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On 25 and 29 January 2019, a large landslide destroyed an important part of the town of Pomarico (Basilicata Region, Southern Italy). Geological and geomorphological investigations provided a detailed description of the landslide features. Several geophysical surveys were carried out to deepen knowledge of the landslide and the residual risk assessment. Detailed electrical resistivity tomography (ERT), multichannel analysis of surface waves (MASW), and seismic refraction tomography (SRT) have been used to analyze geomorphological evidences of the failure and the potential kinematic evolution of the landslide scarp, a crucial factor to assess landslide residual risk. The joint analyses of the geophysical results, compared with geological and geomorphological data, allowed to obtain detailed information about the stratigraphic contact between clayey and sandy deposits in the crown area of the landslide, and to identify the post-failure stability condition changes in sands. The geophysical analyses confirmed the presence of multiple old degraded scarps developed over time and provided information on the decompression state of the different areas of the landslide crown. The results highlighted a subparallel stratification consisting of an anthropic surface carry-over material, which covers a layer of sands with silty intercalations, overlying clayey material that represents the bedrock of the investigated area. Furthermore, natural and anthropogenic caves, mainly developed in well-cemented layers of sands, were identified. This study emphasized how the integration of different geophysical methods constitutes a capable tool for characterizing landslides, contributing to assessing the landslide residual risk of the slope mass and evaluating the suitability of the methods in relation to the investigated landslide conditions.

Landslides represent a major geomorphological feature influencing the evolution of the southern Apennine slopes with earth flows being one of the most representative types of landslide. The development of earth flows in the southern Apennines is facilitated by the widespread occurrence of clayey lithologies. Earth flows can either produce marked scars along the slopes, when their activity is high, or give rise to bumpy areas that are frequently covered by vegetation, when their activity is low. In this latter case, although the risk is significantly reduced, the earth flow can still represent a problem for buildings and infrastructure. The Picerno earth flow in the Basilicata region is an example of a low-activity earth flow. This NW-SE-oriented landslide extends for a length of ~ 5.5 km, has an average width of ~ 680 m, and affects the village of Picerno. Our investigations mainly focused on the terminal portion of the landslide and revealed that some significant linear infrastructures (e.g., the Potenza-Naples railway) and important provincial and municipal roads are affected by the earth flow. In order to better define the amount of displacement characterizing the Picerno earth flow and gain insights into the lateral extension and the depth of the main detachment surface, we undertook a detailed geological and geomorphological survey. Interferometry synthetic aperture radar data provided by the processing of SAR images, with the aim of highlighting the regions of the landslide that are currently active, together with electrical resistivity tomography data which have been utilized to define the geometry of the landslide body. Our results provide useful suggestions for planning appropriate actions aimed at stabilizing the landslide body.

A geophysical approach, based on the integration of satellite differential interferometric SAR technique and in situ geoelectrical and seismic methods, was applied with the aim to characterize a portion of urban area of Avigliano (PZ) town in Basilicata Region (southern Italy) affected by ground instability phenomena. Satellite analysis helped to discriminate areas of the town affected by superficial deformations and to monitor the dynamic behaviour of the structures located in these areas. Results from geoelectrical and seismic (active and passive) methods were compared with direct data (stratigraphic) and were interpreted with the aim to reconstruct the geometry of the subsoil. The joint application of both in situ techniques allowed the overcoming of the specific limits of each method and to improve the poor quality of the data due to the noise conditions typical of measurements carried out in urban areas. A preliminary geophysical model of the subsoil was obtained. The geophysical contrasts highlighted the presence of lithological discontinuities due to the superficial deformation processes that are affecting the portion of the investigated urban area. All the information has been transferred to the public administration technicians involved in the mitigation of hydrogeological risk in Basilicata Region.

