The earth shook strongly at 14.06 on Friday on the Ionian coast of Etna. The seismic shock was felt clearly in almost all of the Eastern Sicily, the area with the highest population density on the island. The earthquake was felt most intensely in Catania and in the Acireale area, and not only on the upper floors but also on the ground floors of the houses. The buildings in the Etna industrial area also shook. Train traffic was limited along the railway line between Syracuse, Catania and Messina in order to carry out some checks on the line by Rfi technicians.
Fear and worry
There were scenes of fear, strong concern, with many people taking to the streets. Both large Etna shopping centers and factories in the industrial area where a total of 10,000 people work were evacuated as a precaution (here the video with people being taken out of Ikea). In Catania city, in the heart of the historic center, the Boggio Lera scientific high school, which is located in a former monastery which is part of the Unesco heritage, has been evacuated. Hundreds of calls to the fire brigade no damage to people or things is currently recorded. The absence of damage is due to the considerable depth, if it had occurred with the same intensity a few kilometers away the impact would have been different.
earthquake data
L’epicenter of the seismic shock was identified in a sea area about five kilometers south-east of Aci Castello. According to the technical-scientific findings of theNational Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (Ingv) of Catania the earthquake shock, initially evaluated in a range between 4.4 and 4.9, was classified as magnitude 4.4 with a depth of 17 kilometers. The depth of the genesis of the shock is the reason why it was felt in almost all of eastern Sicily, even in areas of Syracuse and Ragusa. The Ingv scientists argue that due to the depth “it would be surprising the possibility of damage”, in fact at the moment not reported. Even if, it should be added, given the vastness of the territories affected by the seismic shock, the checks are in progress.
Seismic waves
The shock that started from the Ionian-Etna area crossed the plain of Catania reaching as far as Caltagirone (in the internal part of the province), and several reports and calls to the fire brigade also arrived in this municipality. The area of Eastern Sicily is the area with the highest seismic risk in Europe, it should be remembered that in 1693 the strongest and most destructive earthquake in the history of Europe was recorded in the Val di Noto. Geologists have been sounding the alarm for some time about the need to intervene on the large housing stock with modern anti-seismic structures.