IRIS - seismic monitor

The residents of Emilia Romagna in Italy’s industrial heartland were gingerly getting back to normal life after a 5.9 earthquake struck the region at 4 a.m. on May 20, killing seven people and forcing 7,000 into temporary shelters. Then disaster struck once again this morning when a 5.8 magnitude earthquake shook the region at just after 9 a.m., finishing off much of what was left standing and killing at least 16 people and raising the number of homeless to 14,000.

Italy suffers about 2,000 earthquakes a year with more than 3 million people living in seismic areas, according to the National Council of Geologists. Almost half of Italy's territory is at risk of a quake, with more than 6 million buildings in the affected seismic areas, the group said. The damage caused by the quake earlier this month was estimated at more than 200 million euros ($251 million) for the agriculture industry in the region.

A friend of mine is convinced that melting icecaps are triggering earthquakes....and keeping an eye on the IRIS seismic monitor -- recent earthquakes displayed on an interactive earthquake map: http://www.iris.edu/seismon/