Deadly Earth Quake 6.3 Magnitude
in L’Aquila, Italy in April 6th, 2009

Death toll in Italy quake reaches 260
AS OF April 8th, 2009
Almost 28,000 left homeless

Last April 6th, 2009, At least 227 people killed, 1,000 injured and 10,000 buildings damaged or destroyed in the L'Aquila area. Felt throughout central Italy. The Yahoo News Report shows that Death toll 260 as of April 8th, 2009.

The April 6th 2009 earthquake in Central Italy occurred as a result of normal faulting on a NW-SE oriented structure in the central Apennines, a mountain belt that runs from the Gulf of Taranto in the south to the southern edge of the Po basin in northern Italy.

The quake, centered near L'Aquila about 70 miles northeast of Rome, struck at 3:32 a.m. Monday, followed by a series of aftershocks that continued into Tuesday morning.

The quake hit 26 towns and cities around L'Aquila. Castelnuovo, a hamlet of about 300 people southeast of L'Aquila, appeared hard hit with five confirmed dead. The town of Onno, population 250, was almost leveled.

Geologically, the Apennines are largely an accretionary wedge formed as a consequence of subduction. This region is tectonically and geologically complex, involving both subduction of the Adria micro-plate beneath the Apennines from east to west, continental collision between the Eurasia and Africa plates building the Alpine mountain belt further to the north and the opening of the Tyrrhenian basin to the west.

The evolution of this system has caused the expression of all different tectonic styles acting at the same time in a broad region surrounding Italy and the central Mediterranean. The April 6th, 2009 earthquake is related to normal faulting and the east-west extensional tectonics that dominate along the entire Apennine belt, primarily a response to the Tyrrhenian basin opening faster than the compression between the Eurasian and African plates.

The central Apennine region has experienced several significant earthquakes in recorded history. In 1997, a significant Mw 6.0 earthquake 85 km north-northwest of the April 6th 2009 event killed 11, injured over 100 and destroyed approximately 80,000 homes in the Marche and Umbria regions. This 1997 event was part of a series of earthquakes known as the Umbria-Marche seismic sequence, which included eight events of magnitude greater than M5.0 in a two-month period between September and November of that year.

L'AQUILA, Italy (April 7) - Aftershocks from the earthquake that has killed at least 260 people in central Italy sent new fears through the tent camps that shelter thousands of survivors, and Pope Benedict XVI said Wednesday that he would visit the shocked and injured people of the area as soon as possible.

Pope Benedict XVI prayed "for the victims, in particular for children," and sent a condolence message to the archbishop of L'Aquila, the Vatican said. According to search, condolences poured in from around the world, including from President Barack Obama.

Rome_(dpa): Efforts to find survivors of the earthquake that struck central Italy on Monday will continue through Sunday - three days beyond a previous limit announced by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, Italian Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said Wednesday. "The search to find survivors under the rubble will continue incessantly until Easter (Sunday)," Maroni said during a visit to an operating centre in Rome that is coordinating the rescue work.

The report shows that reconstruction costs will rise to 1.2 billion euros (1.6 billion dollars) and entire towns will have to be rebuilt. Monday's earthquake was the deadliest to hit Italy in almost 30 years.

Yahoo news, dated April 8th, 2009, reported that the death toll in Italy quake reaches 260, almost 28,000 left homeless, Catholic Relief Services offers assistance to Italy's earthquake victims - Donations collected on behalf of Caritas Italiana.

Deepest condolences and prayers for the victims, families and friends who lost loved ones. Your prayers for comfort, peace, safe, healing, and quick recover for those who affected by Earthquake will make the world differences.

Reported by Catch4all.com, Sandra Englund, April 8th, 2009.

Sources:

The White House

USGS

AOL

Yahoo

Catholic Relief Services

Photo Descriptions:

Maria D'Antuono, is interviewed after being rescued from the upper floors of her quake damaged home in Tempera, Italy, Wednesday, April 8, 2009, by firefighters using a extended ladder. D'Antuono, who said that she had remained in bed amidst the rubble after the earthquake hit early on Monday, told journalists that she had spent the past few days knitting. (AP Photo/Mediaset via APTN)

Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi speaks next to Responsible for Civil Protection Guido Bertolaso (R) during a news conference in Aquila April 7, 2009. REUTERS/Alessandro Bianchi

Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi, BerlusconI, second from left, listens to an elderly woman in the tented camp of San Demetrio, near L'Aquila, on Tuesday, April 7, 2009, a day after a powerful earthquake struck the Abruzzo region in central Italy. The death toll from Italy's worst earthquake in three decades jumped to 207 as bodies were recovered and identified. Tent camps housed some of the 17,000 left homeless by Italy's worst earthquake in three decades. (AP Photo/Livio Anticoli, ho) MAGAZINES OUT)

Rescuers search in the remains of a building which collapsed the day before during a violent earthquake in the Abruzzo capital L'Aquila. Earthquake aftershocks rocked the Italian city of L'Aquila on Tuesday, raining fresh lumps of debris as rescuers pulled out more survivors and the death toll passed 200. (AFP/Vincenzo Pinto) Photo Tools.

Source: Yahoo News

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