1 research outputs found
Rapid response to the earthquake emergency of May 2012 in the Po Plain, northern Italy
Rapid-response seismic networks are an important element
in the response to seismic crises. They temporarily improve
the detection performance of permanent monitoring
systems during seismic sequences. The improvement in earthquake
detection and location capabilities can be important for
decision makers to assess the current situation, and can provide
invaluable data for scientific studies related to hazard, tectonics
and earthquake physics. Aftershocks and the clustering
of the locations of seismic events help to characterize the dimensions
of the causative fault. Knowing the number, size and
timing of the aftershocks or the clustering seismic events can
help in the foreseeing of the characteristics of future seismic
sequences in the same tectonic environment.
Instrumental rapid response requires a high degree of
preparedness. A mission in response to a magnitude (ML) 6
event with a rupture length of a few tens of kilometers
might involve the deployment within hours to days of 30-50
seismic stations in the middle of a disaster area of some hundreds
of square kilometers, and the installation of an operational
center to help in the logistics and communications.
When an earthquake strikes in a populated area, which is almost
always the case in Italy, driving the relevant seismic response
is more difficult. Temporary station sites are chosen
such as to optimize the network geometry for earthquake
locations and source study purposes. Stations have to be installed
in quiet, but easily reachable, sites, and for real-time
data transmission, the sites might need to have optical intervisibility.
The operational center can remain in a town if
there is one within the damaged area, and it should coordinate
the actions of the field teams and provide information
to colleagues, the Civil Protection Authorities and the general
public. The emergency system should operate as long
as the seismic rate remains high; the duration of any mission
might also depend on the seismic history of the area involved.
This study describes the seismic response following
the May 20, 2012, ML 5.9 earthquake in northern Italy, which
included rapid deployment of seismological stations in the
field for real-time seismic monitoring purposes, the coordination
of further instrumental set-ups according to the spatial
evolution of the seismic sequence, and data archiving