The map shows earthquakes that took place in the Mediterranean region last month. The yellow dots are the epicentres published by the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (http://www.emsc-csem.org). None of the earthquakes exceeded magnitude five and would have only been felt locally as a short tremor. The earthquakes occurred at active plate tectonic boundaries such as in Italy, Greece, Morocco, and Algeria.

Globally, a number of stronger earthquakes rattled parts of the US. Earthquakes of magnitude 6.8 and 5.1 shook western California, followed by a series of aftershocks; other smaller earthquakes struck in Montana and Oklahoma. No major injuries were reported.

Locally, two earthquakes of magnitude less than three struck south of Malta early in the morning of March 1 and in the evening of March 20.

Readers who felt earthquake-related shaking on these dates are asked to report their experience through the online questionnaire of the University’s Seismic Monitoring and Research Unit.

http://seismic.research.um.edu.mt

European-Mediterranean seismic hazard map

The map above shows the seismic hazard map of the European-Mediterranean region published by the European Seismological Commission. The map is a statistical model based on earthquake history, active faults and crustal deformation.

The red shade on the map depicts regions that have a high probability of strong ground shaking. Shaking is measured as peak ground acceleration as a function of gravity acceleration in the range of 0 and 0.5 g. The highest ground motions are expected along major plate boundaries such as the North Anatolian Fault zone across Turkey.

It is important for engineers to mitigate earthquake risk by applying modern seismic design provisions to construct buildings, bridges, and other infrastructures to withstand earthquake shaking, thus saving lives and economic losses.