Over 45 earthquakes per day is the number of localized earthquakes From Surveillance rooms operating 24 hours a day in the Institute: about 1 every 30 minutes.
In the "Speciale 2019" of the INGVterremoti Blog, interactive maps and infographics allow you to "navigate" between events
There were 16.584 seismic events recorded by the National Seismic Network (RSN) of the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) on the Italian territory and in the surrounding areas, about 1 every 30 minutes. The strongest, however, were located outside the national territory.
“The number of localized earthquakes in 2019 is still decreasing compared to the last three years, especially if you compare it with the number of earthquakes in 2016 and 2017 which was greatly influenced by the Amatrice-Visso-Norcia sequence, in Central Italy , which began on 24 August 2016”, explains Maurizio Pignone, Geologist of INGV. "Since 2018 the seismic events caused by this sequence have decreased and in 2019 they decreased further even if, as a percentage, they still represent a very high value compared to the total seismicity in Italy: about 40%".
As highlighted in the "Special 2019, a year of earthquakes” of the INGVterremoti blog, in our country the highest magnitude event, equal to 4.5, was recorded in Mugello on 9 December 2019 while, outside the Italian borders, the strongest earthquake was located in Albania on 26 November , near Durres, with a magnitude of 6.2.
Italy, as is well known, is a country with a high seismic hazard and the publication of the analysis on the number of earthquakes that occurred last year offers a measure of exposure to seismic events. Here, therefore, it should be noted that "the events of magnitude between 4.0 and 4.5 in 2019 were a dozen mostly linked to seismic sequences, more or less long, such as that of Amatrice-Visso-Norcia and that of the Etna area of December 2018”, continues Maurizio Pignone. “Other earthquakes, on the other hand, can be considered as isolated events. It should be noted that the seismic sequences that began in 2019 took place in different areas of our territory, were generally of short duration - a few dozen days at most - and recorded low magnitude values".
Beyond these events, approximately 90% of the seismic events located in Italy in 2019 had a magnitude of less than 2.0 and, with a few exceptions such as in the case of very superficial hypocentres and near inhabited areas, they were not warned by the population.
"In the 2019 Special of the INGVterremoti Blog, we presented the detailed descriptions of these sequences and the related maps where it is possible to "see" the distribution of the epicenters of the sequence in Mugello on 9 December where magnitude 4.5 was recorded, that between the provinces of the 'Aquila and Frosinone on 7 September with a magnitude of 4.4 and that in the Benevento area where a magnitude of 16 was recorded on 3.9 December”, adds the geologist.
“With the interactive map (dashboard) of the Blog”, adds Pignone “it is possible navigation in the 2019 seismicity. We accounted for all earthquakes with a magnitude greater than or equal to 2.0. Each event can be viewed with all its parameters, from magnitude to hypocenter. Infographics are also available in the application which, for the area chosen by the user, show the total number of earthquakes located during the year, their maximum magnitude and their distribution over the twelve months. With the "Time Slider", however, a space-time animation of seismicity is created from 1 January 2019 or from the time intervals chosen by the user", concludes the geologist.
“With the interactive map (dashboard) of the Blog”, adds Pignone “it is possible navigation in the 2019 seismicity. We accounted for all earthquakes with a magnitude greater than or equal to 2.0. Each event can be viewed with all its parameters, from magnitude to hypocenter. Infographics are also available in the application which, for the area chosen by the user, show the total number of earthquakes located during the year, their maximum magnitude and their distribution over the twelve months. With the "Time Slider", however, a space-time animation of seismicity is created from 1 January 2019 or from the time intervals chosen by the user", concludes the geologist.
Link INGVterremoti blog:
Link TGweb Geosciences News:
Link to seismic dashboard:
Rome, January 20, 2020
#ingv #ingvterremoti #earthquakes2019
