Montefeltro seismicity: from Serpieri's seismograph to the RSNC seismograph station

Abstract

In recent years, the recovery of some historical documents has permitted us to operate the seismographs used by Alessandro Serpieri (1823-1885) at the Observatory of the University of Urbino in the XIX century. The space-time concept of sensor network was already clear to Serpieri and he tried to apply this concept to the analysis of seismic phenomena in Italy. This paper reviews the history of the Urbino Observatory from Serpieri's age to present times. The historical region of Montefeltro, where Urbino is the main town, is affected by seismicity with typical magnitudes between 2.2 and 2.5. Most of these events occur in the upper 15 km of the crust. The seismicity of the neighbouring regions is mainly concentrated in three zones: Northern Rimini, the Apennine belt and the Sibillini Mountain area. From the overall data, it is possible to infer that there is a basin characterised by microseismicity and essentially dominated by a compressive tectonic regime in the Montefeltro area. Furthermore seismological data seem to show a "quiet" segment, separating the extension area from the compression area, characterised by a low concentration of seismic events.