Just two days after a small 4.6 magnitude earthquake gently shook Lima, Peru, a mid-sized 5.1 magnitude earthquake has now shaken northern Italy.
The quake occurred at around 12:30 local time on Friday and was centered one mile from the city of Fivizzano, a small town close to the coastal city of La Spezia. It had a depth of only 6.4 miles (10.3km) and was felt throughout northern Italy. People as far away as Venice reported feeling weak shaking from the event, while people in closer cities, such as Florence and Livorno reported light to moderate shaking. No serious injuries have been reported as a result of the earthquake, though some light damage to houses near the epicenter have been reported.
The Italian earthquake was mild when compared to some of the sizable seismic events already seen this year. During April, a 6.8 earthquake hit Papua New Guinea and a 7.2 magnitude quake shook the islands off the northern coast of Japan. A large 7.8 magnitude earthquake that hit southeastern Iran that same month killed dozens of people in neighboring Pakistan. More recently, a massive 8.2 magnitude earthquake struck in the Sea of Okhotsk, just off the coast of Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula.