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Comparing recent Italian earthquakes

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Abstract

A comprehensive comparison among the three strongest earthquakes occurred in Italy in the past 30 years is presented. These three earthquakes struck the regions of Umbria and Marche in 1997, Abruzzo in 2009, and Emilia-Romagna, Lombardia and Veneto in 2012, respectively. They were assigned exactly the same local magnitude, Ml5.9, and comparable focal depths. In spite of having occurred in the same country, these earthquakes displayed considerable differences from both the scientific and the civil protection points of view. Differences can be ascribed to the released energy, the seismotectonic and geomorphological features, as well as the diverse population density, building features and socio-economic conditions that characterize the three epicentral areas. Nevertheless, the overall economic losses come out to be almost the same, although deriving from quite diverse distributions among the different categories of costs. Differences and similarities among the three events are carefully analysed and discussed in the paper.

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Acknowledgments

Thanks are due to two anonymous Referees for their fruitful reviews and suggestions, which strongly contributed to improve this paper. The Authors are responsible for the contents of this work, which do not necessarily reflect the position and official policy of the Italian Department of Civil Protection.

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  1. Department of Civil Protection, Presidency of the Council of Ministers, Via Ulpiano, 11, 00193, Rome, Italy

    Mauro Dolce

  2. Seismic and Volcanic Risk Office, Department of Civil Protection, Presidency of the Council of Ministers, Via Vitorchiano, 2, 00198, Rome, Italy

    Daniela Di Bucci

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  1. Mauro Dolce
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Correspondence to Daniela Di Bucci.

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Dolce, M., Di Bucci, D. Comparing recent Italian earthquakes. Bull Earthquake Eng 15, 497–533 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10518-015-9773-7

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