Catania is one of the cities with major seismic hazard in Italy. In history the city was repeatedly hit by destructive earthquakes, e.g., the events of 1 169, 1542 and 1693, all with estimated magnitudes around or above 7.
\nThe purpose of our research is the study of site effects and response of soil in the Catania urban area based on synthetics imulations.We have considered three scenarios with earthquakes whose magnitudes range from 5.5 to 7.0 and whose epicentraldistancesaresupposedtobeintherange 12-35 km.
\nThe subsurface geology of the urban area of Catania is characterized by a marly- clay substratum overlain by lavas,sand sand conglomerates.The lava thickness range from a few to over 60 meters, while the thickness of sand terraces ranges from a few to 30 meters. Our study is based on ca. 100 boreholes from which geotechnical and geophysical data were available. We calculated synthetic accelerograms and response spectra at all borehole sites.The results highlight the importance of the subsurface geological conditions,in particular the presence of low velocity layersv which enhance seismic loading.<\/p>\n