Geophysical paleoseismology through high resolution GPR data: A case of shallow faulting imaging in Central Italy

In this work we report a GPR study across a tectonic discontinuity in Central Italy. The surveyed area is located in the Castelluccio depression, a tectonic basin in the Central Apennines, close to the western border of the Mt. Vettore. Its West flank is characterised by a set of W-dipping normal faults, considered active and capable of generating strong earthquakes (M-w = 6.5, Galli et al., 2008). A secondary fault strand, already studied with paleo-seismological analysis (Galadini and Galli, 2003), has been observed in the Quaternary deposits of the Prate Pala alluvial fan. We first defined the survey site using the data available in literature and referring to topographic and geological maps, evaluating also additional methodologies, such as orthophoto interpretation, geomorphologic analysis and integrating all the information in a GIS environment. In addition, we made extensive use of GPR modelling, reproducing the geometric characteristics of the inferred fault area and interpreting the synthetic profiles to recognise local geophysical indications of faulting on the radargrams. Finally, we performed a GPR survey employing antennas with different frequencies, to record both 2D Common Offset profiles and Common Mid Point (CMP) gathers for a more accurate velocity estimation of the investigated deposits. In this paper we focus on the evaluation of the most appropriated processing techniques and on data interpretation. Moreover we compare real and synthetic data, which allow us to better highlight some characteristic geophysical signatures of a shallow fault zone. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.