Rupture imaging for the 2016 August 24, Mw=6.0 central Italy earthquake, from back-projection of strong-motion array data

Abstract

By extending the conventional Beam-Forming frequency-wavenumber power spectral estimate to the case of arbitrarily-shaped wavefronts, we obtained images of rupture propagation during the 2016 August 24, Mw=6.0 central Italy earthquake. Using a set of strong-motion accelerometers, we evaluate the beam power along the travel time curves associated with synthetic sources spanning a model fault surface. This allows deriving time-dependent images of the distribution of energy radiation throughout the fault plane. Results indicate bi-lateral rupture propagation toward SE and NW, in rough agreement with surface co-seismic displacement and surface damage pattern. To a first order, our results are also consistent with those obtained from full-waveform inversion of strong-motion data.

Keywords

• Seismic array
• Earthquake source observations
• Earthquake dynamics