News Release

German Earthquake Task Force in operation in Italy

Scientific support in the earthquake region

Business Announcement

Helmholtz Association

Three scientists from the GFZ - German Research Centre for Geosciences set off in the early hours of this morning for Italy. In their luggage they have instruments for the registration of aftershocks, for the measurement of tremors and for the execution of engineering-technical tasks.

This instrumentation will presumably remain in the region for the next two months. The results obtained will then be incorporated along with other joint scientific investigations and used in the compilation of preventive measures. "The input of our Task Force team mainly serves the support of our Italian colleagues there", explains Prof. Zschau from the GFZ. The Task Force will work together with Italian colleagues from the INGV (Istituto Nazionale de Geofisica e Vulcanologia), the University of Basilicata, and the Department of Civil Protection in the disaster region where, together, they will install a temporary seismological network.

The damage through yesterdays quake with a magnitude of 6,3 in central Italy, is, according to first reports, mainly due to site-effects in the subsurface. The main aim of this mission of the earthquake Task Force is, thus, to support the work of the engineers there, who wish to use the data on aftershocks to determine characteristic building parameters. A further important aim of the Task Force mission is to the condensation of the already existing seismological network for the registration of the expected large number of aftershocks. An exact localization of these aftershocks provide a highly detailed picture of the Earth's crust in the vicinity of the rapture zone of the current quake.

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