Seismic Ground Motion in Napoli for the 1980 Irpinia Earthquake

The seismic ground motion in the urban area of Napoli has been computed for the 1980 earthquake (Ms = 6.9) with a hybrid technique based on the mode summation and the finite difference methods. The detailed geological setting of each quarter has been reconstructed from several stratigraphies and six geological zones have been recognized. Shear-wave velocity profiles have been assigned, based on hole tests and inversion of Rayleigh group velocities artificially generated. Realistic SH and P-SV wave seismograms have been computed along the representative cross sections of each zone, by assuming selected velocity profiles. Spectral amplifications of 2–4 have been computed at frequencies roughly corresponding to the eigenfrequencies of the most damaged buildings. Moreover, following the intensity-PGA correlations found for the Italian territory, the predicted peak ground accelerations, 0.04–0.10 g correspond to the intensity range VII-VIII on the MCS scale, in agreement with the observed data.