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2009 L'Aquila earthquake

Coordinates: 42°25′23″N 13°23′42″E / 42.423°N 13.395°E / 42.423; 13.395
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42°25′23″N 13°23′42″E / 42.423°N 13.395°E / 42.423; 13.395

2009 L'Aquila earthquake
UTC time??
Magnitude6.3 Mw[1]
Depth10 km (6.2 mi)[1]
Epicenter42°25′23″N 13°23′42″E / 42.423°N 13.395°E / 42.423; 13.395[2]
Areas affectedAbruzzo, Italy
Tsunamino tsunami, but ... earthquake, is when two earth plates wiggle and jiggle and shake. eruptions of the earth is created and bada-bing bada boom there's a disaster
Casualtiesat least 260 dead[3]
20-30 missing[4]
1,000+ injured[4]
28,000 homeless[3]
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The 2009 L'Aquila earthquake was an earthquake of 6.3 moment magnitude that occurred in the central Italian region of Abruzzo on 6 April 2009, following a series of about a hundred minor tremors since January 2009, including a 4.0-magnitude one on 30 March. The majority of the damage occurred in the medieval city of L'Aquila (capital city of the Abruzzo region) and the surrounding villages. As of April 8th at 14.25 CEST, at least 260 people are known to have died,[3] and 11 are still missing,[4] making this the deadliest earthquake to hit Italy since the 1980 Irpinia earthquake.

Cause

The earthquake was caused by movement on a NW-SE trending normal fault according to moment tensor solutions.[2] Although Italy lies in a tectonically complex region, the central part of the Appenines has been characterised by extensional tectonics since the Pliocene epoch, with most of the active faults being normal in type and NW-SE trending.[5] The extension is due to the back-arc basin in the Tyrrhenian Sea opening faster than the African Plate is colliding with the Eurasian Plate.[2]

The earthquake occurred at 01:32 GMT (03:32 CEST local time) at the relatively shallow depth of 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) and with an epicentre at 42.423°N, 13.395°E[2] or approximately 90 kilometres (60 mi) north-east of Rome, at the village of Paganica near to the city of L'Aquila.[6] The earthquake was reported to measure 6.3 on the moment magnitude scale.[2]

Historical context

Italy frequently experiences earthquakes but it is uncommon for them to be very deadly; the last major earthquake was the 5.9 magnitude 2002 Molise earthquake which killed more than 25 people and was the deadliest in 20 years.[6] Earthquakes mark the history of L'Aquila, a city built on the bed of an ancient lake, providing a soil structure that appears to amplify the vibrations of earthquakes. The city was struck by earthquakes in 1315, 1349, 1452, 1501, 1646, 1703, and 1706.[7] The earthquake of February 1703, which caused devastation across much of central Italy, largely destroyed the city and killed around 5,000 people.[8]

Effects

Nationality Deaths Injured Missing
Italy Italians 251+ 1,174 11
Romania Romanians 5[9]
North Macedonia Macedonians 2[10]
Czech Republic Czechs 2[11]
Greece Greeks 1[12] 5
France French 1[13]
Ukraine Ukrainian 1[14]
Total 262+ 1,179 11
Location of the epicentre

The earthquake caused damage to between 3,000 and 11,000 buildings in the medieval city of L'Aquila.[15] Several buildings also collapsed. At least 251 people have been killed by the earthquake, including two Czechs[11], four Romanian citizens[9], one Greek citizen[12], one French citizen[13] and one Ukrainian citizen[14] and around 1,000 people were injured. As of 8 April at least 12 people remained missing and firemen were still working to extract people from under the collapsed edifices. Some 25,000 people have been made homeless.[4]

The main earthquake was preceded by two smaller earthquakes the previous day.[15] The earthquake was felt as far away as Rome (92 kilometres (57 mi) away), in other parts of Lazio, as well as Molise, Umbria, and Campania. Schools remained closed in the Abruzzo region. Most of the inhabitants of L'Aquila have abandoned their homes and the city itself; in the city centre of L'Aquila, and the nearby village of Paganica which was also badly damaged, many streets are impassable due to fallen masonry. The hospital at L'Aquila, where many of the victims were brought, suffered damage in the 4.8 aftershock which followed the main earthquake an hour later. Powerful aftershocks, some only slightly weaker than the main shock, were felt throughout the following 2 days.

