The National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) has created the video of the animation of the propagation of seismic waves on the earth's surface generated by earthquake of magnitude Mw 5.5 of 11.14 Italian time of 18 January 2017 which involved the provinces of L'Aquila and Rieti.
Waves in blue indicate that the ground is moving rapidly downwards, those in red indicate that the ground is moving upwards. The color intensity is higher for faster vertical shifts.
Each second of the animation represents one second in real time.
The speed and amplitude of seismic waves depend on the characteristics of the seismic source, the type of soil they pass through and also the topography. They, therefore, they do not propagate uniformly in space and places located at the same distance from the epicenter are affected by the earthquake in a completely different way.
The procedure by which the animation was generated is described in this article.
Edited by Emanuele Casarotti and Federica Magnoni (INGV).