GEER findings – damage patterns

We examined damage patterns at two scales  – damage within L’Aquila and regional damage distribution based on impact in small villages (figure below). The figure below shows our track logs and call out places we visited as of Wednesday April 15. In most cases we have approximate damage statistics for those villages.

Within L’Aquila, we see two interesting patterns. First, on the hanging wall side of the Pettino fault, we see a 100-200 m wide zone of heavy damage. Footwall side is steep terrain so no damage observations. Below the 100-200 m wide zone is relatively light damage. Second pattern has to do with site effects. North of the historic center of L’Aquila, we see light damage on the Pleistocene terraces, but relatively heavy damage (but no collapses) in younger Holocene swales cut into the terrace. We have pretty good documentation of both of these damage patterns. We have not mapped damage in the historic center, which will be an area of emphasis for the EERI team.

Track logs and villages visited

Regarding villages, we did not do detailed mapping, but we did visit many villages and made estimates of percentages of structures with different damage states for the predominant construction style (often masonry).  Villages visited as of April 15 are marked on figure above. Comparing one village to another can indicate site effects. For example, we have several cases of side by side villages where one is heavily damaged and others are fine, usually with the damaged ones being on Pleistocene soils.