Intermittent-type temporal fluctuations in seismicity of the Irpinia (southern Italy) region

We present a new approach to investigate the temporal fluctuations of seism icity in terms of intermittency as the underlying dynamical mechanism for t he variability of seismic activity. Analyzing the 1983-1997 Irpinia (southe rn Italy) seismicity, we base our analysis on the multifractal formalism co mbined with the estimate of the correlation codimension. Our findings show that the seismic activity of the area investigated is strongly intermittent , and the degree of intermittency lowers if aftershock clusters, associated to the larger events, are removed.