April 15, 2009
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On April 6, 2009, an M6.3 earthquake occurred in central Italy, causing hundreds of casualties, building damage, and ground failure. Teams of earthquake researchers, sponsored by the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI), the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Center (PEER), and the Geo-Engineering Earthquake Reconnaissance (GEER) Asso-ciation, will coordinate with additional teams and researchers in the field to investigate and document scientific and engineering effects of the earthquake. Potential geo-engineering issues to explore include ground motion, site effects, landslides, seismic performance of earth dams, seismic compression of compacted earth fills, and possibly surface fault rupture. The region is well instrumented with ground motion stations that will quantify the characteristics of earthquake shaking for this M=6.3 normal fault event. It is anticipated that important lessons will include the performance of masonry and concrete structures, the performance of historic monuments, and the emergency response and management system. EERI/PEER team members begin departing in the next few days. This team is headed by Paolo Bazzurro of AIR-Worldwide. Other team members include the following colleagues from both the U.S. and Italy: David Alexander (CESPRO/Universita di Firenze); Silvia Bruno (Consulting Structural Engineer); Paolo Clemente (ENEA Casaccia Research Centre); Mary Comerio, Filip Filippou, and Khalid Mosalam (PEER/University of California Berkeley); Adriano DeSortis and Agostino Goretti (National Seismic Survey, Italy), Mersedeh Jorjani (Architectural Conservator), Fabrizio Mollaioli (University of Rome), and Marko Schotanus (Rutherford & Chekene), with H. John Price (Curry Price Court) representing the Applied Technology Council. The GEER team, headed by Jonathan Stewart of the University of California Los Angeles, is currently in the field. Italian and Greek geo-engineers have agreed to collaborate on this effort. Other members of this team include George Athanasopoulos, Giovanna Biscontin, Giuseppe Di Capua, Rob Kayen, Scott Kieffer, Guiseppe Lanzo, George Mylonakis, Guiseppe Scasserra, Francesco Silvestri, and Armando Simonelli. Follow the GEER, EERI, and PEER teams, as well as other field investigation teams, as they conduct field recon-naissance. For this event EERI has created a blog site where researchers will be posting short observations and a few photos, and readers can post comments and responses. Check out http://www.eqclearinghouse.org/italy-090406. The primary goals of the effort are to capture critical perishable information to advance lessons learned and research in all earthquake-related disciplines and to promote National Science Foundation (NSF) education and professional develop-ment objectives. A short report will be posted on the GEER, EERI, and PEER websites as soon as possible, and a report will be published in the EERI Newsletter. It is also anticipated that a series of briefings will be held in the U.S. once these various teams return. EERI is an Oakland-based nonprofit organization that, for over thirty years, has conducted a Learning from Earthquakes Program with funding from NSF.  EERI has sent researchers to investigate damaging earthquakes around the world. The research teams have brought back valuable observations that hold lessons for U.S. engineering practitioners and re-searchers as they strive to reduce earthquake hazards. PEER is a multi-institutional research and education center with headquarters at the University of California, Berkeley. GEER is based in Berkeley, California, with the mission of advancing geotechnical research and practice by documenting the geotechnical and related effects of important earthquakes. The travel of GEER participants is also supported by NSF.
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EERI Contacts: William T. Holmes, Chair of Learning from Earthquakes Advisory Committee, 415-568-4403, or Paolo Bazzurro, EERI-PEER Team Leader to Italy, 415-912-3111