Major Earthquake in Italy - 130 Dead

[launderess]

Major earthquake in Italy. Many dead and major damage

Italy earthquake leaves 150 dead and scores more trapped under rubble

Rescue workers in central Italy try to free hundreds of people feared trapped under rubble

www.guardian.co.uk

 

[frigilux]

I have many relatives in Italy, but since my mom's passing in '85, I haven't kept track of their locations. My mom was from Veroli and I know she had siblings in Frosinone and Rome. I'll have to check a map of Italy and find out where Veroli and Frosinone are located.

Also: Where is our Italian member located? Does anyone know?

 

[jeffg]

Eugene, both Veroli and Frosinone are within 20 mi. of Sora, and from the USGS shake map, the main shock in this area was a III-IV intensity.. light to moderate shaking. Rome was a little closer to the epicenter, and reports have been in the IV-V range, with some reports of stronger shaking.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/dyfi/events/us/2009fcaf/us/index.html

 

[jeffg]

Well, according to this, the maximum intensity reported from Rome was a III (light shaking). Vatican City reported it as a VII, but that's probably incorrect.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/dyfi/events/us/2009fcaf/us/index.html

 

[favorit]

Veroli is between Rome and Naples, that's towards S-SE from Rome. The earthquake happended towards NE from Rome, on the opposite side of the city

Main problems in Italy are those beautiful historical villages and towns. It's hard to renovate them in a earthquake-proof way without damaging their architectural value.

In this disaster the only good thing is that after the big quake in 1976 (north east, close to Slovenja) our Major Events Rescue Dept has improved a lot and became well organized and efficent, thanks to many thousands of volunteers from several associations all over Italy

@ Frigilux : we're lucky ... in the north
-I live in the north, close to Milan, on a sand plain, so no severe eartquakes here

- DJGabriele lives in Bologna (Northern Italy)

- Diomede (Vivalalavatrice) probably lives in Turin (North)
as once he posted one of his works @ Turin University

- Bewitched/Marco - don't know where he's from, hope not from L'Aquila !

 

[dj-gabriele]

Today there was a second major quake! It was so strong that people reported celing lamps moving even here in Bologna!
The distance between the two cities is around 350 km (218 miles) so it really must have been so strong! Hopefully with all the people already out of the damaged buildings nobody was injuried even if the collapsing buildings moved a huge amount of dust and debris. It's a shame that, besides the loss of lives and private houses, many of the landmarks and historic buildings of that area are gone.

 

[hydralique]

So far I've seen it reported in the media as a 6.3. This is pretty tough but a little less than Northridge here in '94 which I believe was a 6.7. I'm surprised and saddened that so many people have died or been injured by this size quake given that it didn't occur in a major city. I'm guessing that many were in unreinforced masonry buildings - sometimes it takes a tragedy like this to encourage people to go through and add some reinforcing to old buildings made of load-bearing masonry.

I'm not sure what types of construction are being used today in southern Italy, but I hope it's more quake-resistant than what I've seen in northern Europe. In those areas there is a great deal of building tile and block with voids to aid in insulation. That works well there, but what I've seen doesn't appear to have much shear value and wouldn't be appropriate in areas subject to seismic action unless other provisions are made such as steel moment frames.

 

[bewitched]

Earthquake

Hello eveybody! I'm from Florence, quite far from the earthquake!
What a disaster anyway...I'm speechless...

 

[hydralique]

It's good to hear from both bewitched and dj-gabriele . . . I hope all your friends and relatives are safe too.

 

[dj-gabriele]

Hope this link solves your curiosity of how private houses and buildings are erected in Italy, of course there are exceptions and some still are masonry but that's really not common anymore. It's all steel and concrete structures.
The problem with all those building is that many of them were antique but also some newer buildings from the 70s and 80s collapsed and that IS a scandal!
Thanks for the interest, nobody I know was hurt.

http://irenececcocasa.blogspot.com/2008_04_01_archive.html

 

[hydralique]

Neat Link, dj-gabriele . . .

In this case any lateral loads should be taken by the steel-reinforced concrete columns and floors which function as a reinforced concrete moment frame. So long as the basic engineering is good, this is a good system. The infill building tile is pretty much structurally negligible, not a problem so long as the reinforced concrete is there. The woodwork is very pretty, I assume the carefully jointed beam will be used as an exposed joist.

Quite a lot is determined by the soils and geology conditions as well. The only way to determine how to deal with any specific site is to have a geotechnical engineer do test bores to determine the substrate and recommend a design. This is not something that was done until comparatively recently for smaller buildings, and is another reason old buildings can fail - once the foundation goes, even the best buildings can collapse.

 

[sudsmaster]

California has had earthquake safety related building codes since the 1930's. Over the decades they have gotten more stringent, with the strictest and best codes coming after the 1989 Loma Prieta quake.

Being on sand is no guarantee of safety in a quake. In fact, such soil can be worse than being on rock - depending on the subsoil and underlying rock formations, a sandy soil can magnify the seismic waves and intensify the damage - it's called a seismic lens. In fact the worse hit areas in the Loma Prieta quake were sandy or landfilled soils underlying such areas as the Marina District in SF and the Cypress freeway structure in Oakland.

The worst quake in the USA likely will come in the southern half of the Mississippi River valley. A tremendous quake there in the 1800's shifted the course of the river and would have caused billions in damage and many fatalities/injuries if it were to happen today. It rang bells in Philadelphia, as I recall reading. And eventually, it will happen again. Because there is not the same frequency of quakes there, most of that area doesn't have as strong building codes as California and that may contribute greatly to the damage and casualties.