Preliminary engineering analysis of the August 24th 2016, ML 6.0 central Italy earthquake records

Abstract

An earthquake of estimated local magnitude (ML) 6.0 struck central Italy on the 24th of August (01:36:32 UTC) in the vicinity of Accumoli (close to Rieti, central Italy) initiating a long-lasting seismic sequence that also featured events of larger magnitude within a few months. The earthquake caused widespread building damage and around three-hundred fatalities. Ground motion was recorded by hundreds of seis-mic stations. This work uses accelerometric records for a preliminary discussion, from the earthquake en-gineering perspective, of strong motion caused by the earthquake. Peak and integral ground motion inten-sity measures, are presented. The response spectra at some select stations are analysed with respect to the code-mandated design actions for various return periods at the recording sites. Hazard disaggregation for different return periods is discussed referring to the site of the epicentre of the earthquake. Finally, some preliminary considerations are made concerning the impact of rupture propagation on near-source ground motion; i.e., the records are scanned for traces of pulse-like forward-directivity effects.