An earthquake of magnitude 4.8 occurred yesterday 23 November at 14:32 local time and location 35.96N, 12.82E, about 150km to the West of Malta, and was felt by some members of the public. An aftershock of this event, of magnitude 3.5, was recorded about 24min later.

A second earthquake, of magnitude 4.7 was recorded this morning 24 November at 05:37 local time, at location 36.17N, 15.8E, at 120km ENE of Malta, and was widely felt by the public. This location was calculated using an automated system being developed within the seismic monitoring project of the Physics Department, and agrees closely with the location given by the Euro-Mediterranean Seismological Centre based in France.

The two events were unrelated to each other. Yesterday’s event occurred on one of the submarine faults forming part of the Sicily Channel rift system, while this morning’s shock was probably related to the Malta Escarpment, a steep slope in the sea bed that separates the Malta platform from the Ionian Sea. Although the magnitude of these events are quite big compared to the mean magnitude for this region, they are too small to cause a tsunami.