PRESS RELEASE of April 2, 2010
Knowledge, prevention, education: the three keywords for living with earthquakes
Twelve months have passed since that morning when L'Aquila? was devastated by an earthquake of magnitude ML 5.8 (Mw 6.3). During this year, INGV carried out research on numerous aspects of that catastrophe. Important results are already collected in over 25 articles published by major international scientific journals.
The dramatic first seconds of the fault's rupture have been reconstructed in unprecedented detail. The National Seismic Network has located as many as 18.000 earthquakes starting from the main shock, making it possible to follow the evolution of the seismic sequence in real time and to identify some critical areas which are still monitored with extreme attention. Has the fundamental role of deep fluids in triggering the main shock and in the genesis of seismicity been highlighted? apennine. Three unknown strong earthquakes generated by the same fault in the last 2500 years and similar to the one in 2009 have been discovered.
On the first anniversary of the earthquake of April 6, the INGV wants to remember the three fundamental keywords for living with earthquakes that will necessarily hit Italy, one of the worst countries in the world. seismic events in the Mediterranean area: knowledge, prevention, education.
Since the last great Italian earthquake, the one that hit Irpinia in 1980, enormous progress has been made in understanding the processes of earthquake genesis. The strengthening of monitoring systems and the development of multidisciplinary studies have led to the characterization of the areas of greatest danger? seismic analysis, an essential tool for territorial planning. The community science continues to strive to explore all aspects of seismogenesis, including the precursory phenomena, which for? at the moment they do not allow any type of short-term forecast to be formulated.
Today the big bet of our community? scientific ? provide a medium-term time perspective, identifying areas where ? more high the probability? strong earthquakes will occur in the coming decades.
The big bet of the company? civil ? instead that of promptly incorporating scientific results and translating them into prevention actions and cultural growth aimed at risk education, as well as to accustom the new generations to a responsible coexistence with the territory. This remains the first and most? important form of defense against earthquakes.
Seismic map dell'Aquilano from 1 January 2009 to 6 April 2010
Histogram of the trend over time of the number of seismic events recorded from 1 April 2009 to 6 April 2010
The top 10 questions frequent on the earthquake of 6 April
In this section we report some of the questions that we have been asked in this year after the earthquake. We have tried to use simple language to allow even non-experts in the sector to find answers.
More earthquake FAQs
List of Articles, Reports and Presentations at Conferences by INGV researchers
In this list we report the scientific papers produced following the L'Aquila earthquake by INGV researchers in collaboration with other colleagues. For most of them, for those interested, ? It is possible to download the file by "clicking" directly on the title of the work.
Press Review
Video interviews
INGV has recently inaugurated the INGVterremoti channel on Youtube to provide information on earthquakes in Italy and around the world.
Earthquakes in Italy: locations and information. Interview with Giulio Selvaggi, director of the INGV National Earthquake Center, 30 March 2010. How many earthquakes are recorded in Italy? Which ? the situation of seismicity? in Abruzzo? How does INGV inform the Civil Protection and citizens? [interview transcript]
The L'Aquila earthquake: the Paganica fault. Interview with Daniela Pantosti 8 April 2010. What were the effects of the L'Aquila earthquake on the natural environment? The work of the Emergeo group. What geological research has been undertaken to better understand the fault responsible for the April 6 earthquake? [interview transcript]
Other material on the earthquake (edited by Edurisk)