2009 L'Aquila Earthquake
The eruption happened on 6 April 2009, in the region of Abruzzo, in central Italy.
The reason behind the eruption was that the basin in the Tyrrhenian Sea opened faster than the compression between the African and Eurasian Plates.This volcano eruption's magnitude was rated 5.8 on the richter magnitude scale and 6.3 on the moment magnitude scale.
308 people were killed, among most were Italian. More than 1,500 were injured and 65,000 were left homeless. 50,000 houses and buildings were either damaged or destroyed or had collapsed in the L'Aquila area. Including a church and a school. The total damage was known to be $16 billion.
The Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has declared a state of emergency for the region. He would be returning to Italy to help with the relief works. Minister of Interior,Roberto Maroni, travelled to Italy to offer collaboration from the government to assist in restoring L'Aquila.
I think that we could always be on the lookout for any signs of an earthquake and set up an early earthquake warning system. Houses should be built with earthquake sustainable materials. With these added precautions, the damage caused by earthquakes would be minimized.
Bibliography:
Website
Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_L%27Aquila_earthquake, extracted 25/2/2010
Wikinews, http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Major_magnitude_6.3_earthquake_strikes_central_Italy, extracted 25/2/2010.
