An earthquake in the Italian heartland has left many dead and thousands homeless. The catastrophe is the latest event in a series of seismic activity that will shake Italy and parts of Europe for centuries to come.
 | Survivors of the earthquake looking for relatives (Photo: Reuters) |
There had been warnings and even smaller earthquakes in the weeks before, but no one had expected such a jarring wake-up call. At 3:32am, the historic city of L’Aquila, some 90 kilometers north-east of Rome, was devastated by an earthquake with a magnitude of 5.8 to 6.3 on the Richter scale. Witnesses compared the roaring to the sounds of an exploding bomb.
Houses crumbled like dry leaves, the roof of a student dormitory collapsed and several churches were badly damaged. Buildings that withstood the 30-second-long tremor were covered with cracks. A spokesman for the Civil Protection Department said the quake may have left up to 50,000 people homeless. More than 200 people died, many were still missing days later, and relatives and neighbors started digging with their bare hands immediately after the shock.
The tragedy has compelled Italian Prime Minister Sylvio Berlusconi to cancel a trip to Moscow. He declared a state of national emergency to free extra funds and personnel for the rescue operation. Fortunately, the country is well-prepared: the first rescue teams arrived on the scene only minutes after the earth stopped shaking.
This has not been Italy’s first quake, and it won’t be the last. The country sits on a geological hot spot where the African and the Eurasian continental plates collide. Everyday, the African plate drifts further north and slides underneath Europe’s continental plate. This proces has created the Alps and the Apennines, slowly closing the gap we know as the Mediterranean Sea.
The collision isn’t a smooth process. At times the two plates get stuck, building up stress that can be released in a sudden tremor. The current earthquake hit the Abruzzo region that sits close to a north-south faultline that runs along the length of the country and is responsible for most of the major earthquakes on the peninsula.
 | Picture Gallery (click on the image to start)Impressions from the Abruzzo region affected by a severe earthquake |
According to Italy’s National Institue of Geophysics and Vulcanaology, about 45 percent of the country and 40 percent of the population is at risk. By far the worst earthquake in recent times happened in 1908 when an estimated 100,000 people were killed in Sicily. About 2,700 people died when another huge earthquake shook Italy’s south in 1980.
Italy’s scores of ancient buildings are especially vulnerable. Among the collapsed buildings are several old churches and houses. Small and winding roads in the country’s picturesque city centers make it also harder to deploy heavy machinery necessary for rescue operations.
Worldwide, some two million people have perished in earthquakes over the last two centuries. In the last ten years, earthquake losses amount to some six billion euros, according to Munich Re.
The Abruzzo region might still suffer from aftershocks, says Lars Ceranna from the German Seismological Central Observatory.
“It will take weeks until the area is seismically inactive,” says Ceranna.
Given that predictions about future earthquakes are impossible, Ceranna recommends to taking precautions. Governments can draft mitigation strategies and even set up warning systems, as in Japan. Geologists can often detect an imminent earthquake just before the tremors begin. Used wisely, these precious seconds could save lives.
“You can have up to 30 seconds or even a minute to close gas pipelines, stop trains, and even inform people in affected areas,” says Cerenna. “This can make a big difference.”
editor: Thilo Kunzemann
publishing date: April 7, 2009
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