La Repubblica has a constantly updated report of the horrifying effects of the earthquakes rolling through northern Italy. There are now 10 dead after the major earthquake at 9.01 this morning. The cathedral of Mirandola has collapsed. Citta' d'arte from Pisa to Venice and everything in between are being shaken and damaged. The quakes are being felt from Florence to Austria.
Schools, hospitals, government buildings, are being evacuated across the country - Pisa, Genova, Bologna, Padova, Modena, Ferrara, Rovigo, Venice ..... Appeals to lift password protection from internet connections are being met by the population so that communications can be improved.
The great plain of the river Po and its tributaries rests upon the ranges of the Apennines that continue towards the Alps submerged by the silt of the river systems. These buried mountain ranges are moving, pressured towards the Alps. Water is being suddenly squeezed out of the acquifers and forced upwards causing great cracks of 'boiling' mud and sand to open up on the surface as well.
Industrial centres across the North - the economic heart of Italy - are suffering extensive damage.
The rapid and sophisticated response to this onslaught has been impressive and notably humane in coping with the destruction and threat to so much but the geologists fear that these kinds of geological events are not just a sharp adjustment but a longdrawn out shifting in a region that has been stable since the 1500s.
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7 comments:
Must be a very worrying time for you all. Stay safe.
Thank you Nomad. We are going to the ecohouse. It was reconstructed under strict (so strict they made me quite cross at the time) anti-seismic regulations. What is happening now is why.
There are a lot of questions to be answered about the collapse of modern industrial units. The magistrates have already opened various inquiries.
HG,
Were it not for your post, I would have known nothing about this. Nothing in the broadsheets (online) that is easily found, though the BBC News website has this
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-18247659
Stay safe.
People have turned out repeatedly in Florence, Siena, Arezzo, Elby, frightened by the waves of shivering and trembling. Nothing has actually collapsed around here yet, but the devastation of some towns and villages north of Florence is complete in some places. The really bad stuff starts at Bologna but the schools and official buildings were emptied in Florence this morning.
It puts worries about yields and spread into perspective.
And I've spotted acres of cobwebs staring at the ceilings for signs of movement.
Didn't realise it was so bad.
All that the bbc were saying yesterday was that the quake "was felt as far away as Milan"; they didn't say how far away that was, so no clue as to the actual location.
We have young (some very young) relatives in Firenze so hoping they are all OK.
Keep calm and carry on!
The BBC wouldn't care, Yacht. Not their kind of culture - they call it 'elitist'. What they mean is it's too difficult to access without intellectual application and training.
Not giving instant gratification why should they care if it falls off the walls and even the walls collapse. And they certainly couldn't care less about the music, the books, the insieme of the physical urban landscapes.
Centuries - millennia - of cultural homogeneity being displayed? Best to ignore its destruction.
Florence is carefully picking up anything that has fallen off and hoping for the best.
Elby is right: the lack of coverage here is a disgrace.
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