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N0KFQ > TODAY 10.02.08 23:31l 40 Lines 1782 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
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Subj: Today in History - Feb 5
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To : TODAY@ALLUS
February 5, 1783
Earthquake devastates southern Italy
A massive earthquake in southern Italy destroys villages and
triggers a tsunami and landslides on this day in 1783. In all,
about 34,000 people lost their lives and 180 communities were
destroyed.
The estimated 7.5 to 8.0-magnitude quake struck at about 1 p.m.
in the Calabria province. Within a minute, over 100 villages were
leveled throughout the region. In several cases, communities were
literally wiped away with no survivors or standing structures
remaining. The quake also produced an uncommon number of
fractures in the Earth’s surface. In one case, a mile-long
ravine--nearly 100 feet wide--was instantly created. According to
one report, more than 100 goats fell into another crack in the
earth. A witness also claimed that "two mountains on the opposite
sides of a valley walked from their original position until they
met in the middle of the plain, and there joining together, they
intercepted the course of a river." New lakes appeared across the
region.
Several hundred people from the town of Scilla survived the
initial quake and fled to a nearby beach for shelter. Many then
drowned when a second tremor at midnight prompted a tsunami. The
tsunami also killed thousands of people in Reggio di Calabria and
Messina, towns that sit opposite each other across the strait
between Calabria and Sicily. The misery continued across southern
Italy and Sicily for the remainder of the winter. With food
supplies disrupted, the survivors were at risk of starvation. In
addition, another quake on March 28 killed another 2,000 people.
Including aftershocks and the indirect effects of the
earthquakes, a total of 80,000 people died in the earthquake of
1783.
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