The role of applied geophysics for the new scenario of the increasing global urbanization is going to grow day by day. In this scenario a detailed knowledge of the geological subsoil and its iteration with urban infrastructures became a fundamental issue for urban planning. A novel sub-discipline, called Urban Geophysics (Lapenna, 2017) , has recently been developing in the field of geophysics for analyzing limits and potentialities of well-known geophysical techniques in urban and industrialized areas. The application of some geophysical methods allows the recognition of geological structures from near surface down to more several hundred meters. The urban environment, characterized by a difficult logistic and a high level of noise, has a strong impact on the applicability of the geophysical prospecting methods and on the data quality.This paper presents the results obtained by Deep Electrical Resistivity Tomography (DERT) and P-wave seismic reflection surveys performed in the city of Ferrara, which is interested in the management of geothermal resources and in the mitigation of seismic risk (CLARA-“Cloud Platform and smart underground imaging for natural risk assessment” Project funded by Italian MIUR). Along the eastern flank of the city walls, DERT and Reflection Seismic profiles were carried out in order to improve the geological information of the urban context.DERT applications are not very common and there are only few published examples. It consists to inject direct current (square wave) into the ground, depending on the arrangement of the input points and the electrical resistivity of the subsoil, the shape of the electric field that is measured at the surface. The peculiarity of the DERT is the use of large electrode distances (>200 m) and long profiles (>3000 m) in order to reach large investigation depths (>300 m).Seismic reflection investigations offer a powerful non‐invasive tool suitable for mapping the subsurface geological framework from the very near‐surface to hundreds of metres below surface. Recently several seismic surveys was performed in urban environment by using frequency-controlled vibroseis sources both in P- and SH-wave.Along the eastern flank of the city walls, a DERT (5500m long) and a reflection seismic (2500m acquired by a MiniVib source in P-wave configuration) profiles were carried out in order to improve the geological information of the urban context. The joint interpretation of DERT and seismic data allowed to reconstruct the 'local' stratigraphic-depositional evolution until a depth of about 1 km, and to highlight the occurrence of a sin-depositional Quaternary tectonic tilting associated to the growth of a fault-propagation fold.

This paper deals with a geophysical survey carried out in some critical urban areas of the historical city of Matera (Southern Italy). Matera has a very complex shallower stratigraphy characterized by both anthropic and natural “targets” and is affected by geological instability. Therefore, Matera represents an ideal and very challenging outdoor laboratory for testing novel approaches for near-surface explorations in urban areas. Here, we present the results of a near-surface survey carried out by jointly applying Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) and Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT) methods. The survey was implemented in three different critical zones within the urban area of Matera (Piazza Duomo, Piazza San Giovanni, Villa dell’Unità d’Italia). These test sites are of great interest for archaeological and architectonical studies and are affected by ground instability phenomena due to the presence of voids, cavities and other anthropic structures. The effectiveness of the survey was enhanced by the exploitation of advanced 3D tomographic approaches, which allowed to achieve 3D representation of the investigated underground and obtain information in terms of both the location and the geometry of buried objects and structures and the characterization of shallow geological layers. The results of the surveys are now under study (or have attracted the interest) of the Municipality in order to support smart cities programs and activities for a better management of the underground space.

The High Agri Valley is a tectonically active area in southern Italy characterized by high seismic hazard related to fault systems capable of generating up to M=7 earthquakes (i.e., the 1857 Mw 7 Basilicata earthquake). In addition to the natural seismicity, two different clusters of induced microseismicity were recognized to be caused by industrial operations carried out in the area: (1) the water loading and unloading operations in the Pertusillo artificial reservoir; (2) the wastewater disposal at the Costa Molina 2 injection well. The twofold nature of the recorded seismicity in the High Agri Valley makes it an ideal study area to deepen the understanding of nucleation processes of both natural and anthropogenic earthquakes and to improve the current methodologies for the discrimination between natural and induced seismic events by collecting high quality seismic data. Here we present the dataset gathered by the INSIEME seismic network that was installed in the High Agri Valley within the SIR-MIUR research project INSIEME (INduced Seismicity in Italy: Estimation, Monitoring, and sEismic risk mitigation). The seismic network was planned with the aim to study the two induced seismicity clusters and to collect a full-range of open-access data to be shared with the whole scientific community. The seismic network is composed by 8 stations deployed in an area of 17 km x 11 km around the two clusters of induced microearthquakes and it is equipped with triaxial weak-motion broadband sensors placed at different depths down to 50 m. It allows to detect induced microearthquakes, local/regional earthquakes, and teleseisms from continuous data streams transmitted in real-time to the CNR-IMAA Data Centre. The network has been registered at the International Federation of Digital Seismograph Networks (FDSN) with code 3F. Data collected until the end of the INSIEME project (2019-03-23) are already released with open-access policy through the FDSN webservices and are available from http://www.fdsn.org/networks/detail/3F_2016 (https://doi.org/10.7914/SN/3F_2016; Stabile et al., 2016).

