Hibrid broadband Ground-Motion Simulations for the 2016 Amatrice Earthquake, Central Italy, and Sensitivity of Ground-Motion to Earthquake Source Parameters

Abstract

On 24th August 2016 at 01:36 UTC a MW 6.0 earthquake struck several villages in central Italy, among which Accumoli, Amatrice and Arquata del Tronto. It caused 299 fatalities, major destruction and extensive damage in the surrounding area (up to 11 intensity degree). The earthquake was recorded by 350 digital accelerometers be- longing to the National Accelerometric Network (RAN) of the Italian Department of Civil Protection, to the National Seismic Network (Rete Sismica Nazionale, RSN) of the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV), and to other local net- works. This earthquake ruptured a NW–SE oriented normal fault, according the prevailing extensional tectonics of the area.The maximum accelera- tion was observed at Amatrice station (AMT) with epicentral distance of 15 km, reaching 916 cm/s2 and 445.6 cm/s2 on E-W and N-S components, respectively. Motivated by the high levels of observed ground motion and damage, we have computed synthetics broadband time series for engineering purposes. To produce high-frequency seismograms, we have used a stochastic finite-fault model approach based on dynamic corner-frequency.