The January 15, 1466 and November 23, 1980 Irpinia (Italy) earthquakes

Abstract

On the night between 14 and 15 January of 1466, an earthquake damaged towns close to those recently destroyed by the 1980 Irpinia earthquake. It was felt in Naples, about 80 km from the epicentre, resulting in panic and slight damage. To obtain source parameters related to January 15, 1466, the observed macroseismic field of the November 23, 1980 earthquake was reproduced by synthetic peak strong acceleration. The results suggest that the whole of the 1466 faulting was also activated by the 1980 event, and that the northern part remained non-activated. Quite possibly, the near southernmost source of a large earthquake in 1456 affected the occurrence of the event nearby ten years later. Furthermore, the value of Mo=7.5 1018 Nm obtained allows the medieval event in 1466 to number among the most severe recorded in southern Italy.