Rumble And Tremble, An Educational Exhibition To Promote Earthquake Awareness In The Apuan Alps UGGp (Italy)

The Apuan Alps, part of the Apennine orogenic system in Italy, are a tectonically active region. Hence,the Geopark area, being bordered by the Garfagnana-Lunigiana sector which is one of the most hazardousseismic zones in the Northern Apennines, is prone to earthquakes occurrence. Moderate to strong earthquakeshave historically been recorded, the last damaging event being the Mw 5.1 in June 2013. However, thestrongest earthquake occurred on 7th September 1920: it caused more than 200 deaths, the destructionof entire villages and severe damage to buildings and roads all over an area of more than 1,000 squarekilometres around the epicentre located west of Piazza al Serchio village (Garfagnana). Based on the historicalreports of the damage, the earthquake had an intensity of IX/X degrees MCS (Mercalli-Cancani-SiebergScale), consistent to the Richter magnitude of 6.5 as computed on historical seismograms. The ApuanAlps UGGp has always promoted projects and activities aimed to raise the awareness of local communitiesto improve the resilience and to mitigate risks deriving from natural hazard events. Since the experienceand knowledge of what happened in the past is important for planning a safer future, in the centenaryanniversary of the 1920 earthquake, the Geopark launched the Project "1920-2020: preserving the memoryof a past disaster". Despite the pandemic, an educational webinar and the presentation of a book wereorganised on the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction 2020 and 2021, with regard to the 1920earthquake in Garfagnana-Lunigiana. Work on the main initiative, i.e. the educational exhibition entitled"Rumble and Tremble" on the 1920 earthquake, instead, is now in progress. The exhibition is to be inauguratedin 2022 in the Geopark Visitor Center of Equi Terme, which also houses the ApuanGeoLab, the interactivepath of local and global Earth Sciences. The exhibition includes the historical images of the disaster whichare photos mostly of destroyed buildings, survivors and rescue work. This moving section aims to keepthe memory of the enormous disaster alive so that it may become the collective memory of the Geoparkcommunity. The core of the "Rumble and Tremble" exhibition is made up of panels dealing with the1920 seismic event and subsequent phase of rescue and aid within the general framework of the earthquakephenomenon, thus connecting local issues to global geological issues. This scientific section aims to answerquestions such as what an earthquake is and why it occurs, where an earthquake is located and howit is measured, how strong it can be, what the relationships between seismic hazard and seismic riskare and how to implement good practices for seismic prevention and risk mitigation. A third sector ofthe exhibition, to be called the Geoparks Network corner, will focus on the experiences of other UNESCOGlobal Geoparks in terms of scientific dissemination and education on earthquakes risk mitigation.