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Title: Dynamic Triggering of Mud Volcano Eruptions During the 2016-2017 Central Italy Seismic Sequence: Triggering of mud volcano eruptions

Journal Article · · Journal of Geophysical Research. Solid Earth
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/2017JB014777· OSTI ID:1479340
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [3]; ORCiD logo [4];  [2];  [5]
  1. Univ. of Pisa (Italy); Univ. of Firenze (Italy)
  2. Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), Firenze (Italy)
  3. Univ. of Palermo (Italy)
  4. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
  5. Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), Firenze (Italy); Univ. of Firenze (Italy)
+ Show Author Affiliations

On 24 August 2016 a seismic event (Mw6.0) was the first of the long Central Italy sequence (ongoing at the end of 2017) of medium-to-high magnitude earthquakes, with nine Mw≥5 up to October 2017, and with about 74.000 seismic events registered after 1 year. The largest was the Mw6.5 30 October 2016 event near Norcia. After the major seismic events, 17 mud volcanoes erupted around Monteleone di Fermo village (Marche region). Mud volcano eruptions generally occurred a few hours to a few days after the main earthquakes, suggesting a seismic triggering. We analyzed the peak ground velocities and dynamic stresses during the three largest earthquakes. We also evaluated the static stress changes in order to assess the potential influence of normal stress changes on the feeder system of the activated mud volcanoes. We find a correlation with dynamic stresses, whereas static stress changes are negligible or negative (with values reaching -0.44 bar, clamping feeder dykes). We conclude that seismic shaking (up to ~3.9 bar during Norcia earthquake) is the dominant driver for these eruptions. Finally, we evaluated the response ratio as a function of the dynamic stress. It increases exponentially with peak dynamic stress varying from <10% for peak dynamic stress >0.3 bar to >50% for peak dynamic stress >2 bar, indicating a link between earthquake shaking and mud volcano activity.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231
OSTI ID:
1479340
Journal Information:
Journal of Geophysical Research. Solid Earth, Vol. 122, Issue 11; ISSN 2169-9313
Publisher:
American Geophysical UnionCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 15 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (3)

Strain Diffusion from the 30 October 2016 Norcia (Central Italy) Earthquake journal June 2019
Rheology and Biostratigraphy of the Mariana Serpentine Muds Unravel Mud Volcano Evolution journal November 2019
Linking structures with the genesis and activity of mud volcanoes: examples from Emilia and Marche (Northern Apennines, Italy) journal May 2019

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