Il presente Volume intende riassumere tutte le attività che hanno portato alla redazione dello studio di Microzonazione sismica del Comune di Fivizzano (MS). Tale studio, a partire dalle indagini conoscitive sul terreno effettuate a partire dal 2001 nell'ambito del Programma VEL (Valutazione degli Effetti Locali), è stato realizzato con metodologie e procedure approfondite, finalizzate alla redazione di cartografie di Microzonazione Sismica di livello 3, secondo i dettami degli Indirizzi e Criteri di Microzonazione Sismica (di seguito ICMS), approvati dalla Conferenza delle Regioni in data 13 novembre 2008.

After the ML = 6.0 earthquake which occurred on 24th August 2016 in central Italy, some unexpected variability in the damage distribution were identified in many villages located around the epicentral area. In particular, despite a distance of only about 1300 m, the villages of Pescara del Tronto and Vezzano (both districts in the Arquata del Tronto municipality) had a different damage assessment. Pescara del Tronto suffered heavy damage, with many collapsed masonry buildings and 48 fatalities, whereas Vezzano suffered negligible to slight damage to a few buildings. This paper provides vulnerability and damage assessment in order to detect potential significant differences in the building vulnerability and damage level. Geophysical prospectings were performed to assess whether site effects could have increased the damage in Pescara del Tronto compared to Vezzano.

Il presente Volume intende riassumere tutte le attività che hanno portato alla redazione dello studio di Microzonazione sismica del Comune di Fivizzano (MS). Tale studio, a partire dalle indagini conoscitive sul terreno effettuate a partire dal 2001 nell'ambito del Programma VEL (Valutazione degli Effetti Locali), è stato realizzato con metodologie e procedure approfondite, finalizzate alla redazione di cartografie di Microzonazione Sismica di livello 3, secondo i dettami degli Indirizzi e Criteri di Microzonazione Sismica (di seguito ICMS), approvati dalla Conferenza delle Regioni in data 13 novembre 2008.

Electrical Resistivity Tomography surveys were carried out for the characterization of the Montaguto earth-flow, located in the southern Apennines chain (Campania Region, southern Italy). The earth-flow investigated is one of the largest and most complex landslides in Europe with a length of 3.1 × 103 m, a width ranging between 45 and 420 m and an area of about 6.6 × 105 m2. In the spring of 2010, a large reactivation of the earth-flow heavily damaged some strategic infrastructures. In order to mitigate the effects of the mass movement, considerable efforts were carried out by the Italian National Civil Protection Department (DPC) to tackle the emergency. The aim of the study was to contribute to a more accurate geometric reconstruction of the landslide body and to improve the knowledge of the geological setting. Due to the lithological characteristic of the outcropping lithotypes, i.e. Faeto Flysch (calcarenite, clay and marl) and Villamaina Unit (sand and silty clay), the electrical resistivity contrasts were not very pronounced. However, the high-resolution of the electrical tomographies was the key to observe the presence of both lateral and vertical discontinuities that were associated with lithological boundaries, structural features and sliding surfaces. The results of the geoelectrical surveys could be considered for planning additional and more appropriate actions aimed at the stabilization of different portions of the Montaguto landslide. © 2018 Elsevier B.V.

We investigated the Late Quaternary activity of the Norcia fault system, one of the most hazardous seismogenic structures of Italy, responsible over the centuries for nucleating several Mw 6 earthquakes, possibly up to Mw 6.9 as on 14th January 1703. This fault is located only 10 km away from the Mount Vettore fault system, which was responsible for the deadly Mw 6.6 central Italy earthquake in 2016. Using evidence gathered from ten paleoseismological trenches, we reconstructed the history of the strongest earthquakes sourced by the Norcia faults during the past 4 ky, and in previous time-windows back to 20 ka. In particular, we found indications of the historical 1703 and 99 BCE events, as well as a previously unknown one in the Bronze Age. We also obtained a robust estimate of the slip-rate for the post Last Glacial Maximum period (1 ± 0.2 mm/yr), and a rough 1.8 ky recurrence time for ~Mw 6.9 events during the late Holocene.

An integrated investigation including geological, geomorphological, geophysical and structural survey, tephra analyses, 14C and 40Ar/39Ar dating, as well as paleoseismic trenching along the N-Matese fault system is presented. The study allowed the characterization of the tectonic mobility of this structure as well as the associated Bojano basin sedimentary-tectonic evolution since the early Middle Pleistocene, providing also new clues concerning the fault historical activity and the associated Mw > 6.5 earthquakes. We have found lines of evidence for > 1 mm/yr slip rate along the presently buried Bojano fault during the mid Middle Pleistocene, and similar rates for the main fault segments paralleling the Matese flanks. The buried Bojano fault significantly slowed down during the last 300 kyr, ceasing its activity before the Holocene. In turn, the segments outcropping along the Matese flanks reactivated at the onset of Late Pleistocene, after a long period of quiescence (480–110 ka), with robust slip rates that would seem even accelerating in post LGM times. Paleoseismic data suggest the occurrence of four Mw > 6.6 earthquakes in the past 3 ka, three of which match the little known 280 BC event, and the devastating 1456 and 1805 earthquakes. © 2017 Elsevier B.V.

