Please check out Mike's Alaska Dispatch piece, "Quake in Italy should remind Alaskans of our own peril."

Alaska is known for much larger earthquakes than the magnitude 6.2 quake that killed 290 people in Italy last week. At the Earthquake Center, we worry that the state's history of magnitude 8 and 9 earthquakes can foster a false sense of security around smaller quakes. Alaskans should know that a shallow magnitude 6 happening in or near one of our cities could be devastating.

In the Dispatch, Mike focuses on three lessons from Italy: "Nearby earthquakes can be far more catastrophic, even if they are smaller. Safe construction practices save lives. And history is a limited indicator of what earthquakes will do in the future."