6.2 Quake Strikes Tyrrhenian Sea; Marche Braces for Aftershocks

A 6.2-magnitude earthquake struck the Tyrrhenian Sea at 12:12 a.m. Central European time on Tuesday, June 1, about 11 miles southwest of Scarcelli, according to the United States Geological Survey. The temblor occurred in waters off southern Italy, well south of the Marche region, but seismologists cautioned that available data remained preliminary and subject to revision.

The quake arrived as central Italy continues to rebuild from the devastating 2016 earthquake sequence that killed nearly 300 people and left thousands homeless across Umbria, Lazio, and the southern Marche. That disaster exposed the fragility of the region's dispersed medieval towns and rural settlements, many of them constructed before modern building codes.

Foreign seismologists and disaster-management experts have long noted that Italy sits atop one of Europe's most active seismic zones, where the African and Eurasian tectonic plates collide. The Tyrrhenian Sea, where Tuesday's quake occurred, lies along a subduction zone that has produced major tremors throughout recorded history.