How to write a L’Aquila earthquake case study

• Decisions were made to take action so that preparations for evacuation could be made when tremors were first detected. There had been hundreds of foreshocks before the L’Aquila earthquake.
• Scientific support and alarm systems must be supported by local plans for emergency preparations. Prior to the L’Aquila earthquake, residents had been assured that an earthquake was not about to happen. Thus reassured, they didn’t take any action.
• Local efforts should be enhanced, but not replaced, by outside responses from the government and other bodies.
• There should be a clear hierarchy within local government and other bodies so that emergencies can be dealt with effectively and efficiently.
• Because disasters can happen at any time without warning, there should be systems and programmes in place to reduce the risks to the public.

In August 2016, yet another earthquake struck, just 40 kilometres from L’Aquila. That was registered as a 6.2 magnitude quake which killed around 60 people. The town of Amatrice was destroyed.

The Norica earthquake of October 2016 was a 6.6 magnitude one and this destroyed several historic buildings but resulted in few injuries or deaths.

In 2017 a 4.0 magnitude quake was felt in the L’Aquila province at 4.13 am. Its tremors were felt in the neighbouring Marche region. The epicentre of that quake was just 14 kilometres from Amatrice. However, after this quake there were no reports of people being injured, or of damage to buildings.

There are several problems that you might have encountered when researching for this case study. If you are not a native speaker of English, you would be expected to know that you are required to write about the most devastating or the most important or well-known earthquake in L’Aquila. There have been many, so in theory, you could write about any of them. If the assignment had given the date of the earthquake, that would have eliminated the problem, but it didn’t. Also, if the rubric had said ‘The’ L’Aquila earthquake, then this would also have indicated that you were to write about the most important one in the area.

Researching for the case study, you have to be very careful that you have the facts and figures for the 2009 earthquake. Because there have been quite a few, you need to check the information you are presented with on the internet very carefully and cross check it with relevant information from other sites. You can’t simply rely on one site for all the information you need to gather.

Only use authoritative sites for your information gathering. These will either be well-known sites such as the BBC, or the quality press, all of which have internet sites which are regularly updated, so that you have the most up-to-date information at your fingertips.

Generally, tabloids should not be used as source material. You need to check out The Guardian, The Telegraph, and The Times and the Sunday Observer, which are all British newspapers. As for American newspapers, it’s safe to use The New York Times, The Wall Street journal and The Washington Post. The print versions of these newspapers can usually be found in Europe, although it’s probably easier to read them online.

You also need to use reputable reliable sites in the internet. For example, their addresses should end with.ac or.edu.

Make sure you make notes so that you can write up your case study. You will need to make a note of the dates the articles were published, or you can’t site your sources accurately. Check with your tutor how you should site material that you have downloaded from the internet. Usually you need to put the date you downloaded it on the file.