On April 6, 2009, a M6.3 earthquake struck Italy with an epicenter near the city of L’Aquila at about 3:32 am local time. The earthquake occurred in the Appennine mountain belt as a result of normal faulting in the northwest-southeast direction. The event lasted for 20 seconds, killing 294 people and leaving approximately 29,000 people homeless. The earthquake was felt in neighboring regions and in the capital Rome. The region experienced many foreshocks beginning in January 2009, with 100 shocks of modest intensity, followed by a seismic event of magnitude 4.0 on March 30th. Two aftershocks of the same intensity as the one on April 6th were recorded over the following days. Construction in the region is mostly masonry buildings, very old and degraded, and built without following seismic codes and standards. The house dorm of the University of L’Aquila collapsed and the students inside died as a result. Many historical churches of the 13th century like the Basilica di Santa Maria di Collemaggio were seriously damaged.
Wednesday, April 15th, 2009
02:30 PM EDT
Archived Video will be availible soon
If you would like to ask questions regarding the topic being presented, you can send an e-mail to mceerwebcast@civil.eng.buffalo.edu during or after the presentation. If time allows, an attempt will be made to convey any questions received during the presentation to the presenter to answer live during discussions. Other questions will be collected and sent to the presenter, whose answers will subsequently be posted on this website.
Seminar sponsored by MCEER Networking and Education Programs, MCEER SLC and hosted by the Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering and the EERI Student Chapter at UB.
Please note that the above link will only be active a few hours before the event is scheduled to begin. An archived version of this webcast will post posted shortly after the seminar is completed. To view the webcast, please make sure you have the latest version of Windows Media Player installed on your computer, visit
http://microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/en/download/default.asp
to download the latest version. Contact Goran Josipovic via phone at (716) 645-5400x19 or by email at gj4@buffalo.edu if you have any problems that prevent you from watching this broadcast.