Deep geophysical electromagnetic section across the middle Aterno Valley (central Italy): preliminary results after the April 6, 2009 L'Aquila earthquake

The area hit by the M(w) 6.3, mainshock of April 6, 2009 (L'Aquila, central Italy) has been recently well investigated in terms of surface and shallow data, but so far lacks deep structural information. In order to fill this gap, Magnetotelluric (MT) and Deep Electrical Resistivity Tomography (DERT) techniques were applied in the middle Aterno Valley, which is the epicentral area of the earthquake. Both methods allowed us to hypothesize on the thickness of the different lithosomes and their geometric relationships, putting in evidence also the possible trace, at depth, of the Paganica fault, i.e., one of the segments of the seismogenic structure responsible for the 2009 earthquake (i.e., Paganica-San Demetrio Fault System).