The energy released during a seismic crisis in volcanic areas is strictly related to the physical processes in the volcanic structure. In particular Long Period seismicity, that seems to be related to the oscillation of a fluid-filled crack (Chouet , 1996, Chouet, 2003, McNutt, 2005), can precedes or accompanies an eruption. The present doctoral thesis is focused on the study of the LP seismicity recorded in the Campi Flegrei volcano (Campania, Italy) during the October 2006 crisis. Campi Flegrei Caldera is an active caldera; the combination of an active magmatic system and a dense populated area make the Campi Flegrei a critical volcano. The source dynamic of LP seismicity is thought to be very different from the other kind of seismicity ( Tectonic or Volcano Tectonic): it’s characterized by a time sustained source and a low content in frequency. This features implies that the duration–magnitude, that is commonly used for VT events and sometimes for LPs as well, is unadapted for LP magnitude evaluation. The main goal of this doctoral work was to develop a method for the determination of the magnitude for the LP seismicity; it’s based on the comparison of the energy of VT event and LP event, linking the energy to the VT moment magnitude. So the magnitude of the LP event would be the moment magnitude of a VT event with the same energy of the LP. We applied this method to the LP data-set recorded at Campi Flegrei caldera in 2006, to an LP data-set of Colima volcano recorded in 2005 – 2006 and for an event recorded at Etna volcano. Experimenting this method to lots of waveforms recorded at different volcanoes we tested its easy applicability and consequently its usefulness in the routinely and in the quasi-real time work of a volcanological observatory.

The Vrancea region, at the south-eastern bend of the Carpathian Mountains in Romania, represents one of the most puzzling seismically active zones of Europe. Beside some shallow seismicity spread across the whole Romanian territory, Vrancea is the place of an intense seismicity with the presence of a cluster of intermediate-depth foci placed in a narrow nearly vertical volume. Although large-scale mantle seismic tomographic studies have revealed the presence of a narrow, almost vertical, high-velocity body in the upper mantle, the nature and the geodynamic of this deep intra-continental seismicity is still questioned. High-resolution seismic tomography could help to reveal more details in the subcrustal structure of Vrancea. Recent developments in computational seismology as well as the availability of parallel computing now allow to potentially retrieve more information out of seismic waveforms and to reach such high-resolution models. This study was aimed to evaluate the application of a full waveform inversion tomography at regional scale for the Vrancea lithosphere using data from the 1999 six months temporary local network CALIXTO. Starting from a detailed 3D Vp, Vs and density model, built on classical travel-time tomography together with gravity data, I evaluated the improvements obtained with the full waveform inversion approach. The latter proved to be highly problem dependent and highly computational expensive. The model retrieved after the first two iterations does not show large variations with respect to the initial model but remains in agreement with previous tomographic models. It presents a well-defined downgoing slab shape high velocity anomaly, composed of a N-S horizontal anomaly in the depths between 40 and 70km linked to a nearly vertical NE-SW anomaly from 70 to 180km.

This thesis is a collection of works focused on the topic of Earthquake Early Warning, with a special attention to large magnitude events. The topic is addressed from different points of view and the structure of the thesis reflects the variety of the aspects which have been analyzed. The first part is dedicated to the giant, 2011 Tohoku-Oki earthquake. The main features of the rupture process are first discussed. The earthquake is then used as a case study to test the feasibility Early Warning methodologies for very large events. Limitations of the standard approaches for large events arise in this chapter. The difficulties are related to the real-time magnitude estimate from the first few seconds of recorded signal. An evolutionary strategy for the real-time magnitude estimate is proposed and applied to the single Tohoku-Oki earthquake. In the second part of the thesis a larger number of earthquakes is analyzed, including small, moderate and large events. Starting from the measurement of two Early Warning parameters, the behavior of small and large earthquakes in the initial portion of recorded signals is investigated. The aim is to understand whether small and large earthquakes can be distinguished from the initial stage of their rupture process. A physical model and a plausible interpretation to justify the observations are proposed. The third part of the thesis is focused on practical, real-time approaches for the rapid identification of the potentially damaged zone during a seismic event. Two different approaches for the rapid prediction of the damage area are proposed and tested. The first one is a threshold-based method which uses traditional seismic data. Then an innovative approach using continuous, GPS data is explored. Both strategies improve the prediction of large scale effects of strong earthquakes.