Villages in the valley along Strada Statale 17 Bis just outside l'Aquila suffered the greatest damage. Onna was reported to be mostly leveled with 38 deaths among the 350 residents.[16] The villages of Villa Sant'Angelo and Borgo di Castelnuovo were badly damaged.[17] Fatalities were reported in Poggio Picenze, Tornimparte, Fossa, and Totani.[18]

Nearly all medieval monuments in L'Aquila have been damaged. The campanile of the Basilica of Saint Bernardino of Siena, L'Aquila's largest Renaissance church, collapsed and its apse was seriously damaged. The 17th-century church of Anime Sante in Piazza Duomo lost its dome. The Cathedral of L'Aquila has lost part of its transept and maybe more with the effects of the aftershocks. The 13th-century Basilica di Santa Maria di Collemaggio collapsed from the transept to the back of the church and Porta Napoli, the oldest gate to the city, was destroyed in the quake. There were also concerns for the National Museum of Abruzzo, which is housed in the 16th-century castle. The cupola of the 18th-century Baroque church of St Augustine has collapsed, flattening the prefecture that held L'Aquila's state archives.[19] Slight damage was also reported to the Baths of Caracalla in Rome, but other Roman monuments such as the Colosseum and Roman Forum were unharmed.[20]

Homeless camps

Around 17,700 people made homeless by the earthquake have been found accommodation in tented camps and a further 10,000 are housed in hotels on the coast.[3] Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi caused a controversy when he said, in an interview to the German station n-tv, that the homeless victims should consider themselves to be on a "camping weekend" - "They have everything they need, they have medical care, hot food... Of course, their current lodgings are a bit temporary. but they should see it like a weekend of camping"[21]. To clarify his thought, he also told the people in a homeless camp: "Head to the beach. It’s Easter. Take a break. We’re paying for it, you’ll be well looked after"[22].

Aftershocks

The region saw several aftershocks, following the main earthquake. The strongest, which hit on 7 April at 19:47 CEST local time measured magnitude 5.3 on the Richter scale and caused further damage [23]. According to INGV director Boschi, the epicentre has moved south-east, thus lessening the risk of other major shocks.

As a result, the dome of the Anime Sante Basilica in L'Aquila, already heavily damage by the main shock, has almost entirely collapsed. Further buildings have collapsed in L'Aquila and in neighbouring boroughs. The aftershock was so strong to be felt in Rome, where it caused a man to die of heart failure (source RAI Televideo).

At 23:30 CEST of the same day another series of aftershocks has hit the area, with magnitudes between 3.5 and 3.8 Richter; the most recent aftershock struck on April 8th at 06:25(source RAI Televideo).

List of foreshocks and aftershocks

Only shocks with magnitude 3.0 or higher are listed. Shocks with magnitude 5.0 or higher are highlighted in light blue. The main shock with magnitude 6.3 is highlighted in dark blue.[24]

