Computational and experimental study of seismic site effects on Amatrice hill

Amatrice is considered the town symbol of the destructive effects induced by 2016 Central Italy seismic sequence. As a result of the two main shocks (August 24th, M=6.0 and October 30th, M=6.5) the ancient urban area of the municipality, located on a hilly promontory, was heavily damaged. Old buildings, but also renovated and new buildings, suffered many cracks and collapses. Subsoil geological, geophysical and geotechnical data were collected in the area and seismic data were also available. By using and interpreting the subsoil data, a 3D-GIS model was developed, that is the basic geometrical model for SiSeRHMap hybrid-analysis. Several 2D sections crossing the seismic station sites were extracted from this model and analyzed by 2D-FEM numerical approaches. Comparison of numerical results and seismic experimental data allowed to: i) validate the subsoil model used in the simulations; ii) show the significant role of the topographic effects in the area under study; and iii) point out the variability of the 2D numerical results depending on the direction of the analyzed cross-sections.