Carta della sismicità in Italia 2000|2007

Abstract

The map shows about 20.000 earthquakes occurred in Italy from 2000 to 2007. Most of the earthquakes have Richter magnitude lower than 4.0 and are located within the Earth’s crust in the upper 35 km. The seismicity is mainly concentrated along the Apennines and in the Tyrrhenian volcanic region, for example, at Alban Hills close to Rome. The Gargano promontory has also a noteworthy seismic activity. In the northern Apennines the seismic activity occurs at intermediate depth. There is a significant crustal seismicity offshore northern Sicily, whereas the southern Tyrrhenian sea is characterized by deep earthquakes (down to 600 km depth) due to subduction process of the Ionian lithosphere beneath Calabria. A significant seismicity has been recorded around Mount Etna with many earthquakes having magnitude greater than 4.0. In northern Italy the seismicity is mainly concentrated along the eastern Prealps. The two small boxes illustrate the largest earthquakes occurred in Italy since 217 b.C. It appears clear that recent seismicity and the historical one are mainly distributed in the same areas. The distribution of the seismicity in the last years shows that there are seismic areas that in the past have not generated great seismic events, for instance, offshore northern Sicily.