S21E-06
Towards Full-Waveform Tomography of the Italian Lithosphere

Tuesday, 15 December 2015: 09:15
307 (Moscone South)
Federica Magnoni1, Emanuele Casarotti1, Dimitri Komatitsch2, Daniele Melini3, Alberto Michelini1, Antonio Piersanti3, Carl Tape4 and Jeroen Tromp5, (1)National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, Rome, Italy, (2)CNRS, Laboratory of Mechanics and Acoustics, Marseille, France, (3)Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Rome, Italy, (4)University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK, United States, (5)Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, United States
Abstract:
Within the framework of our PRACE project IMAGINE_IT (3D full-wave tomographic IMAGINg of the Entire ITalian lithosphere) we iteratively improved an initial 3D tomographic model of the Italian lithospheric structure. Our goal was to build a new reference 3D seismic velocity model for the region at unprecedented high resolution, constrained by a large number of observed full seismic waveforms. To this purpose, we used recorded data of dense seismological networks together with extremely efficient numerical techniques and an enormous computational power provided by European Tier-0 systems.

We exploited the powerful combination of a spectral-element method (code SPECFEM3D), for high-resolution numerical simulations of seismic wave fields, and an adjoint method, for tomographic inversion and imaging based on misfit reduction between observed and synthetic full waveforms.

The earthquakes and stations considered in the inversion procedure homogeneously cover the Italian peninsula and neighbouring zones. All the 3D heterogeneities that characterize the region are implemented in the simulations, also accounting for wave attenuation.

We expect that the results of the study will have an important impact in increasing our knowledge of geophysical processes and in addressing societal issues. Creating a refined geological model of the lithosphere in Italy will enhance the capability of analysing seismic effects. This has consequences for the assessment of seismic hazard, for engineering purposes and for planning effective measures based on rapid scenarios.

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