Sedimentology and composition of sands injected during the seismic crisis of May 2012 (Emilia, Italy): clues for source layer identification and liquefaction regime

• Composition of injected sand of 2012 Emilia earthquake helps pinpoint source layer.
• Fluvial sands at different stratigraphic have distinct petrographic composition.
• Sedimentology of dike sand suggests multiple rhythmic fracture opening-closing.
• Sorting due to flux variation did not affect sand composition.

In May 2012 widespread sand blows formed along buried channels in the eastern sector of the Po Plain (Northern Italy) as a consequence of a series of seismic events with main shocks of Mw 6.1 and 5.9. At San Carlo (Ferrara) a trench dug a few week after the earthquakes exposed sand dikes cutting through an old Reno River channel–levee system that was diverted in the 18th century and was deposited starting from the 14th century (unit A). This sequence overlies a Holocene muddy floodplain deposits and contains scattered sandy channel deposits (unit B) and a Pleistocene channel sand unit (unit C). Sands with inverse and normal grading, concave layering and vertical lamination coexisting along the dikes suggest multiple rhythmic opening and closing of the fractures that were injected and filled by a slurry of sand during the compression pulses, and emptied during the extension phase. The pulse mechanism may have lasted for several minutes and formed well stratified sand volcanoes structures that formed at the top of the fractures. Sands from dikes and from the various units show well defined compositional fields from lithoarenitic to quartz-feldspar-rich compositions. Sands from the old Reno levee and channel fill (unit A) have abundant lithic fragments derived from the erosion of Apennine sedimentary carbonate and terrigenous successions. Composition of the sand filling the dikes show clear affinities with sand layers of the old Reno River channel (Unit A) and clearly differ from any sand from deeper Holocene and Pleistocene layers (Unit B and C), which are richer in quartz and feldspar and poorer in sedimentary lithic fragments. Sorting related to sediment flux variations did not apparently affect the sand composition across the sedimentary structures. Textural and compositional data indicate that the liquefaction processes originated from a relatively shallow source consisting of channel sands located within Unit A at 6.8.to 7.5 m depth.