Scaling of peak ground motions from digital recordings of small earthquakes at Campi Flegrei, southern Italy

Abstract

The dependence of peak ground acceleration and velocity on seismic moment is studied for a set of small earthquakes (0.7<ML<3.2) recorded digitally at distances of a few km in the Campi Flegrei volcanic area near Naples, Italy, during the ground uplift episode of 1982–1984. Numerical simulations, using the ω-square spectral model with constant stress drop and ane−πkf high frequency decay, fit well both the velocity and acceleration data for an averagek=0.015. The observed ground motions in the 1–24 Hz frequency band appear to consist of radiation from simple sources modified only slightly by attenuation effects. Moreover, the scaling of peak values agrees closely with those determined in nonvolcanic areas, once the difference in stress drop is taken into account.