Why did Amatrice suffer? Earthquake in the center of Italy

Italy is famous for many - pizza, pasta, excellent football and wine, as well as many other wonderful things for which millions of tourists come to this Mediterranean country annually. True, there is behind the Apennine peninsula and other fame is catastrophic. Frequent earthquakes are as much a part of the life of the Italians as the afternoon siesta and the morning cup of coffee.

Why is this happening?

Constant shake provides the peninsula its location - it is localized at the junction of two powerful tectonic plates. It is their active geological faults that ensure frequent and destructive earthquakes in Italy.

Apennines - a mountain ridge, passing through most regions of the country. It is this that is the result of the activity of the European and African tectonic plates. Unlike other mountain systems, the Apennines in the geological aspect are rather young. And, according to the forecasts of specialized specialists, will provide Italians with many more such incidents. Confirmation of this is the earthquake that occurred in Ammatrix.

Shake in central Italy

One of the last victims of the underground element was a small town in the central region of Italy - Ammatria. The earthquake of 6 points, which occurred around midnight on August 24, 2016, destroyed a significant part of the city. Dozens of Italians were killed, hundreds were injured. By and large, the infrastructure of the settlement has ceased to exist. The victims were placed in sports halls, schools and other public premises.

According to experts, the earthquake that occurred in Ammatrica came from an epicenter located about 10 kilometers below the ground. This series of powerful tremors was not the only one on the Apennine peninsula. In the next few days, about a hundred weak underground oscillations occurred in the central region.

The most powerful earthquakes in history

Despite the seriousness of the tragedy in Amatriache, an earthquake can be much more dangerous. Mankind knows much more deadly and destructive tremors, the victims of which are calculated not by tens, but by hundreds of thousands, and the material damage goes to billions of dollars:

1. The Indian Ocean is an earthquake in December 2004. Its strength is up to 9.3 on the Richter scale. The center of the tremors was near the island of Sumatra. As a result, according to various estimates, up to 280 thousand people died. A fifteen-meter tsunami completely destroyed the infrastructure of the coast!
2. Armenia - a catastrophe in 1988. The record breaking force is 11.2 on the Richter scale! As a result of this monstrous earthquake, almost half of the country's industry was destroyed, more than 300 settlements were completely erased from the face of the earth. And if the death toll in the crash was relatively small - twenty-five thousand, half a million people lost their roof over their heads. Where is Amatrice? An earthquake of such strength would turn ancient Rome into a huge heap of debris.
3. China - an earthquake in 1556. What was his strength, unfortunately, was not recorded. It is known only that the tremors, the epicenter of which became the bed of the Wei River, turned the surrounding areas into a deserted desert! Almost a million people died from this almost biblical catastrophe!

Ammatrix after the earthquake will recover in a couple of years, and catastrophes of this magnitude are healed by the centuries.

What will happen next?

Most likely, in the next few years we will see many more events similar to the earthquake in Amatrice. Italy is an earthquake-prone area. And count on the fact that geological processes at one point will stop, at least, naive. But also to fall into a panic mood is also not worth it - most of the tremors recorded on the Apennine peninsula are within the "green zone". Their strength rarely exceeds 3 points.