Seismic Event Recognition in the Trentino Area (Italy): Performance Analysis of a New Semiautomatic System

Abstract

Online Material: Details on the tuning of algorithms and brief account of associated location error. Trentino is a geographic region in the north‐central part of Eastern Italy covering an area of about 120×90 km (Fig. 1). Located in the Southern Alps, it is bordered by the northern tip of Lake Garda to the south, the region of Alto Adige ( Sudtirol in Austrian) to the north, the Dolomite Mountains and the region of Veneto to the east, and the region of Lombardy and Mounts Adamello and Ortles to the west. It has a total population of about half a million people, a rich economical activity, and an outstanding touristic value. From an administrative point of view, Trentino is an autonomous province of Italy, officially known as Provincia Autonoma di Trento (PAT). Figure 1. Seismicity of northeastern Italy. Stars represent the most noticeable historical events, as reported in the CPTI11 catalog for northeastern Italy (Rovida et al. , 2011). Northeastern Italy is acknowledged as the most seismic area of the Alpine chain, and it has been struck by several I =IX–X Mercalli–Cancani–Sieberg scale (MCS) or M w>6 earthquakes during the past millennium (Fig. 1; for details, see Carulli and Slejko, 2009). According to the Italian seismic regulations, the seismic hazard of Trentino is low to moderate, with an expected maximum acceleration for an exceedance probability of 10% in 50 years mostly below 0.150 g (Gruppo di Lavoro MPS, 2004; Ordinanza PCM 3519, 2006; values and maps available on the website, esse1.mi.ingv.it, last accessed September 2012). This value is exceeded only at the southern tip of the province, which corresponds to the Giudicarie–Lessini area (see Fig. 1), where acceleration settles within the class 0.150–0.175 g. The instrumental seismicity recorded in Trentino and the neighboring areas since the 1990s (Fig. 1) features three …