There were 16,826 earthquakes recorded in Italy in 2024 by the National Seismic Network of the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology: on average just over 46 per day, at a rate of about two per hour. This was announced by the INGV, noting that these numbers are "in line with data from previous years".
The statistics also include events recorded in Sardinia, which is still confirmed as the most "stable" region in this respect: there were 14 seismograph readings in one year, all of which were less than 2.0 in magnitude. Of these, only one, of magnitude 1.0 in the province of Cagliari, was a real earthquake: the INGV reports a shock in Escalaplano, recorded on June 17, with an epicenter 10 kilometers deep. The other events were classified as quarry explosions. And, in one case, it was an explosion near Macomer.
On a national scale, since 2019 the total number of earthquakes located in our country has remained stable between 16,000 and 17,000 each year, down compared to the three-year period 2016-2018 characterized by the seismic sequence in central Italy. "The seismic surveillance service that the INGV carries out ensures the communication of the parameters of seismic events in a short time to the Civil Protection and the public", comments Lucia Margheriti, director of the National Earthquake Observatory of the INGV.
The strongest earthquake of 2024 was the one of magnitude 5.0 recorded in Calabria, in Pietrapaola (Cs), followed by one of the two seismic sequences that affected the Ionian area of the region between May and September. Of the earthquakes that occurred in 2024, most were of mild intensity, 2,082 had a magnitude equal to or greater than 2.0 and 248 a magnitude between 3.0 and 3.9: 26 also had a magnitude between 4.0 and 4.9 and only the Pietrapaola earthquake reached magnitude 5.0. Numerous seismic sequences were recorded in 2024 in central Italy, Ionian Calabria, the province of Parma, in the southern Tyrrhenian Sea and in the Campi Flegrei area. All were of low magnitude and of short duration.
The region that in 2024 recorded the highest number of earthquakes with a magnitude greater than or equal to 2.0 was Emilia Romagna with 434, followed by Calabria and Sicily. If earthquakes with a magnitude lower than 2.0 were also considered, Marche and Umbria would be first with over three thousand events. The region with the fewest earthquakes, therefore, remains Sardinia.
Enrico Fresu