Rapid evaluation of strong ground-shaking maps after moderate-to-large earthquakes is crucial to recognizing those areas where the largest damage and losses are expected. These maps play a fundamental role for emergency management. This is particularly important for areas having high seismic risk potential and covered by dense seismic networks. In near-real-time applications, ground-shaking maps are produced by integrating recorded data and estimates obtained by using ground-motion predictive equations, which assume point-source models. However, particularly for large earthquakes, improvements in the predictions of the peak ground motion can be obtained when fault extension and orientation are available. In fact, detailed source information allows one to use a more robust source-to-site distance metric compared with hypocentral distance. In this paper, a technique for estimating both fault extent (in terms of its surface projection) and dominant rupture direction is presented. This technique can be used in near-real-time ground-motion map calculation codes with the aim of improving ground-motion estimates with respect to a point-source model. The model parameters are estimated by maximizing a probability density function based on the residuals between observed and predicted peak-ground-motion quantities, the latter obtained by using predictive equations. The model space to be investigated is defined through a Bayesian approach, and it is explored by a grid-searching technique. The effectiveness of the proposed technique is demonstrated by offline numerical tests using data from three earthquakes occurring in different seismotectonic environments. The selected earthquakes are the 17 August 1999 Mw 7.5 Kocaeli (Turkey) earthquake, the 6 April 2009 Mw 6.3 L’Aquila (Italy) earthquake, and the 17 January 1994 Mw 6.7 Northridge (California) earthquake. The obtained results show that the proposed technique allows for fast and first order estimates of the fault extent and dominant rupture direction, which could be used to improve ground-shaking map calculations

A temperature profile 2400 m along the off-shore active caldera of Campi Flegrei (Gulf of Pozzuoli) was obtained by the installation of a permanent fiber-optic monitoring system within the framework of the Innovative Monitoring for Coastal and Marine Environment (MON.I.C.A) project. The system consists of a submerged, reinforced, multi-fiber cable containing six single-mode telecom grade optical fibers that, exploiting the stimulated Brillouin scattering, provide distributed temperature sensing (DTS) with 1 m of spatial resolution. The obtained data show that the offshore caldera, at least along the monitored profile, has many points of heat discharge associated with fluid emission. A loose association between the temperature profile and the main structural features of the offshore caldera was also evidenced by comparing DTS data with a high-resolution reflection seismic survey. This represents an important advancement in the monitoring of this high-risk volcanic area, since temperature variations are among the precursors of magma migration towards the surface and are also crucial data in the study of caldera dynamics. The adopted system can also be applied to many other calderas which are often partially or largely submerged and hence difficult to monitor.

High-resolution seismoacoustic data represent a useful tool for the investigations of gas-charged sediments occurring beneath the seabed through the identification of the diagnostic intrasedimentary features associated with them. Acoustic blanking revealed shallow gas pockets in the seismostratigraphic units of the inner shelf off the Northern Cilento promontory. Six main seismostratigraphic units were recognized based on the geological interpretation of the seismic profiles. Large shallow gas pockets, reaching a lateral extension of 1 km, are concentrated at the depocenter of Late Pleistocene–Holocene marine sediments that are limited northwards by the Solofrone River mouth and southwards by the Licosa Cape promontory. A morphobathymetric interpretation, reported in a GIS environment, was constructed in order to show the main morphological lineaments and to link them with the acoustic anomalies interpreted through the Sub-bottom chirp profiles. A newly constructed workflow was assessed to perform data elaboration with Seismic Unix software by comparing and improving the seismic data of the previously processed profiles that used Seisprho software. The identification of these anomalies and the corresponding units from the offshore Cilento promontory represent a useful basis for an assessment of marine geohazards and could help to plan for the mitigation of geohazards in the Cilento region.