Earthquake in northern Italy

[Tora Ziyal]

Yesterday, per The New York Times.

Iguana (and anyone I'm forgetting), I don't know what part of the country you live in. Are you okay?

 

[iguana_tonante]

I live within a stone's throw of it, but thankfully we got away with a big scare and nothing else. Thanks for your concern, Ziyal.

Long story short (I talked about it in TNZ, but I'll summarize here): Saturday night, around 1 am, I felt a small earthquake (magnitude 4.5), coincidentally as I was surfing the BBS. It was quite noticeable, with a few oscillation of the lamps and shaking of windows' glass: it happens sometimes, so I didn't think much of it. I went to sleep. At 4 am, I woke in bed shaking like mad, jumped out of it, grabbed the girlfriend by the hand and we headed for outdoor: the house was shaking and rumbling like crazy, the strongest I've ever felt (magnitude 6). It lasted about 30 seconds. We waited for about half an hour, just to make sure everything was ok, then we went to sleep again. The seismic swarm kept up all night, waking us occasionally.

In the morning we discovered the epicentre was very close, and there were at least 7 victims and heavy damages in towns closer to it. There are a few thousands of people out of their homes at the moment. But it's not just the loss of lives: centuries-old churches, castles and monuments went down, and it breaks my heart. Pictures of before/after the quake.

We had a few aftershockss in the last days (bigger was 5.1), but it's quiet now.

This comes on top of a truly crappy weekend for Italy, as a bomb exploded a couple of days ago in front of a school in the city of Brindisi, Apulia, killing a 16-year old girl and seriously wounding a few others. The reason of the attack is still unknown: maybe it's organized crime (but that would be unusual: they used bombs in the past, but never against schools), maybe it's politically motivated, maybe it's simply a madman. Whatever the reason, it's simply too horrible to think about it.

Truth to be told, I've seen better weekends.

 

[Tora Ziyal]

Oh how sad. I can see how your heart would be broken. Glad you're okay, though.

 

[SPOCKED]

My niece was in Corniglio at the time of the event. I'm still waiting on word from my sister about her.

 

[doubleohfive]

Glad you are ok, Iguana. Thanks for checking in.

 

[iguana_tonante]

Oh how sad. I can see how your heart would be broken. Glad you're okay, though.

Glad you are ok, Iguana. Thanks for checking in.

Thanks guys. It's appreciated.

My niece was in Corniglio at the time of the event. I'm still waiting on word from my sister about her.

After a quick check, it's more than 100 km (60 miles) from the epicentre of the quake: she should be fine. I'm sure she felt it, tho.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Glad you're okay, but I'm sorry to hear about the casualties. And the damage to the historical sites.

 

[SPOCKED]

My niece was in Corniglio at the time of the event. I'm still waiting on word from my sister about her.

After a quick check, it's more than 100 km (60 miles) from the epicentre of the quake: she should be fine. I'm sure she felt it, tho.

Its just a bit ironic that she told her mom she wouldn't have internet for a "few days" when they got to Corniglio. In any case, here is her latest facebook update:

We are fine! Having a ball! So beautiful here!!!!!

 

[Alidar Jarok]

Sorry about your crappy week. Glad you and your fidenzata are ok. Was this your first earthquake?

 

[iguana_tonante]

Not the first, but probably the biggest. Seismically speaking, we live in a relatively quiet place, but a quiet place in Italy is still pretty active. We have a few tremors every year, and a bigger event every 10-20 years.

The one I remember best was during my last year in high school: we were reading Ugo Foscolo's Dei Sepolcri (On the Graves), and the school started shaking and rumbling. Since that day, I am convinced that Foscolo's poetry is bad luck. But we were happy because we were sent home and the school was closed for the rest of the day. Ah, youth!

 

[B.J.]

Glad you're okay iguana, but that sucks about those old buildings. From those pictures, it looks like even the parts that survived are in bad shape and have some huge cracks across them. I hope they're able to be saved. Around here, there's practically nothing that's older than maybe a century, and you'd have to look hard to find that.

 

[Holdfast]

How much seismic activity does Northern Italy usually get? I always assumed it was the Southern parts of the country that bore the brunt of geological activity, but that's really only based only knowing where Pompeii, Stromboli and Etna are, and dumbly extrapolating.

Anyway, glad you're ok, iguana.

 

[iguana_tonante]

Glad you're okay iguana, but that sucks about those old buildings. From those pictures, it looks like even the parts that survived are in bad shape and have some huge cracks across them. I hope they're able to be saved. Around here, there's practically nothing that's older than maybe a century, and you'd have to look hard to find that.

I agree. We are so accustomed to having ancient stuff around we hardly notice it any more, except when they are at risk. Just around the corner of my street there is a Medieval gate-tower that was built around 1300. I rarely give it a second glance. But even if sometimes we forget about it, they are a connection to our past, the bones of our land, so watching them go down like a house of cards is really crushing.

How much seismic activity does Northern Italy usually get? I always assumed it was the Southern parts of the country that bore the brunt of geological activity, but that's really only based only knowing where Pompeii, Stromboli and Etna are, and dumbly extrapolating.

Anyway, glad you're ok, iguana.

Thanks. Southern Italy is much more seismically active, especially along the Apennine mountain range that runs across the length of the country, but even here in the Po Valley we have our share of rock and roll (I've seen at least 3 magnitude 5.5 quakes in 30 years). There is also a big hotspot in Friuli (the extreme North-Eastern part of the country).

Picture shows the area of seismic risk in Italy, as labelled by the Civil Defence Department in 2006 (red - high risk; orange - medium risk; yellow - low risk; grey - very low risk).

 

[Holdfast]

Thanks for that info! That's a much broader distribution of activity than I previously expected. Interesting.

 

[iguana_tonante]

Another 4.5 tonight. This is getting tedious. Earthquakes are so last week.

 

[Tora Ziyal]

^LOL I sure hope this is the last of them, Iguana.

 

[iguana_tonante]

After a few days with "just" 4 - 4.5 aftershocks, this morning we had another 5.9, almost as strong as the first one. Scary as shit. My furnitures moved around a bit, but thankfully no damage.

A few buildings and warehouses collapsed in towns closer to the epicentre. Emergency responders are saying they expect some victims. Lots of buildings were evacuated in many North Italian cities: Bologna, Milan, Turin, Venice, Florence. News are still coming.

 

[iguana_tonante]

Update: it's worse than expected. Many warehouses and factories collapsed, mostly because they were build with a less seismic risk in mind (as the previous picture shows, the area between Bologna, Modena and Ferrara is considered only a moderately active zone). This time the quake hit during work hours, so they were packed full. Even Ferrari, Maserati and Ducati (my father works there) were closed down, pending stability checks.

A few towns very close to the epicentre are reporting vast destruction, but thankfully they were mostly empty because of the previous quake 10 days ago. Still, More than 15 dead are confirmed, an there are some people still missing.

Aftershocks as strong as 5.5 are still felt. The situation is still in evolution.

 

[TheSeeker]

Shitty deal. Glad you are OK though.

 

[Tora Ziyal]

Iguana, you are in my thoughts.