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by Antonella Alba 11 May 2020 An earthquake this morning at 5.03 woke the capital from sleep. The shock felt very strong by the population was immediately registered by the Ingv with a magnitude of 3.3 located in Fonte Nuova, north of Rome. So much fear, some took to the streets, but no harm.

We have heard Alessandro Amato seismologist of the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology.

- The earthquake zone is inside the urban area of ​​Rome, is this new?
Yes, the epicenter is on the junction near the large Nomentana artery, the magnitude is between 3.2 and 3.7.
It is an area of ​​which we know little, there is no precedent, to understand similar earthquakes we have to go south to Colli Albani, that is a known volcanic area, or east of the capital area Monti Tiburtuni which also have their seismicity.

In Rome, earthquakes usually - which are still few - but are generally smaller in general, so either you don't feel or feel little. It is obvious that taking place during the night when everyone is sleeping they feel more, then this morning was very close to the populous center and therefore the shock can be felt more easily and by many people

Earthquakes of this slight entity so there are hundreds in a year, but in remote areas and not within cities.

How long did the shock last?
It lasted a few seconds, intense not long, at 10 kilometers deep.

Should we expect the classic aftershock?
For now it seems an isolated shock at the moment only one, a couple of hours have passed, there is no precedent in that area, let's see what happens .. Are

there relevant precedents in the same area in Rome?
An important precedent in Palombara Sabina in 190, but it is about 30 km further north, it made 5.2 in magnitude and some damage, towards the Prenestini mountains, was felt a lot in the capital. 
Rome however has a low seismicity, even if it has many 'resentments' from other earthquakes that take place around the metropolitan city.

On twitter many people talked about roar ..
Yes it is possible, the seismic wave transforms into an acoustic wave which in itself is elastic, it compresses and expands spreading then on the surface, therefore it is possible to hear them even at a certain distance.

We all immediately thought of central Italy.
Yes it is true, we seismologists also immediately thought of central Italy, an area recently affected by important seismic events, but fortunately there is no connection.

How does the Ingv detection system work on seismic events?
We at Ingv have had a detection system for a few months that immediately provides an automatic estimate of the epicenter and magnitude of the seismic event. The release of the information is automatic, if the earthquake is greater than 3 in magnitude, send the tweet alone on the net, making the definitive location and hooking the tweet. In just over a minute - as happened for this morning - you are able to already have the preliminary estimate which then spread in a moment on twitter. Then after with the quick estimate the staff that is inside our national headquarters in Rome proceeds with the definitive one so almost in less than two minutes you have the information. It is a new procedure experimented for years, published since October 2018.