Earthquakes will hit Italy that are "30 times more intense" than the magnitude 6.2 temblor in the central Apennines this week, and it's impossible to say when and where, according to Italian geologists.
"The quakes of recent years have caused immense tragedies with high numbers of victims, but unluckily, the earth is sending warning signals," Antonio Piersanti, a seismologist from Italy's National Institute of Geophysics and Vulcanology told Adnkronos.
"Stronger earthquakes than these will occur in Italy," Piersanti said.
"We can't say where or precisely when, but we are certain there will be tremors of magnitude 7.0 equivalent to an intensity 30 times greater than the one that one in Amatrice," Piersanti said.
Amatice was one of the towns worst hit by the devastating earthquake that struck the Apennine mountains between Umbria, Lazio and Marche killing at least 278 people, injuring 400 and leaving 2,500 homeless.
The intensity of the quakes that strike in future will be similar in intensity to the Irpinia earthquake in 1980 and the much more devastating one that struck the Sicilian port city of Messina and parts of the Reggio Calabria region in 1908, Piersanti warned.
"We need to prepare by making sure the quality of buildings is adequate," he said.
A total of 2,483 people died, at least 7,700 were injured, and 250,000 left homeless by the magnitude 6.9 quake that struck the Irpinia area of the Apennines in the southern Campania region in November 1980.
Seventy-two years earlier, between 75,000 and 200,000 lives were lost in the powerful 7.1 magnitude Messina earthquake and tsunami which destroyed most of the city and Reggio Calabria in December 1908.
