Italian Earthquake Update
The BBC reports on the current numbers:
At least 207 people have been killed by Monday’s earthquake in central Italy, with 100 residents critically injured, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi says.
He said 150 people had been rescued alive so far, and the operation would continue for a further 48 hours and involve 7,000 rescuers.
About 1,000 people were injured and 17,000 were left homeless following the pre-dawn quake in the Abruzzo region.
There was some good news: “A 98-year-old woman was pulled out alive in L’Aquila after being trapped for 30 hours, local media report. She spent the time crocheting. ”
The USGS list of quakes in the area show that there was a 4.0 event 5 hours before the major quake and 5 aftershocks [4.6, 4.4, 4.3, 4.9, and 4.9] since. The area still hasn’t equalized, and the rescue work is very dangerous in the unstable rubble.
Update: Add a 5.6 and another 4.6 to the list. The adjustment to the plates is definitely not over.
16 comments
Another terrible tragedy. There have been a lot in recent years all over the globe.
Condolences to all involved with missing loved ones. I know the feeling.
While you were commenting, I updated it, as there have been two more strong aftershocks. Until things calm down it isn’t going to be safe in the area.
Italy is slowly but surely being split down the middle. It won’t be long (in geologic terms) before Italy has it’s own Grand Canyon. Actually, from memory, Italy has two major fault lines perpendicular to each other and it’s actually being quartered. Will take quite awhile (in human terms) before that happens though, but they will be in for a rough ride for the duration I think. I can’t help buy wonder if (assuming any Humans are left by then) when it happens, there will be the usual border and boundary disputes and wars? Seems to be human nature.
I think you are right, Kryten, on those two perpendicular faults. And as Bryan has pointed out, much is built on solid, unforgiving rock.
A 98-year-old woman was pulled out alive in L’Aquila after being trapped for 30 hours, local media report. She spent the time crocheting.
So what’s surprising about that? I mean the crocheting part. Your own Mother would do the same thing, Bryan!
My Mother doesn’t go anywhere without a book, a crochet hook, and a ball of yarn in her purse. A major portion of the children born in this county go home wrapped in a blanket that my Mother crocheted.
Actually, that’s why I highlighted it from the article. My Grandmother would’ve have spent the time tatting, which is becoming a lost craft.
I have a tatting shuttle, but my neuropathy prevents stuff like that these days. And printed instructions are USELESS. My Norwegian grandmother tatted beautifully – but it took so much time teaching me to knit & crochet we never got to personal instruction on tatting – the ONLY way to learn such things.
Kryten certainly brings up an interesting question on boundaries. Certainly not just Italy. The whole area (the Middle East comes to mind immediately) could be reshaped in “the twinkling of an eye”. The whole world, for that matter.
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My Grandmother’s specialty was pansies. She loved them and attached them to everything, handkerchiefs, doilies, everything. Of course, tatting is net making in miniature, as it involves many of the same knots, and may have started as a refinement of the knotwork found on sailing ships. The shuttle is bigger, but it is the same device. We still have locals who make their own casting nets.
Italy and Switzerland just had to adjust their border because a glacier that was part of it is melting and the land underneath isn’t contoured the way they assumed.
The Horn of Africa will separate with the line running up the appropriately named Rift Valley.
The world is constantly changing and most borders should be drawn in pencil.
Just a little reminder that earthquakes are serious business….no matter how much Californians instill our dark sense of humour try to make some levity out of our own shaky situation.
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It’s simply one more sign on a very long list, that the Earth will do what it pleases when it pleases and could not care one iota less what Human’s think, say or try to do about it. It’s loooong past time when we stupid humans conform to the Way the Earth is, and not our extremely short-sighted, ignorant views on what we think it should be like. I suspect that since humans have a habit of only taking notice of things right before it kills them, most won’t learn in time. Some of us have and are learning, but I’m taking the long-term view. 😉 I could quite happily and comfortably live anywhere with little trouble. It’s why I have said and still think that the human experiment is a failure. We are the only species that seems to have a genetic predisposition to cause as much damage as possible in a very short amount of time to ensure we don’t survive. Amazing.
You mess about with nature at your own risk, as Australia learned with rabbits, cane toads – we learned in the South with kudzu, and pythons. We don’t know enough to mess with these things, and Nature doesn’t care about our purpose.
