Italy is located on the edge of the Eurasion plate with the southern tip being on the African plate. It is a convergent boundary.
In the textbook Natural Hazards, by Keller and Blodgett, it is stated that "Convergent boundaries occur where plates are colliding" (Natural Hazards 10). The Appennine Mountains, a large range running all the way down the nation, were formed due to a process called subduction. In the text Natural Hazard the authors refer to subduction as "the process of one tectonic plate sinking below the other" (Natural Hazards 10).
In her article published on the Smithsonian website about the recent 6.2 magnitude earthquake in Italy, Erin Blakemore quotes Jonathan Amos a reporter for the BBC saying, "Tyrrhenian basin, which is located beneath the western Mediterranean Sea, is opening up slowly—over a tenth of an inch each year. That spread is complicated by counter-clockwise movement in the Adriatic Plate, which sits right at the boundary between the Eurasian and African plates 'Italy is literally being pushed and pulled every way,' concludes Amos—and he’s not the only one. The USGS calls the area “tectonically and geologically comple”(Blakemore).
I found all of this to be very interesting, people say California has it bad but Geologically speaking things are not looking good in Italy. To read the full article by Blakemore click this link http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/geology-behind-italys-catastrophic-quake-180960233/#8iyIWJ5wsHb1uCMV.99
Note the pictures used in this post were taken from a basic image search of Italian tectonic plates and are assumed to be public.
Citations:
Blakemore, Erin. "The Geology Behind Italy’s Catastrophic Quake." Www.smithsonianmag.com. N.p., 24 Aug. 2016. Web. 09 Sept. 2016. <http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/geology-behind-italys-catastrophic-quake-180960233/?no-ist>.
Keller, Edward A., and Robert H. Blodgett. Natural Hazards: Earth's Processes as Hazards, Disasters, and Catastrophes. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2006. N. pag. Print.
Dear Mr. Demarco,
ReplyDeleteMy name is Cory Caputo and I am also enrolled in the MPC geology 9 class and am currently covering the Croatian country, whose tectonic plates are opposite yours. While covering Croatia, I learned a lot about Italy's current status with regard to converging with Croatia. I'm facinated with the fact that our two countries are actually pulling towards each other across the Adriatic Sea. As I stated on my own blog, the two countries are merging closer towards one another by 0.16 inch per year, which estimates that within the next 50 to 70 million years the merging of the two countries will completely close up and not exist anymore. I will continue to monitor the similarities between our two blogs and hopefully be able to add to your already insightful posts. Great start on your blog and keep up the good work.
Cory Caputo
Hi Tyler, this is a great post with a lot of useful information. I am actually focusing on a country that is surrounded by the Eurasian Plate. Did you know that the Eurasian plate is the third slowest moving plate moving at about 2 centimeters every year?
ReplyDeleteNice post Tyler! Do you happen to know what cities are affected the most from the Eurasion plate?
ReplyDeleteI just want to respond on your comment about how bad Italy is re CA...the truth is youre right, the infrastructure in Italy is pretty bad in some of the most risky areas so the shaking is more catastrophic that it'd be here...see what you find out this week.
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