Clara Ong(10)
1-Charity
History-Geography Integrated Assignment
Date: 28 Feb 2010

Bibliography

Websites:
Duncan Kennedy, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7984867.stm, extracted 28-2-2010

Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_L%27Aquila_earthquake#Effects, extracted 28-2-2010

Newspaper:
Rachel Donadio, Italians Comb Through Rubble After Quake, The New York Times, 7-4-2009

Name: Clara Ong(10)
Class: 1-Charity

My given region is Western Europe. The countries are Italy, Greece, Iceland and Spain.

Earthquake in Italy

The 2009 L'Aquila was an earthquake that occurred on 6 April 2009 at 3:32 local time. It struck at 0330 (0130) GMT close to L'Aquila which is the capital city of Abruzzo which is in central Italy. Surrounding villages also suffered some damage.
This earthquake was felt all through central Italy. 1500 people have been injured and 308 people are known to have died, thus making this the deadliest earthquake to have hit Italy since the 1980 Irpinia Earthquake.

The earthquake happened as a result of NW-SE trending normal fault according to moment tensor solutions. This is due to the back-arc basin in the Tyrrhenian Sea opening faster than the African Plate is colliding with the Eurasian Plate.The earthquake was rated 5.8 on the Richter scale and 6.3 on the moment magnitude scale. The earthquake had a relatively shallow depth of 9.46 kilometres.

In L'Aquila, 95 kilometres north-east of Rome, between 3000 and 10000 buildings in the city may have been damaged. Several buildings also collapsed. Between 30000 and 40000 people are believed to have lost their homes. Altogether, 26 surrounding cities and towns have been damaged, some seriously. Historic buildings in the surrounding region in the Apennine mountains were also damaged. Villages in the valley along Strada Statale 17 just outside L'Aquila suffered the greatest damage while medieval mountain hill towns lying high above the valley suffered little damage. Slight damage was also found at the Baths Of Caracella in Rome. While most of L'Aquila's medieval structures suffered damage, many of its modern structures suffered much more severe damage. Even some buildings that were supposed to be 'earthquake-proof' were affected. Phone and power lines remain down, and some bridges and roads have been closed as a precaution as the region was hit by a series of aftershocks. The narrow streets of L’Aquila’s historic center were filled with rubble, and parked cars were crushed under large blocks of debris.

Many rescuers were searching under the rubble of the buildings for people trapped inside. The government sent help to distribute food, clothing, medicine supplies and tents for injured people and cranes were also sent to clear the rubble. Rescue workers set up almost 2000 tents for the homeless. The Italian Red Cross was also there, and two field hospitals were arriving from Rome to help. The government also sought help from other countries in funds, supplies and rebuilding heritage sites and buildings. Aid was offered by many countries. Temporarily, all the refugees are staying in tents or hotels, while the rescue service is stretched to breaking point as it tries to treat all the numerous injured people. Many people from all over the world have started to donate money to help these victims when the United Nations made an appeal to raise funds.

My Reflections

I think that L'Aquila has many old and modern buildings not built to withstand a strong earthquake. Many have collapsed due to the government not ensuring that they are built with sufficient stability. This kind of oversight could prove fatal in such natural disasters as the earthquake. In the future, I hope that the buildings, especially those in disaster-prone areas will have a firmer foundation and built so that it will not topple over in an earthquake. The physical environment has a huge impact on the human environment. Likewise, so does the human environment. The result of this earthquake was devastating, but i trust that the government will do all in their abilities to ensure that this does not happen again and try to salvage the situation. I am also relieved that the government took notice of the citizens in need and sent help.

1st post of 7th blog ever

THIS BLOG IS FOR SCHOOL TESTING PURPOSE