Earthquakes in Italy

Italy is the most seismically active country in western Europe because it lies along the boundary where the African plate slowly pushes into the Eurasian plate. This collision built the Apennine mountains that run the length of the peninsula, and the same crustal stretching and faulting behind them is what generates most of the nation's earthquakes.

The greatest hazard follows the Apennine spine through regions such as Umbria, Abruzzo, Marche and Calabria, along with parts of Sicily near active volcanoes like Etna. Deadly events including the 2009 L'Aquila and 2016 Amatrice earthquakes struck exactly this belt, where medieval towns and historic masonry are especially vulnerable to shaking.

The deadliest of them all was the 1980 Irpinia earthquake, a magnitude 6.9 shock that killed around 2,900 people across Campania and Basilicata and remains Italy's worst postwar disaster.