Abstract
Earthquakes represent one of the world’s most significant hazards in terms of damage to human and animal life, and property. Earthquakes also cause many other related fatalities and damage to urban structures. This paper presents the forensic investigation of failures induced by the Norcia 2016 earthquake in Italy. The detailed geophysical field investigations were carried out at selected locations in two cities: Rome and Amelia. The places of investigation were 150 km and 90 km, respectively, from the epicenter. A ground penetrating radar (GPR) survey was carried out at the sites to highlight structural failures, and included a partially damaged urban bridge, and the cracked wall of a private house. These failures have been discussed with reference to the field measurements carried out. In both cases, the GPR radargram showed clear lesions along with their geometry and location. This forensic geoscientific analysis highlights the importance of detecting structural damage immediately after a geohazard event to help plan proper interventions, efforts to prevent human losses and help law enforcement to focus their forensic investigations.
Highlights
The importance of non-destructive techniques such as the ground penetrating radar (GPR) is well known across various fields of its application
GPR, a technologically advanced tool, proved to be a suitable solution to the problem of monitoring structures with visible damage caused by catastrophic events, such as this earthquake and the resulting geohazards in the post-seismic phase
Thanks to the penetration capacity and the resolution of the GPR, it was possible to understand the internal geometry of the fracture and its gravity, and it facilitated the restructuring that prevented the collapse of the wall and the possible damage to property and people
Summary
The importance of non-destructive techniques such as the ground penetrating radar (GPR) is well known across various fields of its application. This methodological approach is often used in forensics to help investigators locate bodies or stolen objects that are buried ([1], and the literature therein). This tool is frequently used in geological research and risk studies as it allows mapping of the subsoil, its stratigraphy, and its critical points in an accurate and completely non-invasive manner [2,3,4,5]. GPR can play a key role in the search for missing persons [12], and in the monitoring of possible damage to structures and buildings
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