Source parameters and scaling relationships in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia (Northeastern Italy) region

We estimated the source parameters of 53 local earthquakes (2.03.0 recorded with a sampling rate of 125 cps were used to compute k, thus allowing to visualize a linear trend of the high frequency acceleration spectrum up to 40-50 Hz. SH-wave spectra, corrected for attenuation, showed an ω−2 shape allowing a good fit with the Brune model. Seismic moments and Brune radii ranged between 1.5×1012 and 1.1×1017  N m and between 0.1 and 2.7 km respectively. We obtained Mo=1.1×1017  N m for the seismic moment of the Kobarid (SLO) main shock, in good agreement with the Harvard CMT solution (Mo=3.5×1017  N m). Brune stress drops were confined to the range from 0.07 to 5.31 MPa, with an average value of 0.73 MPa and seem to be approximately constant over five orders of magnitude of seismic moment. Radiated seismic energy computed from two nearby stations scales with seismic moment according to logEs=1.30logMo−9.06, and apparent stress values are between 0.02 and 4.26 MPa. The observed scatter of Brune stress drop data allowed to hypothesize a scaling relation Mo∝fc−3.43 between seismic moment and corner frequency in order to accommodate both Brune stress drop and apparent stress scalings. No systematic differences are evidenced between stress parameters of earthquakes with different focal mechanisms. As a consequence, a relation of the seismic stress release with the strength of rocks can be hypothesized. A high correlation (r>0.9) of Brune stress drop is found with both apparent stress and RMS stress drop, according to ΔσB=2.0σa and Δσrms=2.26ΔσB respectively.