Surface rupture on the side of Mt Vettore, Italy. Credit:: Laura Gregory, University of Leeds
The timing and size of three deadly earthquakes that struck Italy in 2016 may have been pre-determined, according to new research that could improve future earthquake forecasts. A joint British-Italian team of geologists and seismologists have shown that the clustering of the three quakes might have been caused by the arrangement of a cross-cutting network of underground faults. The findings show that although all three earthquakes occurred on the same major fault, several smaller faults prevented a single massive earthquake from occurring instead and also acted as pathways for naturally occurring fluids that triggered later earthquakes. The cluster of three earthquakes, termed a "seismic sequence" by seismologists, each had magnitudes greater than six and killed more than 300 people in Italy's Apennine mountains between 24 August and 30 October 2016. Earthquake sequences The research, led by Durham University, comes on the second anniversary of the start of the earthquake sequence. The study is published in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters . The researchers say the findings could have wider implications for the study of seismic hazards, enabling scientists to better understand potential earthquake sequences following a quake.
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