Dynamic modeling of normal faults of the 2016 Central Italy earthquake sequence
Abstract
The earthquake sequence of the Central Italy in 2016 are characterized mainly by the Mw6.0 24th August, Mw5.9
26th October and Mw6.4 30th October as well as two Mw5.4 earthquakes (24th August, 26th October) (catalogue
INGV). They all show normal faulting mechanisms corresponding to the Apennines’s tectonics. They are aligned
briefly along NNW-SSE axis, and they may not be on a single continuous fault plane. Therefore, dynamic rupture
modeling of sequences should be carried out supposing co-planar normal multiple segments.We apply a Boundary
Domain Method (BDM, Goto and Bielak, GJI, 2008) coupling a boundary integral equation method and a domainbased
method, namely a finite difference method in this study. The Mw6.0 24th August earthquake is modeled.
We use the basic information of hypocenter position, focal mechanism and potential ruptured dimension from
the INGV catalogue and Tinti et al., GRL, 2016), and begin with a simple condition (homogeneous boundary
condition). From our preliminary simulations, it is shown that a uniformly extended rupture model does not fit the
near-field ground motions and localized heterogeneity would be required.