We investigate a large geodetic data set of interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) and GPS measurements to determine the source parameters for the three main shocks of the 2016 Central Italy earthquake sequence on 24 August and 26 and 30 October (M_w 6.1, 5.9, and 6.5, respectively). Our preferred model is consistent with the activation of four main coseismic asperities belonging to the SW dipping normal fault system associated with the Mount Gorzano‐Mount Vettore‐Mount Bove alignment. Additional slip, equivalent to a M_w ~ 6.1–6.2 earthquake, on a secondary (1) NE dipping antithetic fault and/or (2) on a WNW dipping low‐angle fault in the hanging wall of the main system is required to better reproduce the complex deformation pattern associated with the greatest seismic event (the M_w 6.5 earthquake). The recognition of ancillary faults involved in the sequence suggests a complex interaction in the activated crustal volume between the main normal faults and the secondary structures and a partitioning of strain release.

We study land subsidence processes and the associated ground fissuring, affecting an active graben filled by thick unconsolidated deposits by means of InSAR techniques and fieldwork. On 21 September 2012, Ciudad Guzmán (Jalisco, Mexico) was struck by ground fissures of about 1.5 km of length, causing the deformation of the roads and the propagation of fissures in adjacent buildings. The field survey showed that fissures alignment is coincident with the escarpments produced on 19 September 1985, when a strong earthquake with magnitude 8.1 struck central Mexico. In order to detect and map the spatio-temporal features of the processes that led to the 2012 ground fissures, we applied InSAR multi-temporal techniques to process ENVISAT-ASAR and RADARSAT-2 satellite SAR images acquired between 2003 and 2012. We detect up to 20 mm/year of subsidence of the northwestern part of Ciudad Guzmán. These incremental movements are consistent with the ground fissures observed in 2012. Based on interferometric results, field data and 2D numerical model, we suggest that ground deformations and fissuring are due to the presence of areal subsidence correlated with variable sediment thickness and differential compaction, partly driven by the exploitation of the aquifers and controlled by the distribution and position of buried faults.

We measured ground displacements before and after the 2009 L’Aquila earthquake using multi-temporal InSAR techniques to identify seismic precursor signals. We estimated the ground deformation and its temporal evolution by exploiting a large dataset of SAR imagery that spans seventy-two months before and sixteen months after the mainshock. These satellite data show that up to 15 mm of subsidence occurred beginning three years before the mainshock. This deformation occurred within two Quaternary basins that are located close to the epicentral area and are filled with sediments hosting multi-layer aquifers. After the earthquake, the same basins experienced up to 12 mm of uplift over approximately nine months. Before the earthquake, the rocks at depth dilated, and fractures opened. Consequently, fluids migrated into the dilated volume, thereby lowering the groundwater table in the carbonate hydrostructures and in the hydrologically connected multi-layer aquifers within the basins. This process caused the elastic consolidation of the fine-grained sediments within the basins, resulting in the detected subsidence. After the earthquake, the fractures closed, and the deep fluids were squeezed out. The pre-seismic ground displacements were then recovered because the groundwater table rose and natural recharge of the shallow multi-layer aquifers occurred, which caused the observed uplift.