INGV seismologists have analyzed seismicity data from the last year, highlighting a trend in line with previous years
There are 16.826 earthquakes located in 2024 by the Monitoring Operations Rooms of the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV): on average just over 46 seismic events per day (two more than in 2023), approximately two earthquakes per hour.
A trend in line with data from previous years: since 2019, in fact, the total number of earthquakes located in our country has remained stable between 16.000 and 17.000 seismic events per year, down compared to the three-year period 2016-2018 when central Italy was affected by the seismic sequence that began with the strong earthquake in Accumoli (RI) on 24 August 2016.
The numbers for 2024 have been released in these hours by the seismologists of the INGV who, like every year, have 24/XNUMX analysis of earthquakes recorded in Italy and surrounding areas by the Institute's Surveillance Rooms in Rome, Naples and Catania.
The strongest seismic event of 2024 was recorded in Pietrapaola (CS), in Calabria, with magnitude MW 5.0, followed by one of the two seismic sequences that affected the Ionian area of the region between May and September.
Although most of the earthquakes in 2024 were small, 2.082 seismic events had a magnitude of 2.0 or greater, so they were potentially felt by the population; among these, 26 earthquakes recorded a magnitude between 4.0 and 4.9 e only one (the one from Pietrapaola) It reached magnitude 5.0, on the national territory.
Our territory was affected, also in 2024, by numerous seismic sequences, although generally of short duration and with low magnitude values: the main ones affected thecentral Italy, Ionian Calabria, province of Parma, Southern Tyrrhenian Sea andPhlegraean Fields area.
“The seismic surveillance service that INGV carries out ensures the communication of seismic event parameters in a short time to the Civil Protection and the public”Comments Lucia Margheriti, Director of the National Earthquake Observatory (ONT) of the INGV. “We are proud to carry out this task and to provide the scientific community with basic data to improve the understanding of the seismogenic process. We aim to continuously improve our services, products and communication”.
The seismicity of 2024 is collected in a interactive map available on the INGVterremoti Blog. All the earthquakes highlighted on the map can be queried by the user to know their relative parameters: magnitude, depth and epicentral area.
More information in the article published on the INGVterremoti Blog.
Useful links:
National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV)
National Seismic Network (RSN)
Interactive seismicity map 2024
Figure 1: Map of the epicenters of over 16.000 earthquakes located by the National Seismic Network in 2024
Figure 2: Seismicity graph in Italy and surrounding areas from 2012 to 2024. In the blue column, all recorded events; in the red column, only those with a magnitude greater than or equal to 2.0
Figure 3: Seismicity recorded in 2024 in the Ionian Calabria area
Figure 4: Seismicity in the Campi Flegrei area in 2024. All events with a magnitude greater than or equal to 1.0 are displayed