List of earthquakes in Italy

This is a list of earthquakes in Italy that had epicentres in Italy, or significantly affected the country. On average every four years an earthquake with a magnitude equal to or greater than 5.5 occurs in Italy.^[1]

The seismic hazard map of Italy showing the probability of seismic activity for different places in Italy.

Map of earthquakes in Italy 1900-2017

Earthquakes M5.5+ (1900–2016) Mediterranean

Due to the particular geodynamic situation (convergence of the Eurasian plate with the African plate) the Italian territory is frequently subject to earthquakes, giving it the record in Europe for these phenomena.^[2] Out of 1,300 destructive earthquakes that occurred in the 2nd millennium in the central Mediterranean Sea, 500 affected Italy.^[3]

The analysis of the earthquakes indicates that they are mostly distributed along the areas affected by Alpine and Apennine tectonics, where they are caused by movements along faults.^[4] The highest seismicity hazard in Italy has been concentrated in the central-southern part of the peninsula, along the Apennine ridge, in Calabria and Sicily and in some northern areas, like Friuli-Venezia Giulia, part of Veneto and western Liguria.

Geology

Italy lies on the southern extent of the Eurasian plate, which is surrounded by the Aegean Sea plate, the Adriatic plate, and the Anatolian sub-plate. The Apennine Mountains contain numerous faults that run along the entire Italian peninsula and form the majority of the destructive boundary between the Eurasian and the Adriatic plates, thus causing Italy to have high amounts of tectonic activity. In addition, Sicily and Calabria are located near the boundary where the African plate is subducting below the Eurasian plate, which was responsible for forming the stratovolcano known as Mount Etna.

