A powerful Earthquake rocked the whole Central Italy on 6 April 2009, 3:32 local time. It was felt throughout the whole Central Italy. This earthquake was the deadliest one to hit Italy after the Irpinia earthquake that hit Italy in 1980. The Earthquake was rated a magnitude of 5.8 on the Richter scale, 6.3 on the moment magnitude scale. After the earthquake, there were still fore shocks, and more than thirty if them had a magnitude greater than 3.5 (Rated on Richter Magnitude Scale).
The earthquake had caused massive damages. It took away 308 lives, around 1500 people were injured and 6500 were left homeless. It also caused damage to several buildings in the medieval city of L'Aquila and many buildings collapsed. The cause of the earthquake was the extension of the back-arc basin in the Tyrrhenian Sea had opened faster than the African Plate, causing it to collide with the Eurasian Plate.
Said by Mr. Silvio Berlusconi, the prime minister of Italy, that the government of Italy was doing everything "humanly possible" to help those left homeless would work to rebuild L'Aquila quickly. He said he would be in L'Aquila on Tuesday to evaluate the situation. Emergency aid was refused by Mr. Berlusconi at first, however, announced that he would accept aid for reconstruction.
The was serious as the buildings were poorly constructed. The buildings "seemed to have been made poorly, possibly with elements of fallen buildings" according to what the firefighters and the rescuers said. However, Mr. Franco Barberi, an official at Italy's Civil Protection agency, said that "in California, an earthquake like this would not have killed a single person". I think that if the buildings are more properly constructed, and if the public is educated about what to do when there is an earthquake, the evacuation process will be held more smoothly and less damage would be done.