Date (YYYY-MM-DD)
and time (UTC)		 Time
(local)		 Lat. Long. Depth Mag.
2009-02-22 11:21:27.6 12:21:27.6 42.00° N 13.20° E 2 km (1 mi) 3.5 (ML)
2009-03-29 08:43:09.0 10:43:09.0 42.02° N 13.96° E 2 km (1 mi) 3.8 (ML)
2009-03-30 13:38:39.3 15:38:39.3 42.33° N 13.35° E 2 km (1 mi) 4.4 (Mw)
2009-03-30 13:43:26.0 15:43:26.0 42.30° N 13.36° E 10 km (6 mi) 3.5 (ML)
2009-03-30 19:05:28.0 21:05:28.0 42.31° N 13.35° E 10 km (6 mi) 3.1 (ML)
2009-03-30 21:57:17.0 23:05:28.0 42.31° N 13.37° E 9 km (6 mi) 3.3 (ML)
2009-04-03 04:44:42.0 06:44:42.0 42.33° N 13.36° E 9 km (6 mi) 3.0 (ML)
2009-04-05 20:48:56.4 22:48:56.4 42.36° N 13.37° E 2 km (1 mi) 4.0 (ML)
2009-04-06 01:32:41.4 03:32:41.4 42.38° N 13.32° E 2 km (1 mi) 6.3 (Mw)
2009-04-06 02:14:10.0 04:14:10.0 42.32° N 13.46° E 5 km (3 mi) 3.3 (ML)
2009-04-06 02:25:45.0 04:25:45.0 42.43° N 13.36° E 13 km (8 mi) 3.3 (ML)
2009-04-06 02:27:48.2 04:27:48.2 42.37° N 13.23° E 2 km (1 mi) 4.3 (mb)
2009-04-06 02:31:33.0 04:31:33.0 42.41° N 13.39° E 8 km (5 mi) 3.4 (ML)
2009-04-06 02:37:05.3 04:37:05.3 42.41° N 13.32° E 2 km (1 mi) 5.1 (Mw)
2009-04-06 02:44:32.0 04:44:32.0 42.30° N 13.35° E 10 km (6 mi) 3.2 (ML)
2008-04-06 03:17:04.0 05:17:04.0 42.37° N 13.37° E 9 km (6 mi) 3.2 (ML)
2008-04-06 03:43:16.0 05:43:16.0 42.33° N 13.37° E 9 km (6 mi) 3.1 (ML)

International aid

Prime Minister of Italy Silvio Berlusconi refused foreign aid for the emergency, saying that Italians were "proud people" and had sufficient resources to deal with the crisis.[25] However he singled out the United States announcing that he would accept the aid for reconstruction "If the United States wants to give a tangible sign of its solidarity with Italy, it could take on the responsibility of rebuilding heritage sites and churches. We would be very happy to have this support." and proposed for the United States to help rebuild "a small district of a town or a suburb".[26] The aid was offered by[27] Austria, Croatia, the European Union, France, Germany, Spain, Greece, Israel, Portugal,[28], Iran,[29] Republic of Macedonia,[30] Russia, Serbia,[31] Slovenia,[32] Tunisia, the Turkish Red Crescent,[33] Ukraine,[34] and United States.[35]

