[2] The shock was strongly felt in the whole Veneto region, damaging mostly the towns located in the Alpago basin, in Val Lapisina and above the Cansiglio plateau.The epicenter was at the northern edge of Santa Croce Lake, 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) east of Belluno.In the city's outskirts, two blocks had to be demolished, 21 houses needed restoration and 219 more received slight damage.The nearby town of Serravalle experienced little damage (only the partial collapse of the Turris Nigra, a tower), later explained by the different composition of the underlying soil by seismologists Torquato Taramelli and Giulio Andrea Pirona; the scientists discovered that Serravalle sat above a compact slab of limestone, while Ceneda, just a few kilometers away, rested on soil composed of alluvial conglomerates.This discovery was instrumental in developing the seismic macro-zoning process, a technique used to better assess the risk of damage from earthquakes.
Dismantling the Bishops' Palace in Belluno after the earthquake