M ultidisciplinary approach to the study of environmental effects related to low to moderate magnitude earthquakes: the case study of the December 2013 - February 2014 Matese seismic sequence

Seismically induced environmental effects are typical of moderate to high magnitude seismic sequences. These phenomena have been widely observed worldwide and they characterise also the seismic history of the Southern Apennines fold and thrust belt (Porfido et al., 2002). In the last years an increasing interest has been devoted to the study of seismically induced environmental effects as their recognition is a valuable method to intensity assessment for strong earthquakes, to compare earthquake intensity assessment worldwide and to compare effects of recent, historical and pre-historical earthquakes (Serva et al., 2015). Based on these consideration, a new intensity assessment scale, the ESI scale, has been developed, which allows the estimation of earthquake intensity only based on seismically induced ground effects and not on damages to man-made structures (Michetti et al., 2007). We have carried out a study on active tectonics in the southern Matese area (Southern Apennines) based on Quaternary geology, geomorphology, geophysics, seismology, and addressed to the recognition of environmental earthquake effects induced by the Mw = 5.0, 29th December 2013 Matese earthquake.