EEFIT RECONNAISSANCE MISSION TO THE AMATRICE, ITALY 24/09/2016 EARTHQUAKE

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At 3.36 am on 24th August 2016 a Mw 6.2 earthquake struck the central region of Italy, with epicentre in the Apennines range, near the village of Accumuli and with a fault rupture of 25 km. Earthquake shaking was felt as far as Rome (120 km SW), Florence (220 km NW) and Urbino (200 km N). The worst affected region has a radius of 20 km around the epicentre, including a number of towns and small villages across the regions of Umbria, Lazio and Abruzzo. The building stock of these urban centres mainly consists of historic rubble masonry structures, with a small measure of reinforced concrete construction. The performance of the former was very poor and collapse was widespread. The historic building stock of Amatrice suffered widespread destruction. Although the area is sparsely populated, the time of occurrence of the main shock and the fact that much of the tourist accommodation was nearly at full capacity led the death toll to be 295, injured 388 and left more than 2000 people homeless. This was the second most deadly earthquake in Italy since 1980.Since 1982, the Earthquake Engineering Investigation Team (EEFIT) has organised dozens of reconnaissance missions worldwide. Involving UK academics and industrial partners, in the past these missions have been funded by EPSRC through the urgent funding request mechanism. EEFIT is a group of earthquake engineers, architects and academics who collaborate with colleagues in earthquake prone countries to improve the seismic resistance of both traditional and engineered structures.EEFIT's principle activity is conducting field investigations following major earthquakes and reporting their findings to the engineering community. The main objectives of EEFIT missions are:- To carry out a detailed technical evaluation of the performance of structures, foundations, civil engineering works and industrial plant within the affected region- To collect geological and seismographic data, including strong motion records- To assess the effectiveness of earthquake protection methods, including repair and retrofit, and to make comparisons of the actual performance of structures with the expectations of designers- To study disaster management procedures and socio-economic effects of the earthquake, including human casualties.These objectives correspond and are further articulated in the objectives of this mission to the Amatrice earthquake region.Ten academics and 5 industrial partners will take part in the mission which will deploy for up to two weeks, conducting rapid and detailed damage surveys of buildings affected by the earthquake. The team will liaise with the local authority and the Italian geophisical institution to collect data on the seismological aspects of the shaking. Finally it will report to the UK and Italian communities its findings from the field trip.