Earthquakes near Messina, 1927–2026

None reached magnitude 7: the strongest was a magnitude 6 on March 7, 1928 (Sicily,Calabria). The deadliest was not the strongest: a magnitude 5.3 on December 13, 1990 (Sicily: Carlentini), for which NOAA records 19 deaths. NOAA records deaths in 16 of the events here, 72 in all. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 4.5 on March 4, 2026 (4 km ESE of Catania, Italy). NOAA lists 12 tsunamis that began within 100 km of Messina. The highest water NOAA records here was 10.9 m, on December 30, 2002. The deadliest, on September 11, 1930, killed one person here by NOAA’s runup records. NOAA lists 25 significant eruptions of 2 volcanoes within 100 km of Messina. The largest was Stromboli on September 11, 1930, at 3 on the volcanic explosivity index. It killed 6 people by NOAA’s count.

• March 4, 2026Earthquake · M 4.54 km ESE of Catania, ItalyUSGS · NOAA NCEI
• December 30, 2002Tsunami · 10.9 m hereStromboli IslandNOAA NCEI
• December 13, 1990Earthquake · M 5.3Sicily: Carlentini · 19 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• April 15, 1978Earthquake · M 5.7Sicily · 5 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI
• September 11, 1930Tsunami · 2.5 m hereStromboli Island · one death here (NOAA)NOAA NCEI
• September 11, 1930Eruption · VEI 3Stromboli · 6 deaths (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• March 7, 1928Earthquake · M 6.0Sicily,CalabriaNOAA NCEI

• An event counts for Messina when it began within 100 km of its centre, or 200 km for an earthquake of magnitude 7 or more. Damage can reach further.
• USGS counts here start at magnitude 6: the catalogue’s smaller quakes thin out going back, where few instruments listened.
• NOAA lists significant events only: earthquakes that killed, did about $1 million of damage, reached magnitude 7.5 or intensity X, or raised a tsunami, and eruptions and tsunamis by like measures. Magnitudes before 1900 are its estimates from written accounts.
• Deaths are NOAA’s total for each event, wherever people died, its tsunami and fires included. A tsunami counts the dead its runup records give for this place: NOAA’s total for a tsunami includes its source quake’s.
• A tsunami from elsewhere counts where one of its runups killed or rose a metre or more.
• Counted to October 19, 2026, as is the map. The last 30 days ask USGS again.

How the layers work, where their data comes from and what they can’t tell you: Earthquakes, live, The world through history