<p>Following the earthquake (M<sub>L</sub>=6.0) of 24 August 2016 that affected large part of the central Apennine between the municipalities of Norcia (PG) and Amatrice (RI) (central Italy), two soil gas profiles (i.e., <sup>222</sup>Rn, <sup>220</sup>Rn, CO<sub>2</sub> and CO<sub>2</sub> flux) were carried out across buried and exposed coseismic fault rupture of the Mt. Vettore fault during the seismic sequence. The objective of the survey was to explore the mechanisms of migration and the spatial behaviour of different gas species near still-degassing active fault. Results provide higher gas and CO<sub>2</sub> flux values (about twice for <sup>222</sup>Rn and CO<sub>2</sub> flux) in correspondence of the buried sector of the fault than those measured across the exposed coseismic rupture. Anomalous peaks due to advective migration are clearly visible on both side of the buried fault (profile 1), whereas the lower soil gas concentrations measured across the exposed coseimic rupture (profile 2) are mainly caused by shallow and still acting diffusive degassing associated to faulting during the seismic sequence. These results confirm the usefulness of the soil gas survey to spatially recognise the shallow geometry of hidden faults, and to discriminate the geochemical migration mechanisms occurring at buried and exposed faults related to seismic activity.</p>
Soil gas survey for tracing seismogenic faults: A case study in the Fucino Basin, central Italy
