Geography Project

Secondary One
History-Geography Integrated Assignment
Geography Component
Term1
2010

The 2009 L'Aquila earthquake

The 2009 L’Aquila Earthquake happened on 6April2009 at 3:32 local time (1:32 UTC), approximately 90 kilometres (60 mi) north-east of Rome, near to the city of L'Aquila.

This earthquake was caused by movement on a NW-SE trending normal fault. It was caused by extensional tectonics when the back-arc basin in the Tyrrhenian Sea opens faster than the African Plate and collides with the Eurasian Plate. Further more, L’Aquila is a city built on the bed of an ancient lake, providing a soil structure that amplifies seismic waves
The earthquake was reported to measure 6.3 on the moment magnitude scale. The earthquake caused damage to between 3,000 and 11,000 buildings. Several buildings also collapsed. 308 people were killed by the earthquake and approximately 1,500 people were injured. Twenty of the victims were children. Around 65,000 people were made homeless. Most of L’Aquila’s medieval structures which has been around for a few centuries also collapsed, but many of its modern buildings suffered greater damages.

Photos from http:// www.wikipedia.com

Photo from http://sentioart.com/pickup/2009/04/

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi offered his own houses to some of the survivors. Many Italian companies have offered some sort of help. All Italian mobile companies and some Mobile virtual network operators helped them by not charging their mobile usage and giving some people free mobile phones, Sim cards and chargers. International aid was also offered but the Prime Minister declined it.
I think poor building standards or construction materials could have further contributed to the large number of victims, as some concrete elements of fallen buildings were said to have been made by sand according to some firefighters and rescuers
Website:
No author, http://www.wikipedia.com , extracted 19/02/10
No author, http://tnp.sg/printfriendly/0,4139,198220,00.html , extracted 19/02/10
No author, http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/World/Story/STIStory_360383.html , extracted 19/02/10