With support from the University of Richmond

History News Network

History News Network puts current events into historical perspective. Subscribe to our newsletter for new perspectives on the ways history continues to resonate in the present. Explore our archive of thousands of original op-eds and curated stories from around the web. Join us to learn more about the past, now.

Italy's history of deadly earthquakes

Scientists blame Italy's tragic history of earth tremors on the fact that the country lies directly over the Eurasian and African faultlines, where the borders of two tectonic plates move together and apart.

This also accounts for Italy's relatively high number of active volcanoes - Etna, the largest active volcano in Europe, Vulcano, Stromboli, and Vesuvius, the only active volcano on the mainland of Europe.

1857 Several towns destroyed and 12,000 people killed in the Basilicata region south of Naples by tremors estimated at around 6.9 on the Richter scale - dubbed the Great Neapolitan Earthquake....
Read entire article at Times (UK)