List of major earthquakes

Date	Region	Mag.	MMI	Deaths	Injuries	Notes	Ref
2025-03-13	Campania	4.2 Mw	VI		11	Severe damage	[5][6]
2023-09-18	Tuscany	5.1 Mw	VI	1	1	Severe damage	[7][8]
2023-03-09	Umbria	4.3 Mw  4.6 Mw	IV		13	Severe damage	[9][10]
2022-11-09	Pesaro-Urbino	5.6 Mw	VI		11	Moderate damage	[11][12]
2020-02-24	Calabria	4.8 Mw	VI		1	Moderate damage	[13][14]
2018-12-26	Sicily	5.0 Mw	VII		30	Several buildings damaged	[15][16]
2018-08-16	Molise	5.3 Mw	VI		2	Moderate damage	[17][18]
2017-08-21	Campania	4.2 Mw	VI	2	42
2017-01-18	Abruzzo, Lazio	5.7 Mw	VIII	34	29	Sequence
2016-10-30	Umbria	6.6 Mw	XI	3 (indirect)	Dozens	Sequence / extensive damage
2016-08-24	Lazio, Umbria, Marche	6.2 Mw	XI	299	>400
2013-06-21	Tuscany	5.2 Mw	V		4		[19][20]
2013-02-16	Lazio	4.8 Mw	V	1 (indirect)			[21][22]
2012-05-29	Emilia-Romagna	5.8 Mw	VII	20	350
2012-05-20	Emilia-Romagna	6.1 Mw	VII	5 (+2 indirect)	50
2010-08-16	Sicily	4.5 Mw			7	Landslides	[23][24]
2009-04-06	L'Aquila	6.3 Mw	X	309	1,500+	Severe damage
2004-11-24	Lombardy, Salò	5.1 Mw	VII–VIII *		9	Many buildings damaged	[25]
2003-09-14	Emilia-Romagna	5.3 Mw	VII		Some	10 buildings damaged	[26]
2003-04-11	Piedmont, Alessandria	5.0 Mb	VI *		2		[27]
2002-11-01	Molise	5.8 Mw			3	Doublet / additional damage	[28]
2002-10-31	Molise	5.9		30		Doublet
2002-09-06	Sicily	6.0 Mw		2	20	Heart attacks / damage	[29]
2001-07-17	Trentino-Alto Adige	4.7 Mw	VI *	3	3	Landslides	[30]
1998-09-09	Basilicata, Calabria	5.6 Mw	VI–VII *	2	12	Buildings damaged	[31]
1997-09-26	Umbria, Marche	6.1		9		Doublet
1997-09-26	Umbria, Foligno	5.7		2		Doublet
1991-05-26	Basilicata, Potenza	5.1 Mb	VIII		A few	Minor damage	[32]
1990-12-13	Sicily, Augusta	5.6 Mw	VII	19	200	Severe damage	[33]
1990-05-05	Basilicata, Campania	5.8 Mw	VII	2	16		[34]
1987-05-02	Emilia-Romagna	4.8 Mb	VII	1	Several	Slight damage	[35]
1985-03-14	Molise	4.3 Mw	V	1		Slight damage	[36]
1984-05-07	Abruzzo, Lazio	5.9 Mw	VIII	3	100	Extensive damage	[37]
1984-04-29	Umbria, Gubbio	5.7 Mw	VIII		36	Extensive damage	[38]
1983-11-09	Emilia-Romagna	5.1 Mw	VIII		100	Some damage	[39]
1980-11-23	Campania, Basilicata	6.9 Mw	X	2,483–4,900	7,700–8,934	Extreme damage
1979-09-19	Umbria, Norcia	5.8 Ms		5	5,000	Severe damage	NGDC
1978-04-15	Gulf of Patti, Sicily	5.7 Ms		5		Moderate damage	NGDC
1978-03-11	Sicily	5.0 Ms		2	2	Moderate damage	NGDC
1976-09-15	Friuli	5.9/6.0		8 (+3 indirect)		Aftershock
1976-09-11	Friuli	5.8/5.6		2 (indirect)		Aftershock
1976-05-06	Friuli	6.5 Mw	X	900–978	1,700–2,400	Extreme damage
1972-06-14	Ancona	4.9	IX			Extensive damage / swarm	[40]
1971-07-15	Emilia-Romagna	5.2 Mb	VIII *	2		Limited damage	NGDC
1971-02-06	Lazio	4.6 Mb	VIII	24	150	Extreme damage	NGDC
1969-08-11	Perugia	4.7 Ms	VII		4	Limited damage	NGDC
1968-01-15	Western Sicily	5.5 Mw	X	231–400	632–1,000	Sequence
1962-08-21	Irpinia, Campania	6.1	IX *	16		Moderate damage
1943-10-03	Offida, Marche	5.5 Mw	IX	15		Very heavy damage	[41]
1936-10-18	Cansiglio	5.9 ML	IX	19
1933-09-26	Abruzzo	5.6 Mw	IX	10		Some damage	[42][43]
1930-10-30	Senigallia, Marche	5.9		18
1930-07-23	Irpinia	6.6 Ms	X	1,404	4,624–7,000
1920-09-07	Garfagnana	6.4		171			[44]
1917-04-26	Northern Umbria	5.8		20
1915-01-13	Avezzano	6.7 Mw	XI	29,978–32,610		Extreme damage
1914-05-08	Sicily	4.9 Ms	X	120		Severe damage	NGDC
1908-12-28	Strait of Messina	7.1 Mw	XI	75,000–200,000		Extreme damage / tsunami
1907-10-23	Calabria	5.9 Ms	VIII–X	158–167		Moderate damage	NGDC
1905-09-08	Calabria	7.2 Mw	XI	557–2,500		Tsunami
1901-10-30	Salò	5.5 Mw	VII–VIII			Collapsed buildings	[45]
1894-11-16	Strait of Messina, Sicily, Calabria	6.0	IX	100		Severe damage	[46]
1887-02-23	Liguria	6.2–6.5		>2,000		Significant damage / tsunami	[47][48]
1883-07-28	Ischia	4.3–5.2 Mw	XI	2,313		Near total destruction on in Ischia
1873-06-29	Veneto	6.3 Me	IX–X	80
1857-12-16	Basilicata	7.0 Mw	XI	10,000		Extreme damage
1851-08-14	Basilicata			700–2,000+		Many buildings damaged	[49][50]
1836-04-25	Calabria	6.1	X	239		Severe damage	[51]
1831-05-26	Taggia, Sanremo	5.5	VIII-IX			Moderate damage	[52]
1828-10-09	Ligurian Apennines, province of Alessandria	5.8	VII-VIII	19		Moderate damage	[53]
1808-04-02	Piedmont	5.7	VIII	2		Moderate damage	[54]
1805-07-26	Campania, Molise	6.6 Me	X	5,573		Extreme damage
1802-05-12	Lombardy, Cremona	5.7 Mw	VIII-IX	2		Collapsed churches, houses, and a municipal building	[55][56][57]