Prior warning controversy

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Italian laboratory technician Giampaolo Giuliani claimed the prediction of a major earthquake on Italian television a month before,[36][37][38] by measurement of radon emitted from the ground. He was accused of being alarmist,[38] and forced to remove his findings from the Internet. He was also reported to police a week previously for "causing fear" among the local population when he predicted an earthquake was imminent in Sulmona,[39] about 50 km (31 mi) from L'Aquila, on 30 March and nothing happened (and in fact the area of Sulmona only suffered very minor damages by the 6 April earthquake).[40] Enzo Boschi, the head of the Italian National Geophysics Institute declared: "Every time there is an earthquake there are people who claim to have predicted it. As far as I know nobody predicted this earthquake with precision. It is not possible to predict earthquakes."[41]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b "Italy lives with quake threat". BBC NEWS. 2009-04-06. Retrieved 2009-04-08.
  2. ^ a b c d e >"Magnitude 6.3 - CENTRAL ITALY 2009 April 06 01:32:42 UTC". USGS. 2009-04-06. Retrieved 2009-04-06.
  3. ^ a b c d "Death toll in Italy quake reaches 260". Associated Press. 2009-04-08. Retrieved 2009-04-08.
  4. ^ a b c d "L'Aquila, terrore per le nuove scosse" (in Italian). Corriere della Sera. 2009-04-08. Retrieved 2009-04-08.
  5. ^ Akinci,A.; Galadini,F.; Pantosti,D.; Petersen,M.D.; Malagnini,L., and Perkins,D., 2009, Effect of Time Dependence on Probabilistic Seismic-Hazard Maps and Deaggregation for the Central Apennines, Italy: Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, vol.99, no.2A, p.585-610, April 2009 issue, doi: 10.1785/0120080053
  6. ^ a b "Background: Italy and earthquakes". The Guardian. 2009-04-06. Retrieved 2009-04-06.
  7. ^ "L'Aquila, prov. of L'Aquila, Abruzzo". Abruzzo2000.com. Retrieved 2009-04-06.
  8. ^ Buffon, Georges Louis Leclerc (1792). Buffon's Natural History. Vol. 2. J.S. Barr.
  9. ^ a b "Cinci români, printre victimele cutremurului din Italia" (in Romanian). Realitatea TV. 2009-04-07. Retrieved 2009-04-07.
  10. ^ "Terremoto/Castelnuovo: 5 Vittime, Fra Cui 2 Macedoni. Chiesa Distrutta". ANA. 2009-04-07. Retrieved 2009-04-07.
  11. ^ a b "Quake: Over 100 dead, 1,500 injured". ANSA. 2009-04-06. Retrieved 2009-04-06.
  12. ^ a b "Trapped Greek student found dead in L' Aquila". ANA. 2009-04-07. Retrieved 2009-04-07.
  13. ^ a b "Une française tuée" (in French). Agence France Presse. Retrieved 2009-04-07.
  14. ^ a b "Eight-year-old Ukrainian girl killed in earthquake in Italy". UNIAN. Retrieved 2009-04-08.
  15. ^ a b "Powerful Italian quake kills many". BBC News. 2009-04-06. Retrieved 2009-04-06.
  16. ^ "Death toll rises in Italy quake". BBC News. 2009-04-07. Retrieved 2009-04-07.
  17. ^ "Italy quake kills at least 150, scores saved". AFP. 2009-04-06. Retrieved 2009-04-07.
  18. ^ "Italy in desperate race to save the buried after the earthquake". The Times. 2009-04-07. Retrieved 2009-04-07.
  19. ^ "Quake: 'Huge' artistic damage". ANSA. 2009-04-06. Retrieved 2009-04-06.
  20. ^ "Les Thermes de Caracalla, à Rome, touchés par le séisme" (in French). La Presse. 2009-04-06. Retrieved 2009-04-06.
  21. ^ Berlusconi gaffe as he says quake homeless should enjoy 'a camping weekend'
  22. ^ "Rescuers Scramble in Search for Quake Survivors". The New York Times. 2009-04-08. Retrieved 2009-04-08.
  23. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7988832.stm
  24. ^ http://www.emsc-csem.org/index.php?page=current&sub=filter&start_date=2009-01-01&end_date=2009-04-15&min_lat=42&max_lat=43&min_long=13&max_long=14&min_depth=&max_depth=&min_mag=3&max_mag=7
  25. ^ Death toll rises in Italy quake
  26. ^ Berlusconi may accept U.S. aid
  27. ^ World sends sympathy, offers aid to quake-hit Italy
  28. ^ http://ultimahora.publico.clix.pt/noticia.aspx?id=1372923&idCanal=62
  29. ^ Iran expresses sympathy over Italy quake
  30. ^ Macedonia offers aid to Italy after earthquake
  31. ^ Serbian leaders offer condolences to Italian earthquake victims
  32. ^ Slovenia Offers Help to Italy After Quake
  33. ^ Turkey Red Crescent offers help to quake hit-Italy
  34. ^ Украина готова направить в Италию отряд спасателей и мобильный госпиталь
  35. ^ EARTHQUAKE: OBAMA TO BERLUSCONI, US READY TO HELP
  36. ^ "Row over Italian quake 'forecast'". BBC News. 2009-04-06. Retrieved 2009-04-07.
  37. ^ Mackey, Robert (2009-04-06). "Earthquake Warning Was Removed From Internet". The New York Times. Retrieved 2009-04-07.
  38. ^ a b Why did quake cause so much damage? (Television production). BBC News. 2009-04-06. Event occurs at 1 minute 55 seconds. Retrieved 2009-04-06.
  39. ^ "World news Feed Article". AP. 2009-04-07. Retrieved 2009-04-07. Giuliani said Monday that he was placed under investigation by prosecutors for causing alarm after he sent warnings of a pending quake in the Sulmona area
  40. ^ "Italy: State of emergency after deadly central quake". Adnkronos International. 2009-04-06. Retrieved 2009-04-06.
  41. ^ "Italian earthquake: expert's warnings were dismissed as scaremongering". Daily Telegraph. 2009-04-06. Retrieved 2009-04-06.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Category:L'aquila 2009 earthquake.
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