The Easter Sunday 2011 earthquake swarm offshore Malta : analysis on felt reports

Abstract

In the last forty years, Malta has only experienced a few occasional tremors from local or regional earthquakes, with only some being reported briefly in the local newspapers. These reports gave limited qualitative and quantitative information about the shaking experience felt across the islands. The Seismic Monitoring and Research Unit at the University of Malta has put in place a ‘Did you feel an earthquake?’ online questionnaire in order to start gathering information from locally felt earthquake related shaking. On Easter Sunday 24th of April 2011 windows rattled, doors shook open, and furniture shifted in many homes across Malta when a series of earthquakes occurred 38 km off the eastern coast. In total, the SMRU located 15 earthquakes with magnitudes ranging from M L 1.8 to 4.1 over a period of 4 days. A total of 489 felt reports were submitted through the online questionnaire. The compilation of the data is a first of its kind for the Maltese islands. Here we present a summary of the reports following the main shock. A maximum intensity value IV on the European Macroseismic Scale was assigned. No structural damage was reported. The data reflects the demographics as well as the different types of buildings found across the archipelago.