This work shows the result of an electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) survey carried out for imaging and characterizing the shallow subsurface affected by the coseismic effects of the Mw=6.1 Emilia-Romagna (northern Italy) earthquake that occurred on 20 May 2012. The most characteristic coseismic effects were ground failure, lateral spreading and liquefaction that occurred extensively along the paleo-Reno River in the urban areas of San Carlo and Mirabello (southwestern portion of Ferrara Province). In total, six electrical resistivity tomographies were performed and calibrated with surface geological surveys, exploratory boreholes and aerial photo interpretations. This was one of first applications of the electrical resistivity tomography method in investigating coseismic liquefaction. © Author(s) 2014. CC Attribution 3.0 License.

A multidisciplinary approach based on the integration of geological and in situ geophysical techniques was applied to investigate the Orvieto Cathedral (Umbria, Central Italy) and the underlying subsurface. Notwithstanding this Cathedral has successfully survived different earthquakes occurred in the region, it shows some signs of damage that arise uncertainties about its safety under future seismic events. In order to investigate its unknown foundation geometry, to reconstruct the geological setting and to characterize from a static and dynamic point of view the site-structure system, geological investigations together with electrical resistivity tomography and horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratio analysis of single-station ambient vibration recordings were carried out. The exploitation of these two different geophysical techniques allowed us (1) to delineate the unknown foundation geometry of the Orvieto Cathedral, (2) to estimate the main resonance frequencies of the Cathedral and (3) of the Orvieto site, and (4) to retrieve information about its deep subsurface engineering-geological structure.

This paper reports the results of a geoelectrical survey carried out to investigate the Montaguto earth-flow, located in the southern Apennines (Campania Region, southern Italy). The aim of the survey was to reconstruct the geometry of the landslide body, to improve the knowledge on the geological setting and to indirectly test the effectiveness of a drainage system. Although electrical resistivity contrasts in the electrical images were not very pronounced, due to the lithological characteristic of the outcropping lithotypes, it was possible to observe the presence of both lateral and vertical discontinuities that were associated with lithological boundaries, physical variation of the same material and sliding surfaces. The geoelectrical information obtained was provided to the Italian National Civil Protection Department technicians and was considered for the planning of more appropriate actions for the stabilization and safety of the slide.

This paper describes the results of geomorphological and stability studies carried out in the archaeological site of Satriano di Lucania (Basilicata, Southern Italy), where an important sanctuary was built during the 4th Century B.C. This study is based on a mutidipliscinarity approach including accurate interpretation of aerial photos, geomorphological and geoelectrical surveys , and stability analyses. A description of the stability condition of the archaeological site with reference to the landslide that affects the sacred complex is provided in this work. © 2014 Springer International Publishing.

The abundance and distribution of selected metals (cadmium, cobalt, chromium, copper, nickel, lead, thallium, vanadium, and zinc) in the stream sediments were studied along the Basento River (Italy). Two hundred eighty samples were collected in seventy stations during four different seasons. Sequential extraction procedures were carried out to define the chemical forms of the metals, in order to better understand the hazardousness of these pollutants, emphasizing the anthropogenic pressure of the sites studied. Different parameters were used to describe the contamination of these metals in the river basin: the Contamination Factor (CF), the Degree of Contamination (Cd), the Enrichment Index (EI), the Individual Contamination Factor (ICF), and the Global Contamination Factor (GCF). By means of a risk assessment methodology, it was calculated that during summer the river system was exposed to a moderate potential ecological risk and that the other three seasons highlighted relatively lower degrees of contamination. Pb and Zn were the metals of most concern with respect to the system pollution, first of all in the form of oxide phases. The metal amounts in the form of oxide phases appeared to be very important also for metals such as Co and Cr. Different metals occurred in critical concentrations in various stations near Potenza town (Industrial Area). The anthropogenic pressure of Tl and V seemed to be lower than for the other metals. The relations between clay minerals and Co, Cr, Ni amounts highlighted the importance of clay minerals for favouring the complexation of these elements by organic matter.