1915 Avezzano Earthquake
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The 1915 Avezzano earthquake or 1915 Fucino earthquake occurred on 13 January in
central Italy Central Italy ( it, Italia centrale or just ) is one of the five official statistical regions of Italy used by the National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT), a first-level NUTS region, and a European Parliament constituency. Regions Central I ...
at . The shock had a
moment magnitude The moment magnitude scale (MMS; denoted explicitly with or Mw, and generally implied with use of a single M for magnitude) is a measure of an earthquake's magnitude ("size" or strength) based on its seismic moment. It was defined in a 1979 pape ...
of 6.7 and a maximum
Mercalli intensity The Modified Mercalli intensity scale (MM, MMI, or MCS), developed from Giuseppe Mercalli's Mercalli intensity scale of 1902, is a seismic intensity scale used for measuring the intensity of shaking produced by an earthquake. It measures the eff ...
of XI (''Extreme''). The epicenter was located in the town of Avezzano (which was destroyed) in the
Province of L'Aquila The Province of L'Aquila ( it, Provincia dell'Aquila) is the largest, most mountainous and least densely populated province of the Abruzzo region of Central Italy. It comprises about half the landmass of Abruzzo and occupies the western part of ...
. Around 30,000 direct fatalities and $60 million in damage resulted from the
earthquake An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, fr ...
.


Tectonic setting

The central Apennines of Italy are dominated by extensional tectonics as a result of either roll-back associated with continuing subduction of the
Adriatic Plate The Adriatic or Apulian Plate is a small tectonic plate carrying primarily continental crust that broke away from the African Plate along a large transform fault in the Cretaceous period. The name Adriatic Plate is usually used when referring ...
or northeastward movement of the Adriatic Plate relative to the
Eurasian Plate The Eurasian Plate is a tectonic plate that includes most of the continent of Eurasia (a landmass consisting of the traditional continents of Europe and Asia), with the notable exceptions of the Indian subcontinent, the Arabian subcontinent and ...
. The epicentral area of the earthquake lies within the Fucino Basin, an area of active
rift In geology, a rift is a linear zone where the lithosphere is being pulled apart and is an example of extensional tectonics. Typical rift features are a central linear downfaulted depression, called a graben, or more commonly a half-grabe ...
ing with a
Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58fluvial to
lacustrine A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much larger ...
sediments. Since the Late Pliocene the subsidence has controlled by a set of NW-SE trending, SW- dipping normal faults, including the Marsican Hwy Fault (MHF) and the San Benedetto dei Marsi–Gioia dei Marsi Fault (SBMGF), which bound the northeast side of the basin.


History

Central and southern Italy in particular have been struck by deadly earthquakes in the last 300 years, with the deadliest earthquake dating back to at least the
1693 Sicily earthquake The 1693 Sicily earthquake struck parts of southern Italy near Sicily, Calabria, and Malta on January 11 at around 21:00 local time. This earthquake was preceded by a damaging foreshock on January 9. The main quake had an estimated magnitude of 7 ...
. Powerful shocks in 1693, 1783, and 1908 as well as 1915 have killed over 30,000 people each.


Earthquake

The earthquake had an estimated magnitude of 7.0–7.5 , recalculated as 6.7 . The calculated epicentre lies about 4 km west-northwest of
San Benedetto dei Marsi San Benedetto dei Marsi ( la, Marruvium, ; grc, Μαρούϊον, translit=Maroúïon) is a ''comune ''and town in the province of L'Aquila in the Abruzzo region of central Italy. It is on the eastern shore of the dried Lake Fucino, from the rem ...
.
Surface rupture In seismology, surface rupture (or ground rupture, or ground displacement) is the visible offset of the ground surface when an earthquake rupture along a fault affects the Earth's surface. Surface rupture is opposed by buried rupture, where th ...
s that were mapped at the time show that parts of both the MHF and SBMGF moved during the earthquake. Focal mechanisms calculated using the limited instrumental data available for the earthquake suggest strike-slip faulting, but this is at odds with the known geological structure and the mechanism is thought to be purely extensional.


Damage and casualties

The earthquake took place at around 8:00 local time affecting thousands of people throughout central and southern Italy; the shaking was even felt in
Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...
. The town of Avezzano was toppled from the shaking and only one high-rise building survived. According to Robinson (1915), ninety-six percent of its population was eliminated almost simultaneously, the worst casualty zone. Several other settlements were demolished in the worst of the earthquake. This damage was attributed to the length of the shock, over 1 minute, and the enormous amount of energy released during the tremor. Compound motion of the fault was also a likely contributor to the earthquake's destruction. The structure of the housing also contributed to the collapse; many homes had been built from simple rocks of varying size and were not reinforced by mortar or even wood. Damage of the earthquake was distributed throughout central and southern Italy. St John's Lateran reported one fallen statue in addition to cracks in the
Column of Marcus Aurelius The Column of Marcus Aurelius ( la, Columna Centenaria Divorum Marci et Faustinae, it, Colonna di Marco Aurelio) is a Roman victory column in Piazza Colonna, Rome, Italy. It is a Doric column featuring a spiral relief: it was built in honour o ...
; Rome experienced other minor damage. In fact, damage from the earthquake was diverse; either the location was destroyed or experienced little to no damage. Survivors were pulled out slowly from the ruins of earthquake-stricken zones. One man survived in a barn for a period of 25 days living solely off of grains and water. After a short time the searchers ran out of space to dispose of the debris as it was too overwhelming in mass, forcing the workers to give up. As E.V. Robinson later described, the remaining "work of excavation seemed to go on in an unsystematic and half hearted way".


Response and relief efforts

Initial reports did not mention serious damage, and not until later that night did the scale of the devastation become clear. The government in Rome assumed local authorities had delayed reporting the facts, and it was rumored that they even tried to remove one mayor from office. However, when trying to serve him notice it became clear that he, together with most of his town's people, had died in the earthquake. Because of
World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
the government decided not to accept foreign assistance, and a national rescue and relief effort was promptly started. Among those nursing the victims was the Venerable
Suzanne Aubert Suzanne Aubert (19 June 1835 – 1 October 1926), better known to many by her cleric name Sister Mary Joseph or Mother Aubert, was a Catholic sister who started a home for orphans and the under-privileged in Jerusalem, New Zealand on the Whangan ...
. She wrote back to New Zealand in August ''There are now very few of the victims of the earthquake left in hospitals, but the wounded soldiers keep on arriving. Theirs is a pitiful sight, but I think that the sight of the crushed people was worse. You see only men in the soldiers, while with the other people, there was such a number of women and children. I feel quite at home with my work, but I am forgetting English in trying to understand the different dialects of the poor sufferers. Each province, almost each district has its own, it makes the service difficult. Fortunately we can go a long way with signs.


See also

* List of earthquakes in 1915 *
List of earthquakes in Italy This is a list of earthquakes in Italy that had epicentres in Italy, or significantly affected the country. The highest seismicity hazard in Italy was concentrated in the central-southern part of the peninsula, along the Apennine ridge, in Cala ...


References


External links

* {{authority control Avezzano Avezzano 1915 Avezzano 20th century in Abruzzo Avezzano January 1915 events Disasters in Abruzzo 1915 disasters in Italy