Terremoto
Thomas Jones · The Earthquake in Abruzzo
I was woken by a text message from my mother: ‘Are you ok news of earthquake.’ I live more than 100km from l’Aquila, and didn’t feel anything at 3.30 this morning – at least, not enough to wake me up. One of the neighbours says she was disturbed by a noise she thought was her husband walking into a door.
As I learned from Susan Elizabeth Hough’s Earthshaking Science: What We Know (and Don’t Know) about Earthquakes, there’s an important difference between hazard and risk: hazard is the probability that an earthquake will affect a given area; risk ‘reflects the exposure of structures, lifelines and populations to existing hazard’. Boschi’s point is that, considering the hazard, the risk in Italy is too high.
When our roof was fixed last year, the engineer had to submit his plans to the provincial seismic planning department. Supposedly it’s now earthquake resistant. Which would be more reassuring if I could be sure the walls were too.
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