40 Years Later: New Perspectives on the 23 November 1980, Ms 6.9, Irpinia-Lucania Earthquake (original) (raw)
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Geosciences
The Italian seismic compilations are among the most complete and back-in time extended worldwide, with earthquakes on record even before the Common Era. However, we have surely lost the memory of dozen strong events of the historical period, mostly in the first millennium CE. Given the lack of certain or conclusive written sources, besides paleoseismological investigations, a complementary way to infer the occurrence of lost earthquakes is to cross-check archaeoseismic evidence from ancient settlements. This usually happens by investigating collapses/restorations/reconstructions of buildings, the general re-organization of the urban texture, or even the abrupt abandonment of the settlement. Exceptionally, epigraphs mentioning more or less explicitly the effects of the earthquake strengthened the field working hypothesis. Here, I deal with both paleoseismological clues from the Monte Marzano Fault System (the structure responsible for the catastrophic, Mw 6.9 1980 earthquake) and arc...
Frontiers in Earth Science, 2021
New fault trace mapping and structural survey of the active faults outcropping within the epicentral area of the Campania-Lucania 1980 normal fault earthquake (Mw 6.9) are integrated with a revision of pre-existing earthquake data and with an updated interpretation of the CROP-04 near-vertical seismic profile to reconstruct the surface and depth geometry, the kinematics and stress tensor of the seismogenic fault pattern. Three main fault alignments, organized in high-angle en-echelon segments of several kilometers in length, are identified and characterized. The inner and intermediate ones, i.e. Inner Irpinia (InIF) and Irpinia Faults (IF), dip eastward; the outer Antithetic Fault (AFA) dips westward. Both the InIF and the IF strike NW-SE along the northern and central segments and rotate to W-E along the southern segments for at least 16 km. We provide evidence of surface coseismic faulting (up to 1 m) not recognized before along the E-W segments and document coseismic ruptures wit...
Geosciences
The geology of the epicentral area of the 1980 earthquake (Irpinia-Lucania, Italy) is described with new stratigraphic, petrographic and structural data. Subsurface geological data have been collected during the studies for the excavation works of the Pavoncelli bis hydraulic tunnel, developing between Caposele and Conza della Campania in an area that was highly damaged during 1980 earthquake. Our approach includes geological, stratigraphic, structural studies, and petrological analyses of rock samples collected along the tunnel profile and in outcropping sections. Stratigraphic studies and detailed geological and structural mapping were carried out in about 200 km2 wide area. The main units cropping out have been studied and correlated in order to document the effects of tectonic changes during the orogenic evolution on the foreland basin systems and the sandstone detrital modes in this sector of the southern Apennines. The multi-disciplinary and updated datasets have allowed getti...
The Campania-Lucania (southern Italy) earthquake of 23 November 1980
Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 1983
We present the main seismological results of our study of the Campania-Lucania earthquake of 23 November 1980. A complete set of far field and local data has been analysed. From long-period body waves data we determine the fault plane solution (phi1 = 140°, delta1 = 60°, phi2 = 75°, delta2 = 54°), a depth of 15 km and calculate a
Journal of Geophysical Research, 1993
The Irpinia fault was the source of the Ms6.9 1980 Irpinia earthquake and produced the first unequivocal historical surface faulting in Italy. •renching of the 1980 fault scarp at Piano di Pecore, a flat intermontane basin about 5 km south of the 1980 instrumental epicenter, provides the first data on earthquake recurrence intervals, slip per event, and slip rate on a major normal fault in the Southern Apennines fault zone. The trenches exposed evidence of four pre-1980 palcoearthquakes that occurred during the past 8600 years. A best estimate average recurrence interval is 2150 years, although the time interval between individual events varies by as much as a factor of 2. Each paleoearthquake is similar to the 1980 surface rupture in amount of slip and style of deformation, which suggests that the 1980 event is characteristic for the Irpinia fault. Slip per event values average 61 cm. The net vertical displacement of 2.12-2.36 m since 8600 cal year B.P. observed in the trenches gives a vertical slip rate of 0.25-0.35 mm/yr, a dip slip rate of 0.29-0.40 mm/yr, and an extension rate of 0.14-0.20 mm/yr. Although fault behavior data are only available for the Irpinia fault they provide a starting point for evaluating earthquake recurrence and rates of deformation in southern Apennines. They suggest that (1) fault specific earthquake recurrence intervals based on the kistorical seismic record overestimates the occurrence of large magnitude (M7) earthquakes and (2) the Holocene rate of extension across the Apennines is 51 mm/yr. The 1980 earthquake and the palcoseismologic observations show that repeated and localized surface faulting occurs in southern Apennines and leaves subtle but distinct geomorphic evidence that can be detected with detailed and careful investigation. and geodetic observations and were used to reduce the nonuniqueness of several rupture models based on a variety of instrumental datasets. As a result, the causative fault of the 1980 earthquake, which we name the Irpinia fault, has become the best understood active fault in Italy.
