This map shows the seismic hazard map of Italy for the region where the earthquake occurred.

The expected ground motion values are obtained from the reference seismic hazard map of Italy (MPS04) (Ordinanza Presidente del Consiglio dei Ministri - OPCM 28 April 2006, n. 3519, All. 1b; Stucchi et al., 2011), that provides the 10% probability of exceedance in 50 years of the horizontal acceleration at rock sites (i.e., soil category A, V_s30 > 800 m/s, Nuove Norme Tecniche per le Costruzioni, NTC 2008.
The colours in map indicate different range of ground motion acceleration [g] that have the 10% of probability to be exceeded within 50 years. In general, the colours associated to low values of acceleration refer to areas that are less hazardous and stronger earthquakes repeat less frequently, although they may still occur.

Seismic hazard maps provide probabilistic estimates of the earthquake ground shaking exceeding a given threshold in a given geographic region within a given time window. Thus, it is not a deterministic prediction - a target that may be never reached given the complexity of the earthquake physical phenomenon - nor of the maximum expected earthquake since this has extremely low probabilities to occur.