Sicily earthquake, the seismic swarm continues: dozens of tremors in the night

The seismic swarm continued to shake the southern Tyrrhenian Sea, in front of the Sicilian coast, between the Palermo area, the Messina area and the Aeolian Islands, where yesterday, at 12.19pm, a magnitude 5.5 was recorded by Ingv, preceded and followed by other strong tremors.

Approximately another 30 have been felt since midnight, at sea, with a magnitude between 2 and a maximum of 3.4: they have been reported at a depth varying between 10 and just over 20 kilometres.

The mayor of Palermo orders the closure of schools

The mayor of Palermo, Roberto Lagalla, signed an ordinance with which, as a precaution, he ordered the closure of schools of all levels and universities, as well as the activation of municipal civil protection structures and the strengthening of garrisons in the area.

The measures are in force until 8am tomorrow, "unless further provisions".

The INGV: "High seismic danger area"

For INGV this is an area characterized by frequent seismicity.

Looking at the map from 1985 to today, there have been numerous events with a magnitude greater than 4, such as those of 7 February 2025 (Mw 4.7) and 7 September 2009 (Mw 4.7).

In the area of ​​the Aeolian archipelago, events of greater magnitude have also occurred, characterized by very high hypocentral depths (up to hundreds of kilometres) linked to the subduction process, such as the event of 5 May 2004 (Ml 5.3), at 255 km depth.

Since the night of 20 October 2026, the National Seismic Network has recorded a series of seismic events in the Southern Tyrrhenian Sea, approximately 30 km north-west of Alicudi, Aeolian Islands.

Yesterday the strongest, of magnitude Ml 5 (Mw 5.5), which occurred at 12.19 pm Italian time, was located 62 km from Malfa (Messina), 63 km from Leni (Messina), 66 km from Santa Marina Salina (Messina) and at a depth of 9 km.

Two events with a magnitude equal to or greater than 4 also occurred: the Ml 4.3 magnitude event at 11:51 am and the Ml 4 magnitude event at 12:24 pm.

Then another 14 events with magnitudes between 3 and 3.9.

The historical precedents

The area affected by the ongoing sequence is close to the Aeolian area, a region characterized by high seismic danger, as demonstrated by the seismic danger map of the national territory and by the strong earthquakes that have occurred in the past.

The seismic shaking map of the strongest event shows estimated shaking levels of up to 5th degree Mcs in the Aeolian Islands and in a large area of ​​northern Sicily.

A frequent seismic area, therefore.

More recently than the historical sequence, in March 2026, just south of the area affected by these events, a seismic sequence occurred located about 15 km west of Alicudi with just over 50 earthquakes.

The strongest earthquake magnitude ML 4.6 (Mw 4.7) on the night of March 21.

From a historical seismicity point of view, this area of ​​the Aeolian archipelago has been hit by several seismic events, some of which have a magnitude equal to or greater than magnitude 5: in particular the earthquakes of 28 May 1980 (Mw 5.7), 20 May 1957 (Mw 5.2) and 21 May 1957 (Mw 5.3); the 1980 earthquake caused damage equal to VI-VII degree Mcs on the island of Alicudi.