The Earthquake has struck again. Central Italy again. The tremors affected an area that has always been under observation because it is considered by insiders to be at high risk.
Italy, on the other hand, is known precisely for being a country with a high seismic risk. Areas such as Sicily, the Eastern Alps and towns and cities located along the central-southern Apennines, from Abruzzo to Calabria will always be subject to earthquakes due to the geological nature of our territory.
Precisely to try to better understand the seismic danger of the Peninsula, and therefore prepare adequate countermeasures aimed at promoting prevention, in 2006 it was published in the Official Gazette of the State the map from the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology Ingv, designed and approved following the tragedy that struck San Giovanni di Puglia a few years earlier.
In fact, in 2002 the Civil Protection ordered an in-depth reclassification of the national territory from which the map (which we present in the photo) arose, a document implemented by the Regions which, on the basis of it, should have reclassified their own area of belonging, an operation which however it was never fully completed. Since 2015, a new map has been being drawn up which will be presented in the first months of 2017 and will integrate the data collected over the decade.
Generally speaking, since 2002, Italy has been divided into four zones precisely on the basis of the classification provided by INGV:
- 1 Zone It's the most dangerous area. Strong earthquakes can occur
- 2 Zone – Strong earthquakes can occur in this area
- 3 Zone – Strong but rare earthquakes can occur in this area
- 4 Zone It's the least dangerous area. Earthquakes are rare.
The seismic hazard map created by Ingv is based on the maximum expected ground acceleration resulting from seismic waves (S) in rigid homogeneous sounds, within a depth of 30 meters.
