The Emilia thrust earthquake of 20 May 2012 (Northern, Italy): strong motions and geological observation

May 2012, National Civil Protection Department, Geosis-Lab Unichieti, University of Trieste, Regione Umbria- Regional Civil Protection

On 20 May 2012, at 02:03:53 (UTC), Northern Italy was struck by an earthquake of’magnitude M 5.9 (lat 44.890 long 11.230). The mainshock was preceded by a M 4.1 event on 19 May and followed by four relevant aftershocks between magnitudes M 4.8 to M 5.1 within a few days: two events with M 5.1, one with M 4.9 and one with M 4.8. Eleven events between magnitudes M 4.0 and M 4.5 plus several other minor earthquakes, occurred in the same area from 20 to 23 May, as reported in Italian Instrumental and Parametric Data-Base (ISIDe) available at http://iside.rm.ingv.it/iside/standard/index.jsp. The seismic sequence covered a large area extending in the EFW direction for a length of nearly 40 km, between the localities of Mirandola and Ferrara, close to the buried front of Ferrara-Romagna northward-verging active thrust belt.

This report is aimed at:

• providing the mainshock waveforms to engineers, geophysicists geologists and scientists in general, for professional, technical works and scientific purposes;
• showing the spatial distribution and geological setting of the temporary accelerometric network, consisting of 13 stations installed within the epicentral area.

Read the Report: The Emilia thrust earthquake of 20 May 2012 (Northern, Italy): strong motions and geological observations (840 kB PDF)