Some Considerations on the Seismic Event of 23 November 1980 (Southern Italy
Prevention and Treatment of Natural Disasters, 2024
More than forty years after the 23 November 1980 earthquake, which devastated the Campania and Basilicata regions, causing the destruction of a large number of towns and the death of around three thousand people, we have tried, through a large survey, to understand how and to what extent the urban fabric and the most affected communities have been rebuilt. Our main objective was to show, on one side, the commitment of the scientific community, and on the other the transitions that have led from the emergency to reconstruction. Of the Apenninic towns Conza della Campania, Laviano, Lioni, Santomenna, and others, where the devastation was almost total, we have tried to give an iconographic vision of the post-earthquake phase through the change in the urban layout. The partial or total reconstruction of the towns has taken place most of the time in situ, only in some cases by relocating buildings to neighboring areas, as happened in Conza della Campania, Bisaccia and Romagnano al Monte. Reconstruction was carried out mainly of anti-seismic buildings and only in some cases recovering preexisting buildings in historic centres; reconstruction was completed after a very long period, in some cases lasting over thirty years, inevitably passing through a dramatic experience of the population in temporary settlements of various kinds, from tents, caravans, railway carriages, to containers, and finally to thermo-igloos and to prefabricated wooden chalet-type. A very complex and detailed reconstruction was linked to factors not only territorial, economic and political but also conditioned unfortunately by the non-negligible intervention of organized crime.
Tectonophysics, 2003
In this paper, we investigate the upper crustal structure of the Irpinia region, Southern Apennines thrust belt, Italy, through analysis and joint interpretation of gravity data, seismic reflection lines and subsurface information from many deep wells. The investigated region includes the epicentral area of the 1980 (M s = 6.9) Irpinia earthquake and is one of the Italian regions with the highest seismic hazard. The upper crustal structure is imaged by modeling a series of 15 SW-trending gravity profiles, spaced about 5 km apart, plentifully constrained by seismic reflection lines and wells, thus reducing the inherent ambiguity of the gravity modeling. Despite of the complexity of the modeled Bouguer anomalies, the application of a calibrating procedure to constrain the range of variability of the density values, as well as the use of geometric constraints, results in a good level of stability in the final density cross-sections, which in fact appear coherent both in the density values and in the geometrical features. The inferred model shows important lateral density variations that can be mostly related to NW-trending geologic structures. High-density bodies delineate carbonate platform thrust sheets and broad antiforms involving Mesozoic basinal rocks, while low-density shallow bodies are associated with Pliocene basins. In addition, important density (i.e. lithological) variations are evident along the strike of the range, the most relevant being an abrupt deepening of the Apulia Carbonate Platform in the southeastern part of the investigated region. In the epicentral region of the 1980 event, we find that the geometry of the high-density, high-velocity carbonates of the Apulia Platform appears correlated with the distribution of the aftershocks and with the P-wave velocity anomaly pattern as inferred from a previous local earthquake tomography. The structural highs of the Apulia Platform correspond to high-velocity regions, where aftershocks and coseismic slip of the mainshock are concentrated. This correlation suggests that the Apulia Carbonate Platform geometry played an important role in the rupture propagation and in the aftershock distribution. D
Chapter 2 describes active faults in the region that produced the 24 August 2016 earthquake. Each sub-section describes geological data (mainly based on criteria from Falcucci et al., 2016) and reviews historical seismicity, which collectively provide the basis for inferences of current activity. Data on the past earthquakes and the damage distribution have been derived from Rovida et al. (2016). Two faults among those presented below (namely the Montagna dei Fiori-Monti Gemelli and Leonessa faults) are considered inactive in the sense than they are likely unable to generate earthquakes of sufficient size to produce primary surface rupture (i.e., M>6.0±0.2; Falcucci et al., 2016). The discussion about inactivity is relevant for three reasons: i) They are normal faults with a trend consistent with the current tectonic regime; ii) They are characterized by geomorphologic features that could be incorrectly associated with current activity; and iii) Activity has been hypothesised for one of them (Leonessa) in the available literature. Finally, we discuss an unsolved seismogenic issue, related to the earthquake that struck in 1950 along the Gran Sasso chain (M 5.7).