A one-year project funded by European Space Agency (ESA) that aimed at investigating the potential benefit of satellite-derived gravity data from the Next Generation Gravity Mission (NGGM) on Solid Earth studies.
Principal Investigator
Prof. Roberto Sabadini.
Research Units
University of Milan: Roberto Sabadini, Anna Maria Marotta and Gabriele Cambiotti.
Institute of Geodesy of Stuttgart: Nico Sneeuw and Karim Douch.
Thales Alenia Space – Italy: Roberto Anselmi and Stefano Cesare.
Summary
The Gravitational Seismology aims to present a theoretical framework by which the Solid Earth processes leading to earthquakes can be recognized and interpreted from their gravity field signature as detected by satellites.
The proposed approach builds on a method developed in recent years at the University of Milano, combining the physico-mathematical modelling of active tectonics and of the seismic cycle with geodetic data in constraining the mechanisms responsible for crustal deformation and stress accumulation. Distinctive time-varying gravity and geoid signals apply to the active tectonic processes (subduction, collision, extension) leading to earthquakes of different characteristics (thrust, normal and/or strike slip) throughout the whole earthquake cycle, each phenomenon being categorized by a time scale and characteristic wavelength. The method had already been validated on very large magnitude earthquakes (Mw = 9) as detected by the GOCE and GRACE satellite missions. As part of the activity subject of this report, it was extended to earthquakes of lower magnitude (Mw = 7 to 9) as will be detected by the NGGM under study at ESA.
The Gravitational Seismology study activity was kicked off in Milano on April 5, 2018 and was concluded with a Final Presentation at ESRIN on June 11-12, 2019.
Data access
Synthetic model of the time-variable gravity field of the Earth due to earthquakes
References
- Sabadini, R., Anselmi, A., Cambiotti, G., Cesare, S., Douch, K., Marotta, A.M. and Sneeuw, N., 2019. EO Science for Society: Gravitational Seismology, Scientific Technical Report, ESA ITT AO/1-9101/17/I-NB
- Cambiotti, G., 2019. Joint estimate of the coseismic 2011 Tohoku earthquake fault slip and postseismic viscoelastic relaxation by GRACE data inversion, Geophysical Journal International, 220, 1012–1022
- Marotta, A.M., Restelli, F., Bollino, A., Regorda, A. and Sabadini, R., 2019. The Static and Time-dependent Signature of Ocean-Continent and Ocean-Ocean Subduction: the case studies of Sumatra and Mariana complexes, Geophysical Journal International
- Sabadini, R. and Cambiotti, G., 2018. The physics of earthquakes from space gravity missions, Rivista del Nuovo Cimento, 41, 575-623
- Cambiotti G., Douch K., Cesare S. , Haagmans, R., Sneeuw N. , Anselmi A., Marotta A. M. and Sabadini R., 2020. On the earthquake detectability by the Next Generation Gravity Mission, Surveys in Geophysics