimed to have a seismogenic origin, are put into question by a qualitative investigation. The analysis takes into account both the temporal evolution of the geomagnetic field polarization ratio reported in previous papers, and the global geomagnetic activity behaviour. Running averages of the geomagnetic index Kp are plotted onto the original figures from previous publications. Moreover, further quantitative analyses are also reported. Here, nine cases are investigated which include 17 earthquakes. In seven cases it is shown that the suggested association between the geomagnetic field polarization ratio increases and the earthquake preparation process seems to be rather doubtful. More precisely, the claimed seismogenic polarization ratio increases are actually closely related to decreases in the geomagnetic activity level. Furthermore, the last two investigated cases seem to be doubtful as well, although a close correspondence between polarization ratio and geomagnetic activity cannot be unambiguously demonstrated.

Beschreibung: Published

Beschreibung: 19-32

Beschreibung: 2.6. TTC - Laboratorio di gravimetria, magnetismo ed elettromagnetismo in aree attive

Beschreibung: JCR Journal

Beschreibung: restricted

Beschreibung: Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution February 1999

Beschreibung: In this thesis the analysis of natural ice events is carried out based on direct measurements of ice-borne seismo-acoustic waves generated by ice fracturing processes. A major reason for studying this phenomenon is that this acoustic emission is a significant contributor to Arctic ocean ambient noise. Also the Arctic contains rich mineral and oil resources and in order to design mining facilities able to withstand the harsh environmental conditions, we need to have a better understanding of the processes of sea ice mechanics. The data analyzed in this thesis were collected during the Sea Ice Mechanics Initiative SIMI’94 experiment which was carried out in the spring of 1994 in the Central Arctic. One of the contributions of this thesis was the determination of the polarization characteristics of elastic waves using multicomponent geophone data. Polarization methods are well known in seismology, but they have never been used for ice event data processing. In this work one of the polarization methods so called Motion Product Detector method has been successfully applied for localization of ice events and determination of polarization characteristics of elastic waves generated by fracturing events. This application demonstrates the feasibility of the polarization method for ice event data processing because it allows one to identify areas of high stress concentration and "hot spots" in ridge building process. The identification of source mechanisms is based on the radiation patterns of the events. This identification was carried out through the analysis of the seismo-acoustic emission of natural ice events in the ice sheet. Previous work on natural ice event identification was done indirectly by analyzing the acoustic energy radiated into the water through coupling from elastic energy in the ice sheet. After identification of the events, the estimation of the parameters of fault processes in Arctic ice is carried out. Stress drop, seismic moment and the type of ice fracture are determined using direct near-field measurements of seismo-acoustic signals generated by ice events. Estimated values of fracture parameters were in good agreement with previous work for marginal ice zone. During data processing the new phenomenon was discovered: "edge waves", which are waves propagating back and forth along a newly opened ice lead. These waves exhibit a quasi-periodic behavior suggesting some kind of stick-slip generation mechanism somewhere along the length of the lead. The propagation characteristics of these waves were determined using seismic wavenumber estimation techniques. In the low frequency limit the dispersion can be modeled approximately by an interaction at the lead edges of the lowest order, antisymmetric modes of the infinite plate.

Beschreibung: Support for this thesis was provided by Office of Naval Research.

Beschreibung: La Rete Sismica Mobile (RSM) in dotazione al Centro Nazionale Terremoti (CNT) è da anni impiegata nell’attività di monitoraggio in occasione di emergenze sismiche e vulcaniche ma soprattutto in numerosi progetti scientifici con particolare riguardo allo studio di dettaglio di specifiche aree e/o strutture sismotettoniche. In numerose occasioni gli esperimenti di acquisizione di nuovi dati sismici e le emergenze sismiche o vulcaniche degli ultimi anni hanno visto una collaborazione con altre unità di reti mobili sia interne all’INGV (la Sezione di Catania, la Sezione di Milano-Pavia e l’Osservatorio Vesuviano di Napoli) che esterne (ad esempio il Centro Ricerche Sismologiche di Udine). All’inizio del 2009 Jesús M. Ibáñez Direttore dell’Instituto Andaluz de Geofísica Universidad di Granada ha proposto alla RSM del CNT di partecipare all’esperimento di sismica passiva da realizzare al Teide, complesso vulcanico nell’isola di Tenerife, nell’ambito del Progetto di ricerca finanziato “High resolution imagin of seismogenetic volumes in active volcanoes, Tenerife and Deception Islands, and its significance for volcanic hazard assestment” (HISS). L’esperimento, iniziato il 10 novembre 2009 proprio con l’installazione di una delle 6 stazioni messe a disposizione dalla RSM del CNT, avrà la durata di circa un anno. In questo rapporto tecnico viene descritta la campagna di installazione della RSM del CNT.

Beschreibung: Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia

Beschreibung: Published

Beschreibung: open