Rapid Response to the Earthquake Emergencies in Italy: Temporary Seismic Networks Coordinated Deployments in the Last Five Years

Abstract

The rapid deployment of a dense temporary network of seismic stations, soon after the occurrence of a damaging earthquake, is an essential action to improve the seismic monitoring and the quality of the studies on the aftershock sequence. Having seismic waves recorded with a dense seismic network can greatly improve the detection of earthquakes and the estimation of hypocenter parameters. Since 1990 the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (Italian: Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, INGV) manages a Portable Seismic Network structure: an instrumental pool to deploy dense seismic networks for scientific experiments and to monitor aftershocks after the occurrence of damaging earthquakes. Today, this pool, includes about 100 seismic stations which, if necessary, can be integrated in the real time seismic surveillance system of INGV. The real time data contribute to the monitoring of the seismicity in the epicentral area, the off line analysis of the recorded seismograms allows the imaging of the fault system geometry and kinematics. We present the INGV Portable Seismic Network, its history and the current coordination projects with other Italian and international Institutes. Moreover we describe its organization activities and its emergency operations in the last five years with special focus on the “Emilia 2012” and the “Pollino 2011–2014” seismic crises.