Analysis of small magnitude seismic sequences along the Northern Apennines (Italy)

We analyze the seismicity of a small sector of the Northern Apennines merging data from the Italian seismic bulletin with original data collected by temporary seismic networks. Our attention is focused on the region enclosed between the Apenninic watershed and the Adriatic Sea. This portion of belt is interested by the occurrence of diffuse crustal seismicity and small-to-moderate earthquakes. In this paper we study the five small sequences with mainshock having Mw < 4.7 that in the past 15 years hit the area. Our interest is addressed to better understand the relationship between these events and the regional seismotectonic setting in terms of seismicity distribution and stress field. Two regions with different behavior in the seismic release can be distinguished: (i) along the watershed where seismicity is clustered at shallow depths (< 15 km) and where strong earthquakes occurred in the past, (ii) an eastern portion where the seismicity is distributed across all of the crustal volume, locally reaching depths down to 30 km. The focal mechanism of the seismic sequences shows mainly normal fault kinematics coherent with the regional stress field. Detailed stress field analysis suggests a rotation of the principal stress axis moving from the axial part of the chain toward the Adriatic Sea to the east.