X- and C-Band SAR Surface Displacement for the 2013 <italic>Lunigiana</italic> Earthquake (Northern Italy): A Breached Relay Ramp?

Abstract

In this paper, we applied the differential interferometric synthetic aperture radar (DInSAR) technique to investigate and measure surface displacements due to the Mw 5.3 (M1 5.2), June 21, 2013 earthquake, occurred north of the Apuan Alps (NW Italy), in the discontinuity zone between the Lunigiana and Garfagnana area. Two differential interferograms showing the coseismic displacement have been generated using X-band and C-band data, taken from COSMO-SkyMed and RADARSAT-2 satellites, respectively. Both interferograms highlighted a clear pattern of subsidence of few cm located between the Lunigiana and Garfagnana basins. We then modeled the observed SAR deformation fields using the Okada analytical formulation and found them to be consistent with an extensional fault plane dipping toward NW at about 50 . The integrated analysis of DInSAR, geological data, modeling, and historical seismicity suggest that the fault responsible for the June 2013 earthquake corresponds to a breached relay ramp connecting the Lunigiana and Garfagnana seismogenic sources.

Keywords

• Earthquakes
• inversion modeling
• normal fault
• relay ramp
• remote sensing
• seismogenic source