By Dr. Tiziana Rossetto, Professor David Alexander, Enrica Verrucci, Dr. Ioanna Ioannou, Randolph Borg, Jose’ Melo, Bryan Cahill, and Indranil Kongar.
June 2012, UCL EPICentre Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering.
A 5.9Mw earthquake hit the Emilia Romagna region of Italy on the 20th May 2012, resulting in 7 deaths, significant damage to historic structures, churches and industrial buildings, and 7000 people needing shelter. On the 25th May 2012 the EPICentre team travelled to the earthquake affected areas, where they were joined on the 26th May by Professor David Alexander. The team spent two days in the field, making rapid observations on the performance of structures, infrastructure, emergency management and noting geotechnical features of the event. Four members of the team left the field on the 26th May, whilst 3 stayed onto make further observations.
The timely deployment of the mission meant that, despite the short length of the mission, it was possible to obtain a good overview of the earthquake effects before clear-up took place. On the 29th May 2012, at the time of writing this report, a second earthquake of magnitude 5.8Mw hit the region causing further damage and deaths. This report therefore presents an overview of the state of damage and earthquake effects after the 20th May 2012 earthquake. These can be regarded as intermediate observations of damage, and will be updated following a second EPICentre reconnaissance mission to Emilia Romagna to take place between the 2nd and 6th June 2012.
Read the Report: The 20th May 2012 Emilia Romagna Earthquake EPICentre Field Observation Report No. EPI-FOC 200512 (3.4 MB PDF)