The present study has been carried out with the following objectives: i) To investigate the attributes of source parameters of local and regional earthquakes; ii) To estimate, as accurately as possible, M0, fc, Δσ and their standard errors to infer their relationship with source size; iii) To quantify high-frequency earthquake ground motion and to study the source scaling. This work is based on observational data of micro, small and moderate -earthquakes for three selected seismic sequences, namely Parkfield (CA, USA), Maule (Chile) and Ferrara (Italy). For the Parkfield seismic sequence (CA), a data set of 757 (42 clusters) repeating micro-earthquakes (0 ≤ MW ≤ 2), collected using borehole High Resolution Seismic Network (HRSN), have been analyzed and interpreted. We used the coda methodology to compute spectral ratios to obtain accurate values of fc , Δσ, and M0 for three target clusters (San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Hawaii) of our data. We also performed a general regression on peak ground velocities to obtain reliable seismic spectra of all earthquakes. For the Maule seismic sequence, a data set of 172 aftershocks of the 2010 MW 8.8 earthquake (3.7 ≤ MW ≤ 6.2), recorded by more than 100 temporary broadband stations, have been analyzed and interpreted to quantify high-frequency earthquake ground motion in this subduction zone. We completely calibrated the excitation and attenuation of the ground motion in Central Chile. For the Ferrara sequence, we calculated moment tensor solutions for 20 events from MW 5.63 (the largest main event occurred on May 20 2012), down to MW 3.2 by a 1-D velocity model for the crust beneath the Pianura Padana, using all the geophysical and geological information available for the area. The PADANIA model allowed a numerical study on the characteristics of the ground motion in the thick sediments of the flood plain.

The aim of this Thesis is to obtain a better understanding of the mechanical behavior of the active Alto Tiberina normal fault (ATF). Integrating geological, geodetic and seismological data, we perform 2D and 3D quasi-static and dynamic mechanical models to simulate the interseismic phase and rupture dynamic of the ATF. Effects of ATF locking depth, synthetic and antithetic fault activity, lithology and realistic fault geometries are taken in account. The 2D and 3D quasi-static model results suggest that the deformation pattern inferred by GPS data is consistent with a very compliant ATF zone (from 5 to 15 km) and Gubbio fault activity. The presence of the ATF compliant zone is a first order condition to redistribute the stress in the Umbria-Marche region; the stress bipartition between hanging wall (high values) and footwall (low values) inferred by the ATF zone activity could explain the microseismicity rates that are higher in the hanging wall respect to the footwall. The interseismic stress build-up is mainly located along the Gubbio fault zone and near ATF patches with higher dip (30°<dip<37°) that we hypothesize can fail seismically even if a typical Byerlee friction (0.6-0-75) is assumed. Finally, the results of 3D rupture dynamic models demonstrate that the magnitude expected, after that an event is simulated on the ATF, can decrease if we consider the fault plane roughness.

