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Magnitude 5.3 earthquake shakes Malta
An earthquake measuring 5.3 on the Richter scale struck offshore to the south east of Malta shortly after midnight
22 April 2023, 12:45am
Kurt Sansone
Kurt Sansone
1 min read
The two solid red dots (right) show the locations of the two earthquakes. The top red dot was the epicentre of the 5.3 magnitude earthquake that struck at 19 minutes past midnight on Saturday and the one below it struck four hours earlier. (Images taken from UOM's Seismic Monitoring and Research Group)
A magnitude 5.3 earthquake shook Malta in the early hours of Saturday with tremors being felt across large swathes of the country, especially the south.
The University of Malta's Seismic Monitoring and Research Group website put the epicentre offshore to the south east of the islands. The earthquake struck at 19 minutes past midnight.
The epicentre was located approximately 129km from Marsaskala, where residents reported that shaking lasted a few seconds. "It started with a slow tremor and than intensified before it died away," one resident told MaltaToday.
The tremor followed another less intense earthquake that struck the same area four hours earlier. This earthquake measured 4.4 on the Richter scale.
The area to the south of Malta has been particularly active since the start of the year with several magnitude five earthquakes recorded.
Kurt Sansone is Executive Editor of MaltaToday.
He was formerly deputy editor of MaltaTod...