You can look at the land and tell whether or not there will be quakes at some point. If you live in area with mountains and volcanoes, and earthquake is guaranteed.
There are ways of mitigating the damage, but none of them were used in L’Aquila, and as a protected heritage site, rebuilding wasn’t an option.
According to a reporter on the scene, the 5.6 was a roller. I really hate those. The ground isn’t supposed to ripple like a pond.
We easily forget that the oh so solid ground we live on is in fact a mass of individual pieces floating on a sea of hot magma. They move slowly to be sure, but they move. They have so much mass and inertia that when they bump into each other… they just keep going and mountains are formed. Eventually, they begin to move the other way and the mountains disappear. I think we have upset the balance. I cannot believe that all the massive mining operations, stripping hundreds of thousands of tons of earth, even millions of ton’s, doesn’t have an impact by shifting the balance. Siphoning all the oil, and now massive glaciers are melting, shifting the balance even more. *shrug* Yeah… It’s going to get a lot worse! And we have nobody to blame but ourselves.
If you live in a Republican environment, like I do, you would think that strip-mining was one of the virtues.
It is will past time to make those who profit pay for the pollution. I didn’t take them to raise, and I’m heartily sick of cleaning up after them.
The easiest way of dealing with it is to remove “limited liability” from corporations and make every stockholder personally responsible for any mess that is made. Profit is supposed to entail risk – that’s how capitalism works.
I always assumed that tatting originated with the seafaring countries, or at least those who relied on extensively fishing their waters…and indeed, the knots are similar. But being of a twisted mind, I did a bit of research. Not so (to my surprise)…it was developed rather late (most likely 19th century) in the French textile industry as a way of making decorative lace!
My grandmother had nothing to leave her descendants, but she did leave me a plethora of needlework and a precious collection of doilies , potholders, aprons,etc. with intricate embroidery and yes – beautifully tatted PANSIES. Many, many pansies. There was even a pansied baby “burp pad”. I would have been terrified to let my baby barf on the thing.
Kryten, regardless of what the preachers and Good Books tell us about a better world coming beyond the grave, THIS flesh is the only reality we really know. I say that accounts for far too much short term, get it while you can type thinking.
I hope for a better world somewhere, but want to do my part to make it so for those who will actually be living in it.
andante´s last blog post..
You need not have worried about the tatted stuff, because my Grandmother ran them through her wringer washer for years without noticeable damage. The thread used is very hard and long lasting. Of course, she also starched everything to to point it wouldn’t bend, so dirt rarely got at the actual thread.
I hate to think what all of that stuff would cost if the person doing it was receiving even minimum wage.
People who can’t see beyond the next quarter have no business being in charge of anything, even themselves. If you live for today and look to the future you’ll see what has to be done. If you don’t look ahead, you will never see the walls before you run into them.
Your grandmother gave the world her descendants and their memories of her. That really is the one sure path to immortality as the rest of it is just a hope.
I agree adante (and by the way, it’s really good to see you back again! I truly hope all is well with you.)
It’s indeed a very sad World where greed has become the primary virtue Bryan.
OT: You may remember Bryan that I had said that I had signed up with WestHost and that they seemed very good. Well they *were*. Before being taken over by the UK2 Group. It seems that it’s their intention to do a little *strip mining* of their own. My client has now terminated the agreement and demanded a refund (under the 30-day money back guarantee). The very short story is that they have decided to reneg on the 2 year plan we paid for and have dumped all their VPS plans, using completely bogus claims, and are forcing the clients to a brand new sister company where the VPS plans are about 4 times the prices and for fewer facilities. So, a warning to anyone who read my initial post that WestHost are good. They were before the UK2 takeover, now they are simply a fraud. Stay away, they cannot be trusted.
So, it’s back to square one for me. Oh well. *shrug* 🙂 Life truly is a bitch. 😉
OT: If it’s too good to be true, it probably isn’t. Too many just accept being screwed over by telecommunication companies, as if they have some special right to be assholes.
Been there with my first local ISP which was a great little company. The service remained fine through the first two take overs, but the third was a major PITA, so I was pushed by their stupidity to DSL. I’m on the third iteration for my DSL account, and may end up on satellite to avoid this garbage.