Nearly 300 people died in an earthquake that hit the village of Amatrice, in central Italy, on August 24, 2016. A major fault line runs the length of Italy.
Earthquakes Can Happen in More Places Than You Think
We still don't know where all the faults lie.
In the U.S., the focus is on California’s San Andreas fault, which geologists suggest has a nearly one-in-five chance of causing a major earthquake in the next three decades. But it’s not just the faults we know about that should concern us, says Kathryn Miles, author of Quakeland: On the Road to America's Next Devastating Earthquake. As she explained when National Geographic caught up with her at her home in Portland, Maine, there’s a much larger number of faults we don’t know about—and fracking is only adding to the risks.
That’s the question seismologists wish they could answer, too! One of the most shocking and surprising things for me is just how little is actually known about this
