Italian earthquakes could go on for weeks in domino effect, seismologist predicts

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Italian fire fighters help a resident in the town of Norcia after Sunday’s strong earthquake in central Italy. Photo: EPA

Published: 1:04pm, 31 Oct 2016Updated: 11:32pm, 31 Oct 2016

The earthquakes that have buffeted central Italy over the last two months could continue in a devastating domino effect with one large quake leading to another along the central Apennine fault system, a leading seismologist warned.

The latest major tremor, measuring 6.6 according to the US Geological Survey, struck on Sunday in the same region where a 6.2 quake on August 24 killed 297 people. In between there have been thousands of smaller tremors, including a 6.1 quake on Wednesday.

Sunday’s earthquake caused no known casualties but was the strongest to hit Italy, one of the world’s most seismically active countries, since 1980.

Gianluca Valensise, a seismologist at Italy’s National Institute for Geophysics and Vulcanology, said there was a “geodynamic link” between the deadly August earthquake and all those that have followed.

Collapsed buildings are seen following an earthquake in Campi Alto near Norcia, Italy, on Sunday. Photo: Reuters

Italy’s Apennine mountains that run from the Liguria region in the northwest to the southern island of Sicily are dominated by a chain of faults in the earth’s crust, each one averaging about 10-20 kilometres in length.

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