Following this post Dave wrote an excellent piece for Platform, our sister site, on preventing earthquake deaths - admin

"There has been a magnitude 6.3 earthquake to the north of Rome, but no news yet of casualties," says the BBC World Service radio news at 03:30 as I drive to Luton airport for a flight to Amsterdam. By the time I am in a Dutch taxi heading for my meeting at the European Space Agency my phone is ringing demanding a blog.

Earthquakes in Italy are not unusual. The whole region is riddled with faults as a result of the tectonic collision between Africa and Europe.

Today's quake at 01:32 GMT was moderately large but more significantly shallow - its depth is preliminarily estimated at only 10 km - so the shaking that it caused at the surface was large. I see from the news that 27 are confirmed dead, and I expect the death toll will rise.

Italian colleagues who arrived today from Rome and Padova for the same meeting as me felt the quake for themselves. My colleague from Rome was already awake, and according to him his house shook for 20 seconds. His wife was still in bed, but was awoken.
Here's a map of the location with the intensity of ground shaking.

Thousands of homes have been damaged. I wait to learn how many schools have collapsed, which is a common cause of tragedy because classrooms have large and often inadequately supported roofs. Fortunately this time the quake struck at night while the schools were empty.

About the author

Dave Rothery is a volcanologist and planetary scientist at the Open University. His current research includes studying volcanic eruptions on the Earth and characterising planetary surfaces, especially Mercury.

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