A possibile breached relay ramp causing the 2013 Lunigiana earthquake (Northern Italy)

Author

Polcari, Marco ; Stramondo, Salvatore ; Vannoli, Paola ; Cannelli, Valentina ; Melini, Daniele ; Samsonov, Sergey ; Moro, Marco ; Bignami, Christian ; Saroli, Michele

Author_Institution

Ist. Naz. di Geofis. e Vulcanologia, Rome, Italy

fYear

2014

fDate

13-18 July 2014

Firstpage

2397

Lastpage

2399

Abstract

We applied the Differential Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (DInSAR) technique to investigate and model the Mw 5.3 (Ml 5.2), June 21st, 2013 earthquake, occurred in the discontinuity zone between the Lunigiana and Garfagnana areas, NW Italy. We analyzed the coseismic displacement from two differential interferogram generated using COSMO-SkyMed X-band and RADARSAT2 C-band data. Both interferograms show a pattern of subsidence of a few cm located between the Lunigiana and Garfagnana basins. We then modeled the observed SAR deformation fields using the Okada analytical formulation and found them to be consistent with an extensional fault plane dipping towards NW at about 50°. Our results suggest that the fault responsible for the June 2013 earthquake may correspond to a breached relay ramp connecting the Lunigiana and Garfagnana seismogenic sources.

Keywords

earthquakes; geomorphology; radar interferometry; remote sensing by radar; synthetic aperture radar; AD 2013 06 01; COSMO-SkyMed X-band data; DInSAR technique; Differential Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar; Garfagnana area; Garfagnana basin; Garfagnana seismogenic source; Lunigiana area; Lunigiana basin; Lunigiana earthquake; Lunigiana seismogenic source; Northern Italy; Okada analytical formulation; RADARSAT2 C-band data; SAR deformation fields; breached relay ramp; coseismic displacement; subsidence pattern; Deformable models; Earth; Earthquakes; Interferometry; Relays; Satellites; Synthetic aperture radar; DInSAR; earthquakes; normal fault; relay ramp; surface displacement;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS), 2014 IEEE International

Conference_Location

Quebec City, QC

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IGARSS.2014.6946954

Filename

6946954