A strong shock of earthquake Of magnitude 4.5 hit the province of Catania today 4 March at 07:05. According to what was recorded by INGV, the epicenter was located 3 km from Ragalnaa municipality of almost 4,000 inhabitants located about 22 km from the city of Catania. The hypocenter, however, was detected at 4 km deep.
The shock was distinctly felt by the population throughout the province of Catania, but also in the southern area of the city of Messina – probably due to the shallow depth of the earthquake – with hundreds of reports of people being woken up by the earthquake.
The first earthquake was followed by another second of magnitude 2.7detected 1 km from Ragalna at just 2 km depth.
For the moment, fortunately, no particular damages were reportedia people or things.
The area affected by the earthquake is not new to seismic events and is in fact considered one high seismic danger areaas the image below clearly demonstrates. Sicily, in general, is a seismic area due to the clash between two tectonic plates: the African one and the Eurasian one. This clash generates complex fault systems which, over time, can give rise to very intense earthquakes, like the one recorded today.
