1980 Irpinia earthquake
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Date | November 23 1980[1] |
|---|---|
| Magnitude | 6.8 Magnitude Richter |
| Epicenter location: | Coordinates: [1] |
| Countries/ regions affected |
 Italy |
| Casualties: | 2,914 dead, > 10,000 injured |
The 1980 Irpinia earthquake took place in the Irpinia region in southern Italy on Sunday, November 23, 1980. Measuring 6.89[1] on the Richter Scale, the quake, centered on the village of Conza, killed 2,914 people, injured more than 10,000 and left 300,000 homeless. It is known in Italy as Terremoto dell'Irpinia (Irpininan earthquake).
The quake struck at 18:34 UTC.[1][2] The first jolt was followed by 90 aftershocks. Towns in the province of Avellino were hardest hit. In Sant'Angelo dei Lombardi, 300 died including 27 children in an orphanage and eighty percent of that town had been destroyed. One hundred were killed in Balvano when a medieval church collapsed during Sunday services. The towns of Lioni, Conza di Campania (near the epicenter), and Teora were destroyed, and dozens of structures in Naples were levelled, including a 10-storey apartment building. Damage was spread over more than 26,000 km², including Naples and Salerno.
The Italian government spent 59 billion (or 59 thousand milliard)[nb 1] lire on reconstruction, while other nations sent contributions. Germany contributed 32 million United States dollars (USD) and the United States 70 million USD.[3]
However, in the early nineties a major corruption scandal emerged of the billions[nb 1] of lire that actually disappeared from the earthquake reconstruction funds in the 1980s. Of the $40 billion (or 40 thousand million)[nb 1] spent on earthquake reconstruction, an estimated $20 billion (or 20 thousand million)[nb 1] went to create an entirely new social class of millionaires in the region, $6.4 billion (or 6,400 million)[nb 1] went to the Camorra, whereas another $4 billion (or 4,000 million)[nb 1] went to politicians in bribes. Only the remaining $9.6 billion (or 9,600 million)[nb 1], a quarter of the total amount, was actually spent on people's needs.[4]
Italian novellist Alberto Moravia declared:
"Suddenly, the brutal truth recovers the connection between me and reality. These smashed up waspnests are houses, residences...actually, they were."
Contents |
[edit] Notes
- ^ a b c d e f g non-American sources will likely use the long-scale billion, while American and some English-language sources after around 1970 will tend to use short-scale billion, British sources before 1970 tended to use billion in the long-scale sense; milliard or "thousand million" is used to avoid confusion
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ a b c d (in Italian)Download - Catalogo Parametrico dei Terremoti Italiani, http://emidius.mi.ingv.it/CPTI04/download.html, "2413 DI 1980 11 23 18 34 52 Irpinia-Basilicata CFTI 1319 100 100 40.850 15.280 A 6.89 0.04 6.89 0.04 6.89 0.04 927 G 553 1587 2413"
- ^ Italy: Avellino, Potenza, Caserta, Naples. NOAA National Geophysical Data Center, Boulder (Colorado)
- ^ Antonello Caporale (2004-12-13) (in Italian), Irpinia, 20 anni dopo, la Repubblica, http://www.repubblica.it/speciale/irpinia/irpi.html, retrieved on 2009-04-07
- ^ Behan, The Camorra, pp. 188
[edit] References
- Translated from it:Terremoto dell'Irpinia
- Other sources: Facts on File 1980 Yearbook p893
[edit] External links
- History and documents - audio of the earthquake (Italian)
- INGV - sismica Map (Italian)
- Memory and Images Earthquake 1980 (Italian)
- Earthquake 1980 Gesualdo (Italian)
- Map and locality list of affected area (Italian)
- Dank für die deutsche Hilfe, Hamburger Abendblatt, 1980-12-04, http://www.abendblatt.de/extra/service/944949.html?url=/ha/1980/xml/19801204xml/habxml801012_7712.xml (German)
