Aftershocks rattle Italy, residents sleep outdoors

(Reuters) - Thousands of people in northern Italy slept in tents and cars overnight as more than 100 aftershocks rocked the area hit by a magnitude 6.0 earthquake that killed seven people and inflicted heavy damage to centuries-old cultural sites.


"The fear that your house will collapse on your head is great, so it was good to be able to sleep in this tent," said one man who spent the night outdoors, cold but safe, in the town of San Felice sul Panaro.

Heavy rainfall added to the misery of people who had to abandon their homes and made conditions more difficult for civil protection workers.

See also:

6.0	quake 110km E of Miyako, Japan

6.2	quake Off the coast of Aisen, Chile

MONSTER SUNSPOT TO UNLEASH POWERFUL SOLAR FLARES

An enormous sunspot group has taken shape on the surface of the sun, hinting that our star may soon start spouting off some powerful storms.

The huge sunspot complex, known as AR 1476, rotated into Earth's view over the weekend. It measures more than 60,000 miles (100,000 kilometers) across, researchers said. Scientists with NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory mission, a space-based telescope watching the sun, dubbed the solar structure a "monster sunspot" in a Twitter announcement.

Closest Moon-Earth Transition of 2012

By Mitch Battros - Earth Changes Media


Saturday's event is a "supermoon" - the closest, biggest, and brightest full moon of the year. On Saturday May 5th at 11:34 p.m. EDT, the moon will be about 221,802 miles from Earth. That's about 15,300 miles closer than average. Will the gravitational pull have an effect on tides causing "fluid displacement"? History of significant swings of fluid often is the cause of earthquakes.