Thousands of Malta’s residents were shaken in the early hours of Saturday morning after a series of earthquakes, the strongest with a magnitude of 5.4, hit the islands.

According to University’s Seismic Monitoring and Research Group, it is another jolt in a series of earthquakes in the last months located about 100-120km south of Malta.

The earthquake was strong enough to be recorded across the world.

It was reportedly also felt in neighbouring Sicily and Libya.

Another tremor of 4.7 on the Richter scale was recorded off the coast of Libya at 6am this morning.

People from Mellieha to Birzebbugia reported feeling the tremors around midnight when the earthquake struck.

“The bed wouldn’t stop shaking,” one person wrote, with another saying the whole thing felt like there had a powerful explosion a couple of villages away.

“The seismic activity is still going,” popular Facebook forecasting page Aġġornament tat-Temp wrote this morning, offering some more insight into the overnight shaking.

“It was even felt in Sicily, and it all happened in the same zone. There were a total of four earthquakes stronger than a scale of 3. No structural impact has been reported on buildings, but it was still scary for a lot of people. The one after midnight registered a 5.3.”

“Earthquakes are impossible to predict, and we know very little about what’s happening in that zone,” the page continued. “What’s certain is that we never had earthquakes of this scale, although it could also be the fact that there are now better and more ways of communicating information and more intricate data. Knowing what’s happening is not terrifying, and it’s good to be alert to what’s happening.”

Malta has been struck by dozens of tremors in the last weeks, however, local experts say they are periodical and should not cause any concern.

Cover: Seismic Monitoring and Research Group SMRG at UM

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