Fault segmentation as constraint to the occurrence of the main shocks of the 2016 Central Italy seismic sequence

We perform the finite-extent fault inversion of the three main events of the 2016 Central Italy seismic sequence using near-source strong motion records. We demonstrate that both earthquake nucleation and rupture propagation were controlled by segmentation of the (N)NW-(S)SE trending Quaternary normal faults. The first shock of the sequence (24 August, Mw 6.0) ruptured at the relay zone between the Laga Mts (LF) and the Cordone del Vettore (CVF) normal faults. The second shock (26 October, Mw 5.9) nucleated at a minor relay zone within the Mt. Vettore-Mt. Bove fault (VBF), while the third and largest one (30 October, Mw 6.5) initiated at the relay zone between the VBF and CVF, triggering the multiple rupture of the VBF, CVF, and probably LF. We show that this latter relay zone corresponds to the deeper, high-angle, fault zone of the Sibillini Mts cross structure, a thrust-ramp inherited from the Miocene-Pliocene contractional phase of the Apennines. This structure acted as a barrier to rupture propagation of the first two events thus defining an area of large stress concentration until it acted as the initiator of the rupture originating the largest Mw 6.5 event that crossed the barrier itself. We suggest that the “young” CVF have started to cut through the barrier acting as a soft-linkage between the two long-lived LF and VBF. The evidence that coseismic cumulative slip shows a maximum at the CVF, provided by both slip inversion and original surface rupture data, suggests that the CVF is growing faster than the adjacent faults. ©2017. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.