On average 45 per day, approximately one every half hour, the earthquakes recorded in 2020 by the national seismic network on the Italian territory and in the surrounding areas: the total number is 16,597, similar to that of the previous year.
This was announced by the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (Ingv).
"Despite the serious health crisis, the seismic surveillance carried out by the Ingv in 2020 did not stop even for a second", underlines the president of the Ingv, Carlo Doglioni.
Ingv has published a
special
online on the blog 'Ingv earthquakes'
in which it is possible to
read up
on various seismic events through
interactive maps
and infographics.
“The map - specifies Alessandro Amato, Ingv seismologist - shows that even in 2020 the strongest earthquakes were located outside the Italian territory.
Seismic events of magnitude equal to or greater than 5.0 - specifies the expert - actually occurred in Albania, Algeria and Croatia, during the seismic sequence at the end of December with the strong earthquake of magnitude 6.3 on 29 December, near of the Croatian city of Petrinja ”.
Sardinia, explains the Ingv, is confirmed as the Italian region with the lowest number of earthquakes, just 4 in all of 2020, also counting the marine areas around the island.
The first earthquake of 2020 occurred on January 1, 2020 in Sefro (Macerata), only a minute and a half after the stroke of midnight.
The last, however, is on December 31, 2020 at 11:41 pm in Ragalna (Catania), both with a magnitude lower than 2.0.
For Maurizio Pignone, Ingv geologist, "almost 90% of the earthquakes located in Italy in 2020 had a magnitude of less than 2.0 and, probably, was not felt by the population, apart from those with a very superficial hypocenter and close to areas inhabited, as in the volcanic areas of Campania.
Most of the earthquakes - he concludes - are linked to seismic sequences that occurred in Italy in 2020. Others, on the other hand, are considered isolated events, such as the earthquake in Milan on December 17, of magnitude 3.8 ”.
