image credit: USGS; image source; larger image

BBC News: Italy's Earthquake History

This image shows the U.S. Geological Survey Shake Map of the April 6, 2009 Italy earthquake. According to the color code, at the epicenter, indicated by the star:
-- The acceleration of the ground was from 14% to 26% of the acceleration of gravity
-- The speed of the ground was from 12 cm/sec to 23 cm/sec.

For a brief history of earthquakes in Italy, see BBC News: Italy's Earthquake History.

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Visual Courseware: Earthquake

Check out the tutorials in Visual Courseware: Earthquake, from Earth and Environmental Sciences, to find out how to measure earthquake magnitudes and how to find an earthquake's epicenter. See Worth a Look for background information.

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image credit: USGS; image source; larger image

Earthquake Summary Poster: L'Aquila, Italy

This is portion of a poster from the US geological survey on the earthquake in Italy on April 6, 2009.

-- Click on the image for the larger version to see the boundary between the Eurasian and African plates.
-- The poster text says this earthquake occurred "primarily a response to the Tyrrhenian basin [this basin is west of Italy and east of the islands of Sardinia and Corsica] opening faster than the compression between the Eurasian and African plates."
-- For more from USGS, see Earthquakes.

What is UPSeis?

Visit What is UPSeis? to learn about earthquake science--you'll find out how earthquakes occur, how to read a seismograph, and how to locate the epicenter of an earthquake. To see how plate tectonics has shaped the Earth's surface, visit Plate Tectonics, the Cause of Earthquakes, from the University of Nevada, Reno.