Magnitude 4.5 Quake Hits Sicily, Italy

The European-Mediterranean Seismological Center, EMSC, reported that a 4.5-magnitude earthquake on Richter Scale was recorded today, Monday, off the coast of the Italian island of Sicily.

According to Russia Today, a Russian news website, the tremor occurred at 01:11 a.m. today, and its epicenter was located at a depth of 17 km, 94 km northeast of Palermo.

There were no reports of human causalities or material damage.

It is reported that on December 28, 1908, an earthquake measuring 7.5 degrees on the Richter scale struck the island of Sicily and Calabria in southern Italy, killing more than 100,000 people, and devastating an area with a radius of 300 km.

Within moments after the earthquake, a 13-meter-high tsunami hit the neighboring coasts, destroying 93% of the buildings in Messina and killing about 70,000 citizens.

This earthquake is considered one of the largest earthquakes to hit Italy, and it is known as the "Messina earthquake".