I just saw that northern Italy has suffered yet another earthquake,. A 2.1
magnitude earthquake hit the near the Belluno area in the Veneto Region. This is the latest in a series of earthquakes to hit
the region over the past few weeks.
So what is going on here?
Sandwiched between the Alps and the Africa plate, Italy has always
been a hotspot for seismic activity. The map above, sourced from Piedmont Properties via Daily Kos,
shows the earthquake zones in Italy – basically the entire peninsula.
The legend indicates that the strongest quakes, the Category I tremors,
are common in a few pockets in Sicily, Basilicata, Puglia, Campania,
Lazio, Abruzzo, and Friuli-Venezia Giulia. The lower-grade Category III
quakes show up mostly in southern Italy. But the large portion of the
country lies in a Category II quake zone. As you’ll see, almost the
entirety of Emilia-Romagna lies in a quake zone.
Besides natural plate movements, Daily Kos also seems to point to
fracking as a possible cause of the latest seismic phenomenon. Fracking,
or hydraulic fracturing, “is a [mining] technique used to release
petroleum, natural gas, or other substances for extraction.” Daily Kos
links to a number of articles about the latest drilling/fracking/gas
exploration projects in the Po River Valley.
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