EXPERTS ADVISORY

ANN ARBOR—A magnitude-6.2 earthquake in central Italy early Wednesday killed dozens of people and reduced several towns to rubble. A stronger but deeper earthquake also occurred today in Myanmar. University of Michigan earthquake experts are available to discuss both events.

Ben van der Pluijm is an earthquake geologist in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences. Today’s Italian quake and other strong, damaging earthquakes in that country’s Apennine Mountains are an expression of ongoing geologic extension (a normal fault) in the region and are not tied to a major tectonic plate boundary, van der Pluijm said.

Today’s event is similar to previous earthquakes in the region, including the April 2009, magnitude-6.3 quake, van der Pluijm said. That quake, near the town of L’Aquila, killed at least 295 people and left more than 55,000 people homeless. The 2009 quake created a disturbing legal issue over failed earthquake prediction that involved legal action against seismologists, van der Pluijm said.

“As far as today’s earthquake in Italy is concerned, the biggest human dangers now are aftershocks and landslides in this mountainous region,” van der Pluijm said. “The impacts of this earthquake will also be expensive.”

Contact: 734-763-0373, vdpluijm@umich.edu

Jeroen Ritsema is a professor of geophysics in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences. His research involves the analysis of seismic waves to image Earth’s interior.

Ritsema said today’s earthquakes in Italy and Myanmar are of fundamentally different natures. The Myanmar quake is associated with colliding tectonic plates, while the Italian quake is not. The Myanmar quake was deeper and stronger (preliminary magnitude of 6.8, depth of 52 miles) and most likely occurred within the Indian tectonic plate, which is sliding beneath the Eurasian plate, Ritsema said.

The northward underthrusting of India beneath Eurasia generates numerous earthquakes and consequently makes this area one of the most seismically hazardous regions on Earth, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Contact: 734-615-6405, jritsema@umich.edu