A series of major earthquakes struck Central

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

between the

Marche Marche ( , ) is one of the twenty regions of Italy. In English, the region is sometimes referred to as The Marches ( ). The region is located in the central area of the country, bordered by Emilia-Romagna and the republic of San Marino to the ...

and

Umbria it, Umbro (man) it, Umbra (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , ...

regions in October 2016. The third quake on 30 October was the largest in Italy in 36 years, since the

1980 Irpinia earthquake The 1980 Irpinia earthquake ( it, Terremoto dell'Irpinia) took place in Italy on 23 November 1980, with a moment magnitude of 6.9 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (''Extreme''). It left at least 2,483 people dead, at least 7,700 injured, an ...

Earthquakes

A magnitude 5.5

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, from ...

struck east southeast of

Sellano Sellano is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Perugia in the Italian region Umbria, located about 50 km southeast of Perugia. As of 31 December 2018, it had a population of 1,048 and an area of 85.7 km².All demographics and o ...

on 26 October at 19:11 local time (17:11 UTC) at a depth of . The earthquake was also felt in the city of Rome. In the region of Marche some houses collapsed, Italian media reported. There were also power failures and the telephone lines were interrupted. A magnitude 6.1 intraplate

struck west of

Visso Visso is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Macerata in the Italian region Marche, located about southwest of Ancona and about southwest of Macerata. It houses the seat of Monti Sibillini National Park. Main sights * San Giacomo c ...

on 26 October at 21:18 local time (19:18 UTC). The earthquake, which occurred two months after a magnitude 6.2 earthquake in August, struck about to the northwest of the August earthquake's epicenter. The civil protection, however, estimated the consequences less dramatically than feared. According to official data, a man died because he had suffered a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may tr ...

as a result of the quake. A third large, shallow earthquake of

USGS The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, a ...

preliminary magnitude 6.6 struck north of

Norcia Norcia (), traditionally known in English by its Latin name of Nursia (), is a town and comune in the province of Perugia (Italy) in southeastern Umbria. Unlike many ancient towns, it is located in a wide plain abutting the Monti Sibillini, a su ...

at 07:40 local time (06:40 UTC) on 30 October. Early news and social media reports showed heavy damage to some structures. The village of

Arquata del Tronto Arquata del Tronto is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Ascoli Piceno in the Marche region of Italy, located about from Ancona. It is the only European municipality located partly within two natural parks: Gran Sasso e Monti della Lag ...

was destroyed, as were several heritage buildings. These include the Basilica of Saint Benedict in Norcia, the Church of San Salvatore and other churches in Campi. Two women died of sudden heart attacks during the quake.

Shocks

Geological aspects

The quakes occurred in a

seismic gap A seismic gap is a segment of an active fault known to produce significant earthquakes that has not slipped in an unusually long time, compared with other segments along the same structure. There is a hypothesis or theory that states that over long ...

which is located between the areas hit by the 2016 August earthquake and the one in Umbria and Marche of 1997. In that gap no strong earthquake happened for more than 100 years until 2016. As the process of faulting along the chain of the

Apennine Mountains The Apennines or Apennine Mountains (; grc-gre, links=no, Ἀπέννινα ὄρη or Ἀπέννινον ὄρος; la, Appenninus or – a singular with plural meaning;''Apenninus'' (Greek or ) has the form of an adjective, which wou ...

is a relatively recent one in geological terms, starting 500,000 years ago, the faults are more irregular, so more shaking occurs due to foreshocks according to seismologist Ross Stein from Stanford University. In this case the destructive shock on 26 October was preceded by the foreshock by two hours, causing people to leave their homes and be safer when the larger shock occurred.

Comparisons with August 2016 earthquake

Italy-earthquakes-second-damaging-shock-rips-north-from-amatrice-3

References

External links

Earthquake in Italy
on Earthquake Report Website
EMSR190: Earthquake in Central Italy (damage grading maps)
–

Copernicus Emergency Management Service Nicolaus Copernicus (; pl, Mikołaj Kopernik; gml, Niklas Koppernigk, german: Nikolaus Kopernikus; 19 February 1473 – 24 May 1543) was a Renaissance polymath, active as a mathematician, astronomer, and Catholic Church, Catholic cano ...