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

Abstract

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 tomore » >50% for peak dynamic stress >2 bar, indicating a link between earthquake shaking and mud volcano activity.« less

Authors:
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)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
OSTI Identifier:
1479340
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC02-05CH11231
Resource Type:
Journal Article: Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Journal of Geophysical Research. Solid Earth
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 122; Journal Issue: 11; Journal ID: ISSN 2169-9313
Publisher:
American Geophysical Union
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
58 GEOSCIENCES

Citation Formats

Maestrelli, Daniele, Bonini, Marco, Delle Donne, Dario, Manga, Michael, Piccardi, Luigi, and Sani, Federico. Dynamic Triggering of Mud Volcano Eruptions During the 2016-2017 Central Italy Seismic Sequence: Triggering of mud volcano eruptions. United States: N. p., 2017. Web. doi:10.1002/2017JB014777.
Maestrelli, Daniele, Bonini, Marco, Delle Donne, Dario, Manga, Michael, Piccardi, Luigi, & Sani, Federico. Dynamic Triggering of Mud Volcano Eruptions During the 2016-2017 Central Italy Seismic Sequence: Triggering of mud volcano eruptions. United States. https://doi.org/10.1002/2017JB014777
Maestrelli, Daniele, Bonini, Marco, Delle Donne, Dario, Manga, Michael, Piccardi, Luigi, and Sani, Federico. 2017. "Dynamic Triggering of Mud Volcano Eruptions During the 2016-2017 Central Italy Seismic Sequence: Triggering of mud volcano eruptions". United States. https://doi.org/10.1002/2017JB014777. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1479340.
@article{osti_1479340,
title = {Dynamic Triggering of Mud Volcano Eruptions During the 2016-2017 Central Italy Seismic Sequence: Triggering of mud volcano eruptions},
author = {Maestrelli, Daniele and Bonini, Marco and Delle Donne, Dario and Manga, Michael and Piccardi, Luigi and Sani, Federico},
abstractNote = {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.},
doi = {10.1002/2017JB014777},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1479340}, journal = {Journal of Geophysical Research. Solid Earth},
issn = {2169-9313},
number = 11,
volume = 122,
place = {United States},
year = {Thu Nov 02 00:00:00 EDT 2017},
month = {Thu Nov 02 00:00:00 EDT 2017}
}

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Works referencing / citing this record:

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