Surface faulting is a common occurrence for crustal earthquakes and is a relevant source of localized hazard to buildings and infrastructures. Fault displacement may occur on the seismogenic plane (primary or principal fault) and on other structures (secondary or distributed faulting) in the vicinity of the primary fault.
After the successful 6th Fault2SHA meeting held in Chieti on 19-20 January 2023, acknowledging the need of common efforts on this topic, we decided to create within the Fault2SHA Working Group the Thematic Fault Displacement Hazard Lab.
Core members
Paolo Boncio*, Francesca Ferrario, Stéphane Baize
*contact paolo.boncio (at) unich.it
Other Participants (to be set in Feb 2023)
work in progress. If you would like to join the Lab, please send an e-mail to the contact person
Key Questions
- Which parameters influence the surface expression of fault rupture?
- How to integrate geological, geodetical and modeling data to evaluate the hazard posed by principal and distributed faulting?
- Which kind of information is required by stakeholders (e.g., land planners, risk managers, managers of critical infrastructures)?
- How to properly quantify the rupture hazard?
Specific Aims
- Create a research group at European level interested in the topics of earthquake surface rupturing and fault displacement hazard analysis.
- Attract the interest of researchers working in different disciplines (geology, geodesy, fault modelling, hazard modelling) to create an interdisciplinary group.
- Promote research topics in FDH for PhD students and provide networking and learning opportunities for students and scientists at an early career stage.
- Share ideas and results to better orient future research activities and identify priorities in the lines of actions.
- Find a possible common activity where all the group can interact.
- Promote interaction with end-users (this is a topic with high applicative potential).
- Promote scientific sessions at congresses and publication of special issues.
- Facilitate the interaction for funding applications.
Short-term plans
We are planning to have an informal meeting in middle May 2023 to share ideas, show ongoing research activities and possibly start planning future collaborations. Become a Fault2SHA member if you want to be updated on the ongoing initiatives.
Some Recent Publications
Nurminen et al. (2022). SURE 2.0–New release of the worldwide database of surface ruptures for fault displacement hazard analyses. Scientific Data, 9(1), 729.
Testa et al. (2021). Probabilistic fault displacement hazard analysis of the Anghiari–Città di Castello normal fault (Italy). Italian Journal of Geosciences, 140(3), 327-346.
Ferrario & Livio (2021). Conditional probability of distributed surface rupturing during normal-faulting earthquakes. Solid Earth, 12(5), 1197-1209.
Nurminen et al. (2020). Probability of occurrence and displacement regression of distributed surface rupturing for reverse earthquakes. Front. Earth Sci. 8, https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2020.581605.
Baize et al. (2019). A worldwide and unified database of surface ruptures (SURE) for fault displacement hazard analyses, Seismological Research Letters, 91(1), pp. 499-520
Boncio et al. (2018). Width of surface rupture zone for thrust earthquakes: implications for earthquake fault zoning. Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci. 18, 241–256, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-18-241-2018.
Ongoing Doctoral Thesis
Fault Displacement Hazard on Principal Fault rupture: probability of occurrence, slip distribution and role of surface geology. PhD student: L. Mammarella, University of Chieti – Pescara, Italy & IRSN, France.
Characterization of Active and Capable Faults through the acquisition and analysis of high resolution DTMs and the interpretation of subsurface geophysical prospecting. PhD student: M. Colombo, Insubria University, Italy.
Characterizing fault displacement and earthquake environmental effects in the framework of siting the Italian repository for radioactive wastes. PhD student: M. Pizza, Insubria University, Italy.