Today, at hours 6:07, an earthquake of magnitude 4.7 hit the Southern Tyrrhenian Seaoff Egadi islands, in Sicily. The epicenter was located in the open sea, at approximately 82 km off the coast of Trapani. The shock was distinctly felt in various municipalities in the province of Trapani and of Palermo But, fortunately, has not caused particular inconvenience to the population. It was a rather earthquake superficial, Since his hypocenter is just 10 km.
But from a geological point of view what caused this earthquake? To understand it we can observe the following image taken from DRUGS DISS, within which the main fault systems present in Italy are shown.
As we can see the epicenter of today’s event (indicated with a yellow sign) is located near a system of faults said of Southern Tyrrhenian. This has a depth included between 2 and 18 km – therefore compatible with i 10 km recorded today. Always according to what is indicated by the database, this band can accommodate a movement of approx 4-8 millimeters per year caused by the convergence between the African and the Eurasian plaque. It is an area that is not new to the formation of earthquakes, given that in the last 30 years here there have been different ones with a magnitude greater than 5.0, such as that of 5.9 registered in Palermo in 2002.
