Today, Monday 9 December at hours 7:33an earthquake shock of magnitude 3.6 hit the municipality of Roccamonfina, in the province of Caserta. As confirmed by INGV, the earthquake occurred at one depth of approximately 2 km and was distinctly felt in many municipalities in the area, including Naples. Precisely for this reason some of them, such as Sessa Aurunca, Teano, Carinola, Vitulazio and Vairano Patenora, have declared the school closures as a precaution, so as to allow the authorities to carry out the appropriate checks. Luckily no particular damage to things or people was reportedand no injuries were reported.
The earthquake in question it is not linked to bradyseism, unlike what happens in the Campi Flegrei area, and it is worth noting the fact that the province of Caserta is not often affected by high magnitude earthquakes: to verify this information it is sufficient to look at the map of historical earthquakes provided by INGV ranging from the year 1000 to 2020.
With the red circle the epicenter of today’s earthquake is represented, while the colored squares represent the epicenters of historical earthquakes that occurred in the area. As we can see, it is a relatively clear area, within which there are mostly small squares, therefore with a magnitude lower than 5. A different matter if we look at the situation along the Apennines, where earthquakes were recorded in 1683 and 1456 with estimated magnitude greater than 7. To confirm this, today’s earthquake recorded a value on the Mercalli scale equal to IV-V degreeequivalent to a tremor distinctly felt by the population but not capable of causing particular damage to infrastructures, buildings or people.
