Investigation on damage progression during the 2016–2017 seismic sequence in Central Italy using the European Macroseismic Scale (EMS-98)

Abstract

On 24th of August 2016 a strong earthquake (Ml 6.0; Mw 6.0) struck Central Italy, causing destruction and about 300 victims. The earthquake was the first in a long-lasting seismic sequence characterized by seven events of magnitude larger than 5.4, with the main event of Mw 6.5 occurring on 30th of October 2016. A macroseismic survey was carried out soon after each damaging shock. In some of the most damaged villages a building-to-building survey was carried out. Assessing the intensity during the campaign in the presence of increasing damage was one of the main problems to be dealt with. In this paper we present the data collected in Amatrice, Accumoli, Arquata del Tronto, and its expanded area called Borgo, after the 24th of August and the 30th of October earthquakes, in order to investigate the damage progression and its influence on the intensity assessment according to the European Macroseismic Scale (EMS-98). This work aims to document the evolution of the damage that was observed during the sequence in the above-mentioned areas, by analysing the behaviour of each vulnerability class, and to contribute to the discussion on the assessment of macroseismic intensity in presence of cumulative damage.