We have used kinematic models in two Italian regions to reproduce surface interseismic velocities obtained from InSAR and GPS measurements. We have considered a Block modeling, BM, approach to evaluate which fault system is actively accommodating the occurring deformation in both considered areas. We have performed a study for the Umbria-Marche Apennines, obtaining that the tectonic extension observed by GPS measurements is explained by the active contribution of at least two fault systems, one of which is the Alto Tiberina fault, ATF. We have estimated also the interseismic coupling distribution for the ATF using a 3D surface and the result shows an interesting correlation between the microseismicity and the uncoupled fault portions. The second area analyzed concerns the Gargano promontory for which we have used jointly the available InSAR and GPS velocities. Firstly we have attached the two datasets to the same terrestrial reference frame and then using a simple dislocation approach, we have estimated the best fault parameters reproducing the available data, providing a solution corresponding to the Mattinata fault. Subsequently we have considered within a BM analysis both GPS and InSAR datasets in order to evaluate if the Mattinata fault may accommodate the deformation occurring in the central Adriatic due to the relative motion between the North-Adriatic and South-Adriatic plates. We obtain that the deformation occurring in that region should be accommodated by more that one fault system, that is however difficult to detect since the poor coverage of geodetic measurement offshore of the Gargano promontory. Finally we have performed also the estimate of the interseismic coupling distribution for the Mattinata fault, obtaining a shallow coupling pattern. Both of coupling distributions found using the BM approach have been tested by means of resolution checkerboard tests and they demonstrate that the coupling patterns depend on the geodetic data positions.

The southern Apennines of Italy have been experienced several destructive earthquakes both in historic and recent times. The present day seismicity, characterized by small-to-moderate magnitude earthquakes, was used like a probe to obatin a deeper knowledge of the fault structures where the largest earthquakes occurred in the past. With the aim to infer a three dimensional seismic image both the problem of data quality and the selection of a reliable and robust tomographic inversion strategy have been faced. The data quality has been obtained to develop optimized procedures for the measurements of P- and S-wave arrival times, through the use of polarization filtering and to the application of a refined re-picking technique based on cross-correlation of waveforms. A technique of iterative tomographic inversion, linearized, damped combined with a strategy of multiscale inversion type has been adopted. The retrieved P-wave velocity model indicates the presence of a strong velocity variation along a direction orthogonal to the Apenninic chain. This variation defines two domains which are characterized by a relatively low and high velocity values. From the comparison between the inferred P-wave velocity model with a portion of a structural section available in literature, the high velocity body was correlated with the Apulia carbonatic platforms whereas the low velocity bodies was associated to the basinal deposits. The deduced Vp/Vs ratio shows that the ratio is lower than 1.8 in the shallower part of the model, while for depths ranging between 5 km and 12 km the ratio increases up to 2.1 in correspondence to the area of higher seismicity. This confirms that areas characterized by higher values are more prone to generate earthquakes as a response to the presence of fluids and higher pore-pressures.

Seminario de Título entregado a la Universidad de Chile en cumplimiento parcial de los requisitos para optar al Título de Químico Ambiental / Iron (Fe) is a transition metal usually found in potable water at low concentrations, whose concentration limit is 0.3 mg / L according to NCh 409, and due to its common use mainly in pipelines and industries, it must be constantly monitored, in order to keep its concentration under the limits and guarantee the welfare of people. The aim of this work is to promote an easy method to identify and extract Fe from potable and natural waters through solid phase extraction. This was done both for acid and basic mediums. 0.4 mL of sulfosalicylic acid (SSA) at 2.5% w/v was used as a ligand, adding 3 mL of a monochloroacetic acid buffer for the samples in acid medium and 3 mL of concentrated NH3 (12,66 M) for samples in basic medium and form a complex, either Fe(III)-SSA or Fetotal-SSA, in 100 mL total solution. Then, an anion exchange solid resin was added, called AG 2-x8 from BIORAD, in order to preconcentrate the complex. Previous studies were conducted without the addition of resin to observe the formation of the complex and study its characteristics. The quantification limits were 0.56 ppm and 0.28 ppm, which are very high or too close to the concentration limit of Fe allowed in potable water, that is, 0.3 ppm (NCh 409). Solid phase studies were carried out in order to decrease the quantification limits of the method. Then the chemical variables involved in obtaining the complex were optimized, such as the amount of SSA, anionic resin, buffer and total volume. Thus obtaining the adequate amounts for each analyte, mentioned above. The extraction of the Fe-ASS complex was possible for both media. However, in a basic medium it requires much higher Fe concentrations for its formation and presented a constant turbidity in the form of a colloidal compound of gray tone mainly referred so the procedure was more thoroughly studied in acid medium. The Fe(III)-SSA complex presented good linearity throughout the measurement range with an DL of 7.32 x 10-3 ppm and an QL of 0.024 ppm achieving a good sensitivity and a recovery percentage of 99.7%. Only SO4-2 presented interference in the sample with a tolerance limit of only 100 ppm. The standard addition method was effective to eliminate this interference by treating the entire matrix in the same way throughout the measurement range. Potable water samples were taken from different sources, such as, from the Analytic Chemistry Laboratory (Ñuñoa), Quinta Normal and from a construction zone adjacent of the the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Chile. Fe is generally found at concentrations below the norm (23.38 ppb and 172 ppb), but is sensitive to climatic factors (522 ppb after a very rainy day) and construction places with little waste treatment (342.3 ppb), so it must be constantly monitored. Solid phase extraction is a simple, fast and efficient method and has a wide range of applications for different compounds or chemical substances.

