At the end of May, 2012, a seismic sequence struck the Emilia Region of Northern Italy, with two main events of local magnitude M_L 5.9 and 5.8. The earthquakes have been recorded by a number of instruments of the Italian strong motion network, managed by the Department of Civil Protection. In this study, the accelerograms recorded by the stations located within 25 km from the epicentres are analysed from an engineering standpoint. Different intensity measures and acceleration, displacement and energy response spectra are calculated. Moreover, because in masonry structures damage is usually related to local collapse mechanisms, rocking spectra are also computed. Finally, a comparison with values calculated for the accelerograms recorded during L'Aquila, 2009, earthquake is made.

The performed analyses show that that the strong motion was rather severe, especially in terms of horizontal displacements and vertical accelerations. The study highlights the presence of a rather large pulse in the N-S components of the near-field records. This phenomenon is probably related to the N-S direction being approximately normal to the causative fault. The comparison with L’Aquila earthquake shows that, even though the acceleration-related measures were stronger in L'Aquila, the displacement demand was higher during the Emilia events.