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The two events are unrelated, and the 4.4 magnitude earthquake recorded in the Ragusa province and felt over a large part of Sicily is not related to the Etna eruption, but rather to the Sicilian-Maltese fault. But in the imagination of many, the photos of Etna burning and erupting are juxtaposed with those of the flight of people in the street due to the earthquake. We offer you the most impressive images of the volcano.
“Absolutely not”, was the answer to the AGI of Stefano Branca, director of the Ingv of Catania, when they asked him if there is a relationship with the eruption. “From the point of view of magnitude – he added – it was not significant, since it is very deep (about 30 km). We are in the presence of the displacement of the African plate, which moves one millimeter a year. It is the dynamics of the earth’s crust ”.
Tonight’s earthquake was determined by the millimeter displacement of the African plate. “The outermost layer of the Earth called the lithosphere – explains Ingv’s website in a column in depth – is composed of several fragments that are called plates. These plates are in motion, so their edges are subject to sliding, traction or compression. When compression occurs, it can happen that one of the two plates slides under the other. This process is called subduction and generates earthquakes, sometimes very strong, both due to friction at the interface between the two plates and due to the deformations to which both plates are subjected. From a geological point of view, Italy is largely the result of the subduction of the African plate underneath the European plate, with the consequent deformation and uplift of the sediments found on the ocean floor and on the continental margin. “.
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