(January 10, 2017) “Can we predict earthquakes?”: this is the question at the origin of the lecture by Dr. Sebastiano D’Amico, (Department of Geosciences – University of Malta), scheduled for Thursady, January 19 (6.30 PM) at the Italian Institute of Culture in Valletta. On the same evening, the “Associazione dei Docenti Universitari e Ricercatori Italiani a Malta (ADURIM)” will be launched. The lecture will consist in a scientific analysis of the series of seismic events in central Italy during last year started with the earthquake on 24 August and continued with another earthquake on 30 October. The results were hundreds of deaths, thousands of persons injured and huge damages to cultural heritage. Thousands of events have been registered by the national seismic network of the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia. More than 90% of the earthquakes recorded on the national territory happened in the zone hit by seismic activity in August. The events of 30 October were the strongest ever recorded in the series of seismic activity in central Italy and has also been the earthquake with the highest magnitude ever to be recorded since the launch of the Rete Sismica Nazionale in Italy in the 1980’s.
Flooding, landslides, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions have written and are still writing Italy’s history. What to do? Cling to the impossible prediction of an extreme event or face the future with the necessary prevention measures by ensuring that it is no longer a giant utopia? We must start back from knowledge, from the problems and limitations of research, but also by its conquests, assigning the correct meaning to the word “predictability” and by making accountability the starting point that can also handle uncertainties. During the conference, Dott. Sebastiano D’Amico will give an overview of earthquakes in a national context, and will also highlight the phases of disaster management as well as the big steps forward that have been made in the field of monitoring, prevention and intervention. (Red)
