THE ITALIAN government downplayed claims yesterday it had been warned several weeks ago of a major earthquake about to strike the Abruzzo region.
Giampaolo Giuliani, a researcher at the National Physical Laboratory of Gran Sasso, raised the alarm last month after sensors in the L’Aquila region detected radon gas escaping from the ground.
Following Giuliani’s warning, vans with loudspeakers were driven around the medieval town, urging residents to evacuate their homes, despite there being no proof that radon gas can be used to predict earthquakes.
Giuliani was forced to tone down his warnings and remove information from the internet after being reported to the police for “spreading alarm”.
Guido Bertolaso, head of the civil protection agency, told reporters yesterday: “There is no possibility of predicting an earthquake, that is the view of the international scientific community.” Italy is one of the most seismically active countries in Europe and tremors are a common occurrence.
In 1915, 30,000 people were killed in an earthquake that struck Avezzano, 25 miles south of yesterday’s disaster.
In 1980, a magnitude 6.9 earthquake, south of Naples, killed more than 2,700 people and injured several thousand. Another hit in 1997, killing 11 and destroying 80,000 homes.
The Apennine mountain range, which runs up the backbone of Italy, is riddled with faultlines, or weaknesses in the Earth’s crust.
Most are caused by the gigantic African tectonic plate grinding northwards into the Eurasian plate upon which the country sits. Geological movement in the region is slowly pulling the crust apart beneath the mountain range, which is imperceptibly collapsing.
Yesterday’s earthquake is thought to have triggered along a faultline some tens of miles long. As the fault was pulled open, rock on either side slipped, sending out powerful shockwaves.
Residents in L’Aquila said the government had failed to take action despite tremors in the region growing worse over the past few months.
One resident told the AFP news agency: “It’s a scandal, what has happened.
“For the past three months there have been regular tremors, and they have been getting stronger and stronger. The authorities were well aware.”
Tiziana Rossetto, an earthquake engineer from Umbria in Italy, who is based at University College London, said: “The majority of the buildings, even the more modern ones, are not up to modern standards, and that is common across Europe.”
– (Guardian service)