A fact from 1915 Avezzano earthquake appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 28 April 2009 ( check views). The text of the entry was as follows: Did you know... that the 1915 Avezzano earthquake killed over 30,000 people and flattened the town of Avezzano, Italy? A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2009/April.

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Avezzano is in southern Italy, L'Aquila is in central Italy. Which is it?-- Grahame ( talk) 02:11, 29 April 2009 (UTC) reply

Avezzano is in the province of L'Aquila. — howcheng { chat} 13:05, 12 January 2013 (UTC) reply

"About 30,000 people in Avezzano, Italy—96% of its population—were killed when an earthquake struck the region."

Yeah ? Really ? 96% of the population of the town ? An earthquake at 8 AM, and none of the villagers are out in the field, or walking in the street to school or work ? That defies basic credibility. What does the article actually say ? It says that 96% of the people in one casualty zone were killed. There is no source cited for that claim, and a "casualty zone" might consist of a single collapsed building. Or one small city block of collapsed buildings. Not the entire town or commune. If you want to make phoney, hysterical, sensationalist, exaggerated claims, please go to Facebook. This is supposed to be an encyclopedia. Lathamibird ( talk) 00:55, 13 January 2017 (UTC) reply

Question is - what do the sources say? The BBC source refers to a 30,000 death toll (across the region as a whole one presumes) but the first page of the source [4] (which is the only bit available without subscription) does not make any reference to the percentage of the town's population that died. I'd just intended originally to comment on the assertion that the area 'has been an earthquake zone for at least 300 years' - it might be true and that there was no history of earthquakes prior to that but is it actually the case that it has been an earthquake zone since time immemorial (and earlier) but we just don't have the records? cheers Geopersona ( talk) 05:18, 13 January 2017 (UTC) reply

@ Lathamibird: @ Geopersona: I somehow missed this discussion, but I'll respond now since I've just seen it. The source says, on page 266, "At Avezzano, out of the entire population, 96 per cent are estimated to have perished". The link is publicly visible on Google Books here if you want to double check. In the mean time, I am happy to clearly label that this claim is according to this specific source if we still have reasonable doubt about its veracity. Best, ceran thor 18:55, 15 January 2019 (UTC) reply

Adding to this more than 18 months later, I just checked the Italian CFTI online earthquake catalogue entry for this earthquake and found the following "The Marsican earthquake undoubtedly had a significant impact on the demographic dynamics of many locations in the epicentral area. According to official data, often in disagreement with those reported by the documentation produced by local authorities, Avezzano and the village of Cese lost 95% of their population (10,700 dead), Massa d'Albe 83% (500 dead), Pescina 72% (4000 dead), Ortucchio 71% (1800 dead), San Benedetto dei Marsi more than 70% (3000 dead), Cappelle 70% (600 dead), Aschi 70% (700 dead), Magliano dei Marsi 69% (1,800 dead), Paterno 63% (1,000 dead), Collarmele 59% (1,200 dead), Cerchio 50% (1,300 dead), Gioia dei Marsi 47% (1,600 dead), San Pelino il 45% (600 dead), Aielli 41% (1000 dead), Corona 37% (150 dead), Canistro 33% (450 dead), Sant'Anatolia 27% (100 dead), Lecce dei Marsi on 24 % (500 dead), Venus 23% (130 dead), Forme 17% (120 dead), Scurcola Marsicana 15% (405 dead). Some centers, including: Pescosolido, Antrosano, Trasacco, Civita d'Antino, Celano, Rendinara, Sora, Luco dei Marsi and Scanno suffered population losses of between 10% and 5% of the total number of their inhabitants. Official statistics put the total number of deaths caused by the earthquake at 32610; this is an estimate that does not take into account the people who died as a result of injuries and deprivations in the damaged areas and in the hospitals of various cities in central Italy" (translated from the original Italian by google). I'll add some of the details from this source to the article. Mikenorton ( talk) 10:38, 14 October 2020 (UTC) reply