Abstract
Earthquake Environmental Effects (EEEs) are a common occurrence following moderate to strong seismic events. EEEs are described in literary sources even for earthquakes that occurred hundreds of years ago, but their potential for hazard assessment is not fully exploited. Here we analyze five earthquakes occurred in the Southern Apennines (Italy) between 1688 and 1980, to assess if EEEs are reliable indicators of the effects caused by past earthquakes. We investigate the spatial distribution of EEEs and their ability to repeatedly occur at the same place, and we quantitatively compare the macroseismic fields expressed in terms of damage-based intensity (MCS: Mercalli–Cancani–Sieberg) to the Environmental Scale Intensity (ESI) macroseismic field, derived from an intensity attenuation relation. We computed the field “ESI-MCS”, showing that results are consistent when comparing different seismic events and that ESI values are higher in the first ca. 10 km from the epicenter, while at distances greater than 20 km MCS values are higher than ESI. Our research demonstrates that (i) EEEs offer a detailed picture of earthquake effects in the near field and (ii) the reappraisal of literary sources under a modern perspective may provide improved input parameters that are useful for seismic hazard assessment.
Highlights
A proper and comprehensive assessment of the seismic risk of a region should include both the characterization of potential seismogenic sources and the pattern of damage expected due to ground shaking
We investigated the presence of systematic differences in the intensity pattern as derived from the damage to the built environment (MCS and MSK scales) or to the natural environment (ESI scale)
We investigated the environmental effects triggered by five historical earthquakes an anisotropic attenuation law, which takes into account elongation of isoseismals the direction that occurred in the Southern
Summary
A proper and comprehensive assessment of the seismic risk of a region should include both the characterization of potential seismogenic sources and the pattern of damage expected due to ground shaking. Macroseismology and historical seismology analyze available documentation of the effects of past earthquakes to gain information on the cause (i.e., the earthquake itself; [1]). According to the Mercalli–Cancani–Sieberg (MCS), Modified Mercalli (MM) and Medvedev–Sponheur–Karnik (MSK) scales, the assignment of macroseismic intensity is based on the effects on humans, the natural environment and the built environment [1,2]. With the introduction of the European Macroseismic Scale (EMS), effects on the natural environment were explicitly neglected, because they considered unreliable and “of limited use” [3]. The EMS scale is suitable for assessing the damage to different building types; it significantly deviates from the original scales, hampering the comparison between different earthquakes, and especially historical ones. In 2007, the Environmental Seismic Intensity (ESI) scale was introduced; it is based exclusively
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
