Abstract
This paper presents a joint analysis of instrumental and macroseismic data regarding the 19 July 2019, Greece Mw5.1 earthquake occurred west of Athens. This earthquake ruptured a blind, south-dipping normal fault, 23 km WNW of the center of Athens, while its relocated epicentre lies in close vicinity to the one of the 1999 Mw6.0 earthquake. The maximum macroseismic intensity of the 2019 mainshock reached IEMS98 = 7.5. Scarce damage and intensities up to 5–6 were reported in the epicentral area. Higher intensities were observed at larger distances, 12–15 km east and ESE of the epicentre, alongside the banks of Kifissos River, likely related to ground motion amplification due to soft alluvial formations. Similar selectivity of increased ground motions to the east of the epicentre with respect to other azimuths, also observed during the 1981 and 1999 earthquakes, supports eastward rupture directivity of the 2019 mainshock, an effect that is possibly common for the region’s fault system. Damping of seismic effects was observed east of Aegaleo Mountain, a structure suggested to impose a stopping phase in the time histories of the 1999 and 2019 earthquakes (Fig. A1).
Highlights
On 19 July 2019, 11:13 Generic Mapping Tool (GMT) (14:13 local time), a strong, damaging earthquake with magnitude Mw5.1 (Fig. 1) and 8 km depth (NKUA solution; Kapetanidis et al 2020) struck the broader area of Athens, causing damage to its western suburbs
One question arising regards the source of the 2019 event and whether it (a) would comprise the western segment of the Parnitha (Fili) normal fault that produced the Mw6.0 earthquake on 7 September 1999 (Fig. 1, A1 and 2; Pavlides et al 1999, Papazachos et al 2001, Lekkas 2001, Ganas et al 2001, 2004, Papadimitriou et al 2002, Atzori et al 2008) or (b) if it is caused by another active fault sub-parallel to the latter
Given that individual intensity values include a certain degree of inherent uncertainty, European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) and National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA) intensities were averaged per cell, according to the EMS98 practice (Grünthal 1998; Van Noten et al 2017), but only for those cells that contain Intensity Data Points (IDPs) and had no damaged buildings
Summary
On 19 July 2019, 11:13 GMT (14:13 local time), a strong, damaging earthquake with magnitude Mw5.1 (Fig. 1) and 8 km depth (NKUA solution; Kapetanidis et al 2020) struck the broader area of Athens, causing damage to its western suburbs. This moderate event signalled a general alarm in the whole metropolitan area with people rushing out of buildings, resulting in interruption of mobile communication for at least 2 h and heavy traffic jams. We combine macroseismic, instrumental data and fault model, in order to estimate ground motion parameters of engineering interest, that affect the macroseismic field towards a better understanding of seismic risk in the broader metropolitan area of Athens
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