1916 Rimini earthquakes

1916 Rimini earthquakes
Tents in front of Castel Sismondo after an earthquake
1916 Rimini earthquakes is located in Italy
1916 Rimini earthquakes
Map of Italy, showing the location and strength of the 16 August earthquake
ISC event913838
Local date
  • 17 May 1916 (1916-05-17) (first)
  • 16 August 1916 (1916-08-16) (second)
Local time
Magnitude
Epicenter44°01′08″N 12°44′13″E / 44.019°N 12.737°E / 44.019; 12.737
Areas affected
Aftershocks
  • Mw 4.82 (16 June 1916 (1916-06-16))
  • Mw 4.69 (16 August 1916 (1916-08-16))
  • Mw 5.3 (16 August 1916 (1916-08-16))

In 1916, two earthquakes of magnitude 5.82 Mw occurred near the border between the regions of Romagna and the Marche in the Kingdom of Italy: at 13:50 CEST on 17 May, and at 09:06 CEST on 16 August.[1][2]

While the earthquakes caused few fatalities, the 17 May earthquake damaged and the 16 August earthquake destroyed many buildings in the coastal settlements of Rimini, Riccione, and Pesaro, and their hinterlands. 615 buildings in Rimini were demolished after the earthquakes,[3] while 80% of Riccione was razed.[4] Among the lost historic buildings were Riccione's medieval Church of San Lorenzo in Strada and its first marine hospice.[4][5] Some houses also collapsed in the Republic of San Marino.[6] With the 16 August earthquake occurring at the height of the summer touristic season, the 1916 earthquakes considerably hurt the local coastal economies, already depressed by the First World War.[7][8][9]

The area around Rimini had suffered earthquakes in 1672, 1786, and 1875.[10] Their frequency had mistakenly led people to expect strong earthquakes only once a century.[11] The 1916 earthquakes are the most recent significant earthquakes to have struck Rimini and its environs. Antiseismic building regulations enforced in 1927 were suspended under Fascist Italy to encourage touristic development; they were reinstated in 1984, after much of the coastline had been developed.[12][13][10]

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  6. ^ "Il terremoto di Romagna e delle Marche" [The earthquake of Romagna and the Marche] (PDF). Il Resto del Carlino (in Italian). Bologna. 19 August 1916. p. 2. Retrieved 11 January 2024.
  7. ^ "Terremoto del 17.05.1916, Alto Adriatico (Rimini)" [Earthquake of 17 May 1916, High Adriatic (Rimini)]. www.lavalledelmetauro.it. 28 July 2004. Retrieved 4 January 2024.
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference :9 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Bagnaresi, Davide; Calbucci, Gianluca (15 May 2023). "A 100 anni dal primo bombardamento su suolo italiano della I Guerra Mondiale, Rimini ricorda" [100 years after the first bombing on Italian soil of World War I, Rimini remembers]. Comune di Rimini. Retrieved 12 January 2024.
  10. ^ a b Torri, Tommaso (3 November 2016). "Rimini costruita senza regole, in caso di forte terremoto sarebbe rasa al suolo" [Rimini built without rules: In the event of a strong earthquake, it would be razed to the ground]. RiminiToday (in Italian). Retrieved 4 January 2024.
  11. ^ Delucca, Oreste (25 September 2016). "1916, il primo disastro" [1916: The first disaster]. Chiamami Città (in Italian). Retrieved 4 January 2024.
  12. ^ Cite error: The named reference :8 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  13. ^ Cite error: The named reference :11 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).