1783-02-04	Calabria	7.0		50,000			[44]
1762-10-06	L'Aquila	5.3–6.0 Mw	IX			Damage	[58]
1743-02-20	Salento	7.1 Mw	IX	180–300
1732-11-29	Campania	6.6		Thousands			[59]
1706-11-03	Abruzzo	6.6-6.84 Mw	X	2,400		Extreme damage
1703-02-12	L'Aquila	6.7	XI	2,500–5,000
1703-01-16	Montereale	6.2	VIII
1703-01-14	Norcia	6.7	X	6,240–9,761
1694-09-08	Basilicata	6.9		>6,000
1693-01-11	Sicily, Malta	7.4 Mw	XI	60,000
1688-06-05	Sannio	7.0	XI	3,311		Severe damage	NGDC
1659-11-06	Calabria			2,035		Extreme damage	NGDC
1654-07-23	Sorano, Marsica		X	600		Severe damage	NGDC
1639-10-07	Lazio	6.0 Mw	IX–X	500
1638-06-09	Calabria		IX	52		Moderate damage
1638-03-27	Calabria	7.0 Ms	XI	9,581–30,000		Extreme damage / tsunami	[60]
1627-07-30	Apulia	6.7 Mw	X	5,000		Tsunami
1626-07-30	Naples			70,000
1626-04-05	Girifalco	6.1 Mw	X			Very heavy damage
1616-06-04	Cagliari					No casualties or damage reported. Registeted on a plaque in the city's cathedral
1570-11-17	Ferrara			70–200
1561-08-19	Vallo di Diano	6.4 Mw	X	500			[61]
1517-03-29	Irpinia	5.4 Mw		>50		Moderate damage	[62]
1511-03-26	Friuli		X	15		Severe damage
1466-01-15	Irpinia	6.1	VIII-IX	>100			[63]
1461-11-27	L'Aquila	6.3	IX	>80		High intensity over Abruzzo region
1456-12-30	Benevento	6.6 Mw	X–XI			Sequence
1456-12-05	Molise	7.1–7.4 Mw	X–XI	30,000–70,000		High intensity over large area. Largest earthquake on the Italian Peninsula.	[64]
1453-09-28	Florence	5.3	VII-VIII			Moderate damage	[65]
1361-07-17	Ascoli Satriano	6.0		>1,000		Extreme damage	[66]
1349-09-09	L'Aquila	6.7	X	2,000		Severe damage	NGDC
1348-01-25	Friuli	6.9	X	10,000		Extreme damage
1343-11-25	Naples					Tsunami
1328-12-04	Norcia	6.4	X	2,000-5,000			[67]
1315-12-03	L'Aquila	5.6	IX			Moderate damage	[68]
1298-12-01	Monti Reatini	6.3	X			Numerous deaths and severe damage	[69]
1293-09-04	Samnium, Naples	5.8	VIII-IX			Moderate damage	[70]
1222-12-25	Northern Italy		X	12,000		Extreme damage
1169-02-04	Sicily		X	15,000–25,000		Severe damage / tsunami
1117-01-03	Northern Italy		VII			Severe damage
1046-11-09	Valle dell'Adige		IX-X			Numerous deaths and severe damage	[71]
801-04-29	Central Apennines	5.4 Me	VII–VIII			Severe damage	[72]
951	Rossano		IX			Severe damage	[73][74]
853	Messina		IX-X			Severe damage	[75]
847	Samnium					Severe damage	[76]
801-04-29	Spoleto, Perugia					Severe damage	[77]
778	Treviso		VIII-IX	48		Moderate damage	[73][78]
725	Classe		VIII			Moderate damage	[73][79]
584	Liguria					Severe damage	[80]
375	Benevento		IX			Severe damage	[73]
369-07-21	Benevento			Thousands		Severe damage	[73]
361	Sicily and Calabria		X	Drastic decrease in the population along the Strait of Messina		Extreme damage / tsunami	[73][81]
346	Samnium		IX			Severe damage	[73][82]
101	San Valentino in Abruzzo Citeriore		IX-X			Severe damage	[73][83]
99	Circello, Benevento		IX-X			Severe damage	[73][84]
79-08-24	Vesuvian area		VIII	Thousands		Earthquake caused by the catastrophic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD	[73]
62-02-05	Campania	5.2–6.1	IX–X			Severe damage
56 BC-04	Potenza Picena		VIII-IX			Severe damage	[73][85]
91 BC	Modena, Reggio Emilia		VIII			Moderate damage	[73]
100 BC	Marche		VIII-X			Severe damage	[73][86]
217 BC-06	Etruria		X			Severe damage	[73]
Note: The NGDC has records for significant events that go back several thousand years BCE. Added for source diversity, the United States Geological Survey reports are sufficient from the early 1980s to the present. Occasionally, these sources omit the maximum felt intensity. Rovida et al. 2011 can help fill in some of the gaps. Intensity values derived from this source are indicated with an asterisk. The inclusion criteria for adding events are based on WikiProject Earthquakes' notability guideline that was developed for stand alone articles. The principles described also apply to lists. In summary, only damaging, injurious, or deadly events should be recorded.

Gallery

• 
  1570 Ferrara earthquake
• 
  1693 Sicily earthquake
• 
  1783 Calabrian earthquake
• 
  1857 Basilicata earthquake
• 
  1883 Ischia earthquake
• 
  1908 Messina earthquake
• 
  1976 Friuli earthquake
• 
  1980 Irpinia earthquake
• 
  2009 L'Aquila earthquake
• 
  2016 Central Italy earthquake

See also

• Geology portal
• Italy portal

• Geology of Italy
• List of earthquakes in Albania
• List of earthquakes in Croatia
• List of earthquakes in Greece