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This paper presents a comprehensive geological and geotechnical study of the whole area affected by liquefaction following the 2012 Emilia earthquakes, including all the available information from the field reconnaissance surveys, in situ tests, and laboratory analyses. The compilation was performed at 120 liquefied sites to verify and validate the reliability of liquefaction charts in alluvial sediments, and to assess liquefaction induced by the 2012 seismic sequence in the Emilia plain. The results reveal a wide range of grain sizes (from clean sands to sandy silts) and compositional characteristics (quartz-rich to litharenitic) in the 2012 ejecta, and show a strong relationship between the liquefaction and stratigraphic architecture of the subsurface. The availability of in situ tests at the liquefied sites makes it possible to verify and validate the reliability of the liquefaction charts in alluvial sediments with respect to the real observations. For the analyzed Emilia case studies, the use of non-liquefiable crust provides better estimations of the liquefaction manifestations when coupled with the thickness of the liquefiable layer rather than with the liquefaction potential index. Altogether, this work makes available to the international scientific community a consistent liquefaction database for in-depth earthquake studies.

A three-component digital seismic network has been installed along central Apennines since the end of 1991. Two seismic sequences having main shocks of magnitudes 3.9 and 3.7 were recorded in August 1992 and June 1994, respectively. A detailed analysis of these sequences, including multiplet relocation, fault-plane solutions and source parameter estimation, is performed in the present paper. A correlation analysis allowed us to recognize a number of correlated events in the two sequences which were used for relative locations using a master event technique. This analysis allowed to obtain a better alignment of epicentral data along two almost orthogonal directions, following an Apenninic and an anti-Apenninic trend. For the two sequences, fault-plane solutions were evaluated by using a first arrival technique, resulting in mechanisms with predominant normal faulting for the 1992 and 1994 swarms. S-wave polarization analysis allowed to check the stability of the previous solutions and to reduce their range of uncertainty. The same technique was also applied to derive the composite fault-plane solutions from the aftershocks, resulting in solutions which are in good agreement with those derived from the main shocks of both sequences. Source parameters were then derived from the three-component records of 28 well-recorded events with seismic moment in the range 8.5 × 1010–1.0 × 1014 Nm. Stress drops ranged in the interval 0.3–52.3 bar and source radii were of the order of 100 m. Their scaling relations are in good agreement with other results derived from the analysis of other Italian earthquakes that occurred in regions of predominantly normal faulting tectonics (Apennines and Calabrian arc).

The vertical component of the seismic noise has been recorded in two different sites near the towns of Mercato S. Severino and Benevento in Southern Italy by a small aperture array, in order to investigate the characteristics of the noise propagation and to study the site response. Three different array techniques have been applied in the two investigated sites: Beam Forming, High Resolution and Spatial Correlation methods. We used two simple array geometry for localising possible noise sources and estimating local shallow structure using ambient noise. The cross shaped array results effective for determining the phase velocity of waves in the case when the noise is from a single localised source; the circular array, on the other hand, is successfully used when the noise sources are distributed. The main results are: the analysis of a coherent component of the noise recorded in the two sites, interpreted as Rayleigh waves, results in reasonable velocity models; the noise recorded in the M.S.S. Plain is a space stationary signal, while the noise at the Benevento site is possibly produced by a stable noise source located close to the array. Due to this evidence, the correlation method does not yield satisfactory results when applied to the Benevento site. The 2–6 Hz spectral peaks of the noise recorded in the M.S.S. Plain can be interpreted as due to a site effect, considering the satisfactory agreement of the noise spectrum at those frequencies with the theoretical transfer function computed on the basis of the velocity model deduced from the Rayleigh waves dispersion analysis.

In this site response study we examined local earthquakes recorded at surface stations of a local seismic network and at a temporary underground seismic array installed in a tunnel underneath the Gran Sasso Massif in Abruzzo (central Italy). This allowed us to compare the seismic site response beneath the mountain and on the surface in similar geological environment (soft rock sites). We applied spectral ratios method on different segments of the seismograms and used different reference spectra in the 1–20 Hz frequency band. We found little or no amplification effects at most of the surface stations whereas site transfer functions evaluated with respect to underground sites show an amplification factor up to 6 in the 1–8 Hz frequency range. Coda spectral ratios estimated at soft rock sites are confirmed as good estimates of shear wave transfer function.

The method of coda waves was applied to two different sets of data for the evaluation of the relative site response.

The load generated by the Apennines and its isostatic adjustment is simulated on an elastic spherical model, and an estimate made of the maximum shear stress field produced. For this purpose a load on a shell with isostatic compensation is considered showing that the couple effect associated with the displacement of the compensation greatly increases the maximum shear stress as compared with the case of no displacement. When the results of the present study are compared with those obtained from seismicity and from the gravity anomalies of the Apennines, it is found that the largest earthquakes in the region and its most seismically active part are in the area of the largest shear stress and of large gravity anomaly gradient. A pattern recognition study of the correlation between large earthquakes and gravity anomalies (Benvenuti and Caputo, 1982) confirms this result. The case of a load on a spherical cap not isostatically compensated is also considered; the finding in this case are in agreement with Jeffrey's (1976) results for a half space, although in our case the largest value of the maximum shear stress occurs at a shallower depth. This case is of interest for those continents where the isostatic compensation is not complete.

A temporary network of 33 seismic stations was deployed in the area struck by the 6th April 2009, Mw 6.1 (Scognamiglio et al. in Seism Res Lett 6/81, 2010), L’Aquila earthquake (central Italy), with the aim to investigate the site amplification within the Aterno river Valley. The seismograms of 18 earthquakes recorded by 14 of the 33 stations were used to evaluate the average horizontal to vertical spectral ratio (HVSR) for each site and the standard horizontal spectral ratio (SSR) between a site and a reference station. The obtained results have been compared to the geological and geophysical information in order to explain the resonance frequencies and the amplification levels with respect to surface geology of the valley. The results indicate that there is no uniform pattern of amplification, because of the complex geologic setting, as the thickness and degree of cementation of the deposits is highly variable.

This paper reports on site characterization for a set of accelerometric stations of the RAN (Italian accelerometric network) with specific attention to the shear wave velocity profile. The latter is indeed of primary importance for the usability of the accelerometric database. Surface wave analysis has been chosen as the primary investigation method since it offers the possibility of reaching the required accuracy with reasonable costs. A range of different techniques, both of the active-source and passive-source types, has been adopted to cope with the objectives of the characterization in relation to specific geological settings. Quality assessment of experimental data has been implemented to check the consistency of the measurements also with respect to the fundamental hypotheses of the method. Strategies to improve the reliability and robustness of the surface wave data inversion were exploited in order to mitigate problems arising from solution non-uniqueness and influence of higher modes in the propagation. Comparisons with independent borehole tests, available at some specific sites, confirm the reliability of the results. Although the research program covered only a subset of the network, the obtained results show the importance of specific experimental investigations aimed at estimating the shear wave velocity profile. Indeed the results lead to a re-classification of several sites with respect to the preliminary classification based on surface geology. Within this context, four selected case histories are reported in the present paper.