Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Italy Earthquake
On April 6, 2009, an earthquake measuring up to 6.3 magnitude hit L'Aquila region in Abruzzo, central Italy.The earthquake occurred on 3.32am (based on the Greenwich Meridian Time) while many people were still fast asleep. This was the worst earthquake in thirty years, where about 294 people were killed and approximately 65,000 people became homeless. It also caused many buildings such as historic churches and houses to collapse.
The government provided the victims with money to rebuild their homes and businesses and the Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi provided 30 million euros ($40.60million) from his own pocket for immediate assistance and promised his citizens that he would be able to rebuild L'Aquila in 28 months.
I think that in order to minimize damage that the earthquakes cause, every country should make sure that the buildings are constructed by high quality products rather than scrimping and saving in order to make more money when the buildings are sold. This way the buildings will have a lesser chance of collapsing and there would be lesser fatalities and injuries .
Crustal Plate movements
When the crustal plates move under and against one another and potential energy is being built up as some of the plates don't want to move, the plates will give way. Thus, there will be energy released and this energy creates waves through the Earth, resulting in an earthquake.
Bibliography, Websites:
Journalist : Genevieve Ching
Italy Earthquake