Seismic properties of the upper crust in the central Friuli area (northeastern Italy) based on petrophysical data

The compressional and shear wave velocities have been measured at room temperature and pressure up to 450 Mpa on 5 sedimentary rock samples, representative of the most common lithologies of the upper crust in the central Friuli area (northeastern Italy). At 400 MPa confining pressure the Triassic dolomitic rock shows the highest velocities (Vp similar to 7 km/s, Vs similar to 3.6 km/s), the Jurassic and Triassic limestones samples intermediate velocities (Vp similar to 6.3 km/s, Vs similar to 3.5 km/s) and the Cenozoic and Paleozoic sandstones the lowest velocities (Vp similar to 6.15 km/s, Vs similar to 3.35 km/s). The Paleozoic sandstone sample is characterized by the strongest anisotropy (10%) and significant bireffingence (0.2 km/s) is found only on the Cenozoic sandstone sample. We elaborated the synthetic profiles of seismic velocities, density, elastic parameters and reflection coefficient, related to 4 one-dimensional geological models extended up to 22 kin depth. The synthetic profiles evidence high rheological contrasts between Triassic dolomitic rocks and the soft sandstones and the Jurassic limestones. The Vp profiles obtained from laboratory measurements match very well the in-situ Vp profile measured by sonic log for the limestones and dolomitic rocks, supporting our one-dimensional modelling of the calcareous-carbonatic stratigraphic series. The Vp and Vs values of the synthetic profiles are compared with the corresponding ones obtained from the 3-D tomographic inversion of local earthquakes. The laboratory Vp are generally higher than the tomographic ones with major discrepancies for the dolomitic lithology. The comparison with the depth location of seismicity reveals that the seismic energy is mainly released in correspondence of high-contrast theological boundaries. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V All rights reserved.