[pt] Os óxidos mistos CeO2-ZrO2 são utilizados como suporte de catalisadores automotivos devido a sua capacidade de estocar e liberar oxigênio em condições pobres ou ricas de combustível, respectivamente, a fim de auxiliar nas reações redox que minimizam a emissão de poluentes oriunda da queima incompleta do combustível. Neste trabalho, os óxidos mistos CeO2-ZrO2 foram preparados pelo método de coprecipitação, utilizando-se como sais precursores o ZrO(NO3)2 e o (NH4)2Ce(NO3)6 ou Ce(NO3)3 com a finalidade de se observar a influência do sal precursor de cério no sistema CeO2-ZrO2. Além disso, investigou-se o efeito de algumas condições de preparação como o envelhecimento do precipitado, o controle de pH durante a síntese, a secagem e o envelhecimento térmico nos óxidos mistos obtidos. Os resultados mostram que a variável mais significante na preparação dos óxidos mistos CeO2-ZrO2 por coprecipitação é o sal precursor de cério. Em todas as amostras preparadas a partir do precursor de cério IV houve a formação de solução sólida, enquanto que no caso das amostras preparadas a partir do precursor de cério III observou-se a formação de duas fases segregadas, c-CeO2 e t-ZrO2. Além disso, concluiu-se que a redução do material obtido não ocorre somente na superfície, mas também na parte mássica e que os materiais formados por solução sólida são os que apresentam melhor capacidade de armazenamento de oxigênio o que é muito importante para o uso em catalisadores automotivos. O envelhecimento térmico do catalisador mostrou que há uma sinterização devido à alta temperatura e que também há uma segregação da solução sólida quando esta foi submetida às condições de envelhecimento utilizadas. / [en] The CeO2-ZrO2 mixed oxides are used as automotive catalyst support due to their capacity to storage and to release oxygen in lean and rich conditions, respectively, in order to assist redox reactions that minimize the emission of pollutants caused by fuel incomplete combustion. In this present work, the CeO2- ZrO2 mixed oxides had been prepared by the coprecipitation method using as precursor salts the ZrO(NO3)2 and the (NH4)2Ce(NO3)6 or the Ce(NO3)3 with the purpose of observing the influence of the cerium precursor salt in the CeO2-ZrO2 system. Moreover, the effect of some preparation conditions like drying, thermal aging, pH control and aging along precipitation was investigated. The results show that the most significant variable in the coprecipitation preparation of the CeO2-ZrO2 mixed oxides is the cerium salt precursor. There were formation of solid solutions in all samples prepared from the cerium IV precursor, while in the case of the samples prepared from the cerium III precursor, it was observed formation of two segregated phases, c-CeO2 and ZrO2. In addition, one concluded that the reduction of the obtained material does not only occur in the surface, but also in the bulk. The solid solution materials are the ones that present the best oxygen storage capacity what is very important for the use in the automotives catalysts. The thermal aging of the catalyst showed that there are a sintering due to the high temperature and a segregation of the solid solution when the material was submitted to the used aging conditions.

