There Niscemi landslide continues to advance: the town in the province of Caltanissettain Sicily, is still in the midst of the emergency after the landslide event that began last January 25th, which led to over 1,500 displaced. In fact, over the last few hours, new collapses preceded by explosions have been recorded, with the vertical cut which came up to 55 meters.
At the moment, the red zone extends up 150 meters from the landslide frontbut the head of the Civil Protection Fabio Ciciliano has the safety zone to retreat even further towards the city center, as the landslide is still active. THE’risk areahowever, was extended by approx 25km2on which the prohibition on building.
Meanwhile, i Fire Brigade have released a video, visible above, which shows the territory of Niscemi before and after the landslide, created by the topography experts of the National Corps thanks to the use of satellite images. The comparison is impressive, with the images of the landslide of over 4 km in extension, clearly visible even from space.
To give an idea, Ciciliano compared the emergency in the Nisse area to the Vajont disaster of 1963, when a landslide of Mount Toc ended up in the dam of the Friulian valley triggering aflood which overwhelmed several countries below and caused 1,917 deaths and damages of 900 billion lire. «Right now we’re talking about a landslide movement which is about 350 million cubic meters. For comparison, the Vajont disaster of 1963 it moved 263 million”, explained the head of Civil Protection. However, it should be remembered that the two disasters occurred in different situations and for different causes: a Niscemi, among other things, the disaster fortunately did not cause any deaths.
The geological reason why the landslide does not stop can be explained by looking at the stratigraphy of the area. A geological report presented to the Sicily Region in 2019 confirms that there is indeed a first layer of alluvial deposits due to the waterways present there, made of pebbles immersed in a poorly cemented matrix. Below, we find a layer of sand and a layer of silt before arriving at a substratum of marly clay. The higher states are porous, while the clays they are much less permeable.
But what will happen now? The Civil Protection has confirmed that citizens outside the red zone will not have to leave their homes and a‘investigation for negligent disaster and damage followed by landslide. In the meantime, the ABI has suspended the mortgages of the homes involved; the government, however, rejected the use of funds for the construction of the Bridge over the Strait to deal with the damage in Niscemi and that caused by bad weather in Sicily and Calabria.
