6.1 Magnitude Earthquake Hits Off Italy's Calabria Coast
Significant Earthquake in Southern Italy
Representational Image
Rome, June 2: A powerful earthquake measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale occurred off the coast of Calabria, Italy, early Tuesday morning, as reported by the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology.
The seismic event took place at 12:12 a.m. local time (2212 GMT on Monday), with its epicenter situated approximately 250 kilometers deep beneath the surface, according to the institute's findings.
This earthquake's epicenter was located in the waters off Calabria's southern coastline.
Tremors were felt across various southern Italian regions, including Calabria, Sicily, Campania, and Puglia, as reported by local media and confirmed by Xinhua news agency.
Fortunately, there have been no reports of injuries or significant damage at this time. Local authorities are actively monitoring the situation.
In March, a notably deep earthquake, ranging from 375 to 381 kilometers in depth, struck near Naples, marking the strongest deep-earth fracture in that area in a decade, which affected the volcanic systems in the region.
Earlier this year, in January, a magnitude 5.1 earthquake in the Ionian Sea, just off Italy's southern tip, was felt widely in Malta.
This tremor was first detected at 5:53 a.m. by the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology in Rome, and just a second later, it was recorded by the University of Malta's Seismic Monitoring and Research Group, which classified it as a magnitude 5 event.
According to the Euro-Mediterranean Seismological Centre, this earthquake occurred at a depth of 58 kilometers and was approximately 62 kilometers from the coast of Reggio Calabria.
Data from Italian monitoring agencies indicates that this was the most significant tremor in a recent series of seismic activities recorded in the waters off Sicily over the past week.
Italy is known to be the most earthquake-prone nation in Europe, situated on the complex collision boundary between the Eurasian and African tectonic plates.