[pt] Este trabalho apresenta um estudo sistemático da sorção de índio de meio iodeto, utilizando espuma de poliuretano à base de poliéter comercial como extrator em fase sólida, visando à pré-concentração e/ou separação de índio de diferentes matrizes de amostras. As características físico-químicas de sorção do sistema foram investigadas por processo em batelada, apresentando rápida cinética e máxima sorção numa faixa significativa de meio ácido ou básico, com coeficientes de distribuição acima de 104 L kg-1 ([KI] maior ou igual 0,6 mol L-1). A análise do equilíbrio de sorção indicou o tetraiodo- indato (MinI4) como a principal espécie sorvida na matriz da espuma; os mecanismos de sorção mais prováveis foram discutidos. A isoterma de Langmuir foi ajustada com êxito sendo obtido um valor de (1,55 mais ou menos 0,02)x10-1 mol kg-1 para a capacidade de saturação. O efeito da temperatura foi avaliado indicando um processo espontâneo e exotérmico caracterizado por sorção química. A reextração do índio da espuma com solução de HCl 1,0 mol L-1 em meio etanol 50% apresentou rápida cinética (10 minutos) e eficiência (97%). O sistema pode ser utilizado para a separação de traços de índio de grandes quantidades de Al, Fe, Zn, Ni, Co, Mn e Ga. Cd e Pb são co-extraídos. Ácido cítrico, F- e EDTA interferem na sorção do índio; tiosulfato de sódio (menor 0,1 mol L-1) e ácido ascórbio (até 0,8 mol L-1) não interferem. O sistema foi avaliado na determinaço de In na presença de 105 vezes Zn, Al, Fe pelo método de adição e recuperação de índio. Os elementos determinados por ICP- OES apresentaram fatores de separação, da ordem de 7,0 x 102 para Zn/In, 1,0x105 para Fe/In e de 5,5x104 para Al/In, com eficiente recuperação de índio. A metodologia desenvolvida foi aplicada para determinar índio por ICP- OES em material de referência padrão de zinco metálico (NIST), apresentando concordância compatível com o valor certificado, para um nível de confiança de 95%. / [en] This work shows a systematic study on indium iodide sorption using commercial polyether-based polyurethane foam as a solid phase extractor in order to preconcentrate and/ or separate indium from different sample matrices. The physico-chemical characteristics of the system sorption were investigated for the batch process. The system has shown rapid kinetic and maximum sorption from a meaningful range of either acid or basic medium and achieves distribution ratios above 104 L kg-1 ([KI] maior ou igual 0.6 mol L-1). Sorption equilibrium analysis indicates the tetraiodo- indate (MInI4) as the main species sorbed on the foam matrix; the more probable mechanisms of sorption were discussed. Langmuir isotherm was successfully fitted and a value of (1.55 mais ou menos 0.02)x10-1 mol kg-1 was obtained for the saturation capacity. The temperature effect was evaluated and indicates a spontaneous and exothermic chemisorption process favored at low temperatures. The indium reextraction from the foam using a HCl 0.1 mol L-1 in ethanol 50% medium solution has also shown a rapid kinetic (10 minutes) and efficiency (97%). The system should be used to separate large quantities of Al, Fe, Zn, Ni, Co, Mn and Ga from trace indium. Cd and Pb are coextracted with indium. Citric acid, F- and EDTA interfere on indium sorption; sodium thiosulfate (menor ou igual 0.1 mol L-1) and ascorbic acid (up to 0.1 mol L-1) do not interfere. The system was evaluated in the determination of indium in the presence of 105 times Zn, Al and Fe by indium addition and recovery technique. The elements determination by ICP-OES showed separation factors around 7.0x102 for Zn/In, 1.0X105 for Fe/In and of 5.5x104 for Al/In, with an efficient recovery of indium. The developed methodology was applied to determine indium in metallic zinc standard reference material (NIST) by ICP-OES and has shown compatible agreement with the certified value at a 95% confidence level.