Major earthquake in central Italy

[AoWW]

At approx 3am this morning, centred close to the city of l'Aquila, approx 60 miles NE of Rome.

Many buildings collapsed, initial reports suggest people are trapped and many injured. Hope there aren't too many casualties but it doesn't sound good.

Linkage

[SOCCERROO FOX]

Lovely part of the world hope it's not too bad

[Jaspa]

Several killed apparently.

Lets hope its not to bad eh,

RIP to the ones already dead, and my heart goes out to people still under ruble as i type.

[AmericanScott]

i woke up at about 3.45 this morning and had BBC news on. I saw this and i had to watch it for a bit. Reports say 27 have been killed

[BoneDog]

Just watching this on the news now and it looks like a bad one. Thousands of buildings destroyed it says. Bad news

[Monk]

This sounds terrible, hope the emergency services can save many today. Can't imagine being woken up in the middle of the night and losing your wife and kids in your collapsed home in seconds. Awful.

[StanSP]

Just read on uk.msn that student dormitories have been crushed and loads of people are unaccounted for . Shocking event. Don't think you get many earthquakes in italy.

R.I.P to all those who couldn't survive this horrible event.

[fox123]

My mates in and around Rome at the minute on his Jollys, not sure where though...bit worried now.

[Thracian]

Death toll now 179 and looks like passing 200. Ancient villages virtually flattened. Fifteen hundred injured and thousands homeless.

Meanwhile, it was revealed that weeks before the quake, an Italian scientist predicted a major quake around L'Aquila based on the radon gas found in seismically active areas, but he was reported to police for "spreading alarm" and was forced to remove his findings from the internet.

"For weeks they told us to stay calm, that we could live in our houses, that there was no problem. Now we see what the problem was," one female resident of L'Aquila said.

Whether anyone would have heeded the warning I don't know but it does show people's inclination to deny anything they don't want to believe and to suppress the noncomformist viewpoint.

Right back to the time it was first suggested that the world was round instead of flat.

[cisono]

Death toll not 179 and looks like passing 200. Ancient villages virtually flattened. Fifteen hundred injured and thousands homeless.

Yeah, not good but...

yesterday I checked historical records for many earthquakes around the world.

It seems that we have no idea of which ones were the most destructive.

For instance, everyone has heard of the 1906 San Francisco quake

that killed about 3,000.

However, about the same time, in 1908,

1908 12 28 Messina, Italy

38.15N 15.68E 72,000 7.2

Over 40% of the population of Messina and more than 25% of Reggio di Calabria killed by the earthquake and tsunami, as well as by fires in some parts of Messina. Casualty toll is based on census data 1901-1911, some estimates are as high as 110,000.

How many people were aware of that one?

In 1976, 1,000 people died in my region (luckily a fair 50 minutes from where my family lived - even so, had to sleep outdoors for the whole summer).

1976 05 06 northeastern Italy

46.4N 13.3E 1,000 6.5

1,000 reported killed, at least 1,700 injured, and extensive damage in the epicentral area. The quake was reported felt throughout Europe. A magnitude 4.6 foreshock preceded the main shock by about 1 minute and 7 seconds. The main shock was followed by a number of aftershocks, at least one reaching a magnitude of 5, that caused additional damage and injuries.

This was an important quake which totally changed the seismic risk map for Italy (no previous earthquakes had ever been recorded in my region, which was therefore considered at "low risk" until that time).

Some other interesting ones:

2003 12 26 Southeastern Iran

28.99N 58.31E 31,000 6.6

About 31,000 people killed, 30,000 injured, 75,600 homeless and 85 percent of buildings damaged or destroyed in the Bam area.

and of course:

2004 12 26 Sumatra

3.30N 95.87E 227,898 9.1

This is the third largest earthquake in the world since 1900 and is the largest since the 1964 Prince William Sound, Alaska earthquake. In total, 227,898 people were killed or were missing and presumed dead and about 1.7 million people were displaced by the earthquake and subsequent tsunami in 14 countries in South Asia and East Africa.

2005 10 08 Pakistan

34.53N 73.58E 86,000 7.6 At least 86,000 people killed, more than 69,000 injured and extensive damage in northern Pakistan

last "big one":

2008 05 12 Eastern Sichuan, China

31.002 103.322 87,587 7.9

At least 69,195 people killed, 374,177 injured and 18,392 missing and presumed dead in the Chengdu-Lixian-Guangyuan area.

sources:

various but in particular http://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/world/world_deaths.php

[Ultra]

Just read on uk.msn that student dormitories have been crushed and loads of people are unaccounted for . Shocking event. Don't think you get many earthquakes in italy.

R.I.P to all those who couldn't survive this horrible event.

Apparently you do. The country is on two major fault lines, so it's particularly vulnerable, like California.

Deepest condolences to those who died, or were injured or lost their homes.

[Thracian]

Apparently you do. The country is on two major fault lines, so it's particularly vulnerable, like California.

Deepest condolences to those who died, or were injured or lost their homes.

Excellent coverage in The Telegraph. Apparently the scientist I mentioned toured the City well before the earthquake struck, pleading with people to flee. I wonder if anyone did?

[Dr The Singh]

Excellent coverage in The Telegraph. Apparently the scientist I mentioned toured the City well before the earthquake struck, pleading with people to flee. I wonder if anyone did?

Really, I watched the news last night and the people said they were never given any warnings by the government and the government stated that it's near impossible to predict an earthquake????

[StanSP]

Really, I watched the news last night and the people said they were never given any warnings by the government and the government stated that it's near impossible to predict an earthquake????

http://news.uk.msn.com/world/article.aspx?...mentid=15778872