While major, devastating earthquakes are rare, hundreds of millions of people live in earthquake zones. The United States Geological Survey tracks these quakes. ( Read our earthquake explainer.)Įarthquakes are unpredictable, and thousands of small ones happen every day, typically in areas that aren’t populated, leading to little damage. Both Italy and Myanmar are situated near areas where plates come together, and each has seen major earthquakes in the past. In April 2016, a magnitude 6.9 earthquake hit the country, causing two deaths and dozens more injuries.Įarthquakes happen when one of the plates that cover the Earth scrapes, bumps, or drags along another plate. The shaking recorded for the M6.2 earthquake recorded at Norica peaked at about 0.375 g, consistent with the map, although more records might soon become available with higher (and. Likewise, Myanmar lies to the east of the Sunda Trench, another hot spot for quakes. The map proved prescient: The M6.2 quake struck in the zone of highest hazard, which runs down the spine of the Apennine ranges of central and southern Italy. This area along the Apennine Mountains is “tectonically and geologically complex” according to the USGS, which notes “the Eurasia plate moves towards the northeast with respect to Africa at a rate of approximately 24. Italy lies near the fault line that exists between Eurasian and African tectonic plates.

Hours later and thousands of miles away, a separate magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck in Myanmar. The data is updated in real time, after a short interval.A pair of major earthquakes struck near two of the world's major fault lines early Wednesday, in regions that have long histories of devastating temblors.Ī magnitude 6.2 earthquake and a series of smaller subsequent quakes in central Italy killed dozens of people and collapsed many buildings overnight on Wednesday. The third quake on 30 October was the largest in Italy in 36 years, since the 1980 Irpinia earthquake. In the settings, you can select any set of seismic monitoring services to display earthquakes on the map. 3 deaths 2 3 Dozens injured 4 100,000 homeless 5 A series of major earthquakes struck Central Italy between the Marche and Umbria regions in October 2016. We collect information from all available sources, including: BGS (British Geological Survey), EMSC (European Mediterranean Seismological Centre), GA (Australian Center for Geosciences), GDACS (Global Disaster Coordination and Alert System), GFZ (German Research Center for Geosciences), GHNZ (Geological Hazard Information Center of New Zealand), NRCAN (Natural Resources Research Center of Canada), TMD (Thai Meteorological Department), USGS (USGS), UOA (Athens Seismological Laboratory).

The strength of an earthquake depends on the depth of the shock, the distance to the epicenter, and is measured in points on the Richter scale, characterizing the magnitude (the energy released in the form of seismic waves).Įarthquakes NaplesItaly or nearest to Naples are marked in this block if the region is not seismically active How many earthquakes were there today, in a year, or in a selected period also, the number of aftershocks with a magnitude above 5 and the strongest earthquake in the 2023 year. On this page you can see an online map of earthquakes in the world, a graph and detailed shock statistics (today 15 october 2023).

Italy quake map