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Tyler Green
Proposal
For this project I chose to study the natural disaster that Italy has to offer. Italy is in
between a subduction zone that is off of the southern tip and also a convergent zone that runs
through the country itself. Because of these two tectonic boundaries, this makes Italy a very
tectonically active zone. The subduction zone not only creates earthquakes, but it also the reason
why there are large volcanoes and earthquakes within the country. Italy is home to over sixty
million people and most of them are not aware of the possible dangers that they live in. The
purpose of this project is to inform those who live in Italy about what sort of natural disasters
that may happen while they are living there.
As of now, Italy has a fairly good history of past natural disaster mostly consisting of
earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. A more recent earthquake happened in the year 2009 killed
almost three-hundred people. The rupture was about ten kilometers deep with a magnitude of
about 6.2. Earth quakes are not the only thing that the citizens of Italy has to worry about. In the
year 79 A.D. Mt. Vesuvius erupted killing over a thousand people. This is not the only eruption
on record, this mountain has erupted many times in the past and will continue to erupt more in
the future. The main reason why I chose Italy, is because of the hazard the citizens are in. Unlike
most countries, most of the population of Italy is in harm’s way. Beneath these volcanos lies
large cities. The level of destruction may not be as large as other volcanoes or tectonically active
regions, but what make this place particularly bad is how close the people live to these areas. A
large part of the populations either live beneath a volcano or they live somewhat near a fault.
Throughout this project, it is going to be my goal to create maps and graphs to show the people
of Italy the danger that they live in and also the necessary steps they need to take to prepare for
the next natural disaster that they encounter.