A Case Study of Multidisciplinary Surface Faulting Assessment in the Urbanized Fucino Basin, Italy

Francesco Iezzi^1,2, Paolo Boncio^2,3, Alessio Testa², Giuseppe Di Giulio⁴, Maurizio Vassallo⁴, Fabrizio Cara⁵, Giuliano Milana⁵, Fabrizio Galadini⁵, Biagio Giaccio⁶ & Mattia De Luca^3
1Department of Earth Sciences, Environment and Resources (DiSTAR), University Federico II, Naples, Italy. ²DiSPUTer, University “G. d’ Annunzio” Chieti-Pescara, Chieti, Italy. ³Department of Engineering and Geology, University “G. d’Annunzio” Chieti-Pescara, Chieti, Italy. ⁴Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Sezione di Sismologia e Tettonofisica, L’Aquila, Italy. ⁵Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Sezione di Sismologia e Tettonofisica, Roma, Italy. 6 Istituto di Geologia Ambientale e Geoingegneria, CNR, Rome, Italy.
Corresponding author e-mail: francesco.iezzi@unina.it

The occurrence of coseismic surface ruptures along fault traces in urbanised areas creates a serious hazard to the vulnerability of man-made manufactures. In order to mitigate such hazard, it is necessary to investigate the geometry, the activity and the capability of faults located close to urbanised areas. This paper presents a case study of the investigation of capable faults within a sensitive area in Italy that is characterized by a high density of population and industrial activities, high levels of seismicity and the presence of faults proven to be capable of rupturing the surface during medium-to-large earthquakes. We focused on the Luco fault (Fucino basin, Central Italy), which previous studies have suggested to cross the industrial district of the town of Avezzano. We present a multidisciplinary approach, consisting of Electrical Resistivity Tomography surveys, continuous-coring boreholes and paleoseismological trenches, aimed at accurately constraining the trace of the Luco fault and documenting the associated fault displacement. This allowed us to constrain the geometry of the Luco fault and to assess the associated fault displacement hazard. We suggest that the proposed methodology represents a pilot study for further investigations of capable faults in the Italian and other similar seismotectonic contexts.

earthquake geology, capable faults, fault displacement hazard, fault zoning, paleoseismology.