Strong Earthquake In Northern Italy Kills 16, Injures 350

[News_Editor]

Strong earthquake in northern Italy kills 16, injures 350 < br />

2012-05-30 03:26:50 GMT+7 (ICT)

BOLOGNA, ITALY (BNO NEWS) -- A strong earthquake struck northern Italy on Tuesday morning, killing at least 16 people and injuring more than 350 others, officials said. It comes just over a week after another deadly earthquake devastated the region.

The 5.8-magnitude earthquake at 9 a.m. local time was centered just northeast of the town of Medolla in the northern province of Modena. It struck about 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) deep, making it a shallow earthquake, according to Italy's National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV).

A spokesperson for Italy's Civil Protection Department said at least 16 people were killed while more than 350 others were injured. At least one person remains missing, but some Italian news reports said as many as 10 people could still be unaccounted for. Search-and-rescue operations were continuing on late Tuesday.

The latest earthquake, which was followed by two aftershocks measuring 5.3 and 5.2 on the Richter scale, damaged scores of buildings across the region and caused some of them to collapse. Many buildings and monuments in the region were already damaged by a stronger earthquake in the same region on May 20.

But it remains unclear if Tuesday's earthquake is an aftershock or a new event. "After the earthquake on May 20, as well as after every major earthquake, there was an expectation of increased seismic activity," a Civil Protection Department spokesperson said. "However, the magnitude of the earthquake appears higher when compared to the typical decay that occurs after violent earthquakes, to the point of considering a new event rather than an aftershock."

The Italian ANSA news agency said the new earthquake left some 8,000 people homeless, adding to 6,000 others who were left homeless after the 6.0-magnitude earthquake on May 20. That earthquake killed seven people and injured dozens more, in addition to damaging many historic churches and other buildings.

"I guarantee that the State will do everything that it has to do, that it is possible to do, to ensure this very special, important and productive region for Italy can return to its normal life in a short period of time," Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti said, as quoted by ANSA.

Tuesday's earthquake is the deadliest to hit Italy since a 6.3-magnitude earthquake struck the central region of the country in April 2009, killing at least 308 people and injuring more than 1,500 others. It was the country's worst earthquake since a 6.8-magnitude earthquake in November 1980, killing nearly 3,000 people.

-- © BNO News All rights reserved 2012-05-30

[folium]

Click on the link below to see just how active this part of Europe is in terms of seismicity. This is a function of the fact that there is a wide network of seismographs that pick up countless small quakes and the fact that this is a fairly active seismic area with Africa heading northwards and the micro-plates that make up Italy heading their different directions.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/usb000a1mn#historical-seismicity_1990

The fact that most of these quakes are very shallow (<35kms deep) underlines the fact that larger ones can be very dangerous, particularly if they occur near urban areas.

The other unknown is whether or not the most recent 3 quakes are just aftershocks following last week's larger quake, a separate series , or they are all pre-shocks and the main event is yet to come. A similar pattern occurred off NE Japan in Jan-Mar 2011, when a series of quakes seemed to peak with a 7.2mag event on Mar 9, but was the followed by the 9.0mag tsunami-generating quake 2 days later.

I am not trying to cause any alarm but just highlight the point that we are still unable to accurately forecast quakes and identifying patterns is only really possible with hindsight.