Everyday Hot News: 6.3 Richter Scale Earthquake Hit Italy

6.3 Richter Scale Earthquake Hit Italy

Posted by Albert Park Labels: World News

An earthquake measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale rocked central Italy on Monday, seriously damanging some houses and causing a few structures to collapse in a mountainous region east of Rome, officials said.

A number of people were reported to have been injured and others trapped under rubble in the area where the city of l'Aquila is situated, but officials had few details on the situation.

Today's earthquake in the Abruzzo region of Italy is likely to have been triggered by the north-south faultline that dissects the length of the country and trails the central and southern Apennines.

The fault is one of two criss-crossing the peninsula. The second, which runs from east to west across the centre of Italy, is typically associated with milder tremors.

Caught between two faultlines at the juncture of tectonic plate movements between Europe and Africa, Italy is prone to regular earthquakes.

However, it is unusual for the country to experience an eathquake as deadly as today's.

In 2002, a quake in the southern town of San Giuliano di Puglia killed more than 25 people – the highest number to die in an Italian earthquake in more than two decades. More than 40,000 people lost their homes.

In 1980, more than 2,700 people were killed and more than several thousand injured in a quake measuring at least 6.9 on the Richter scale.

The epicentre was at Eboli, about 80km (50 miles) south of Naples.

One of Italy's most deadly earthquakes struck a century ago in 1908, destroying the Sicilian town of Messina and, according to some estimates, killed as